Eliot- themes, language and imagery

cailin_donn

Just thought I'd throw this up seeing as I had it typed up!! How likely is Eliot to come up? I'm hoping for him- I scored 48/50 in this Q

PS: the question is "TS Eliot explores themes which are thought-provoking and frequently uses language and imagery which are memorable"

"Do I dare
Disturb the universe?"
T.S. Eliot did not allow J. Alfred Prufrock to disturb his universe, but by using statements and phrases such as that, he ensured that his poetry would stick in our minds for years to come. He covers various themes which were unusual for his time, and tha language and imagery he uses are certainly memorable.

One of the themes Eliot explores is the meaninglessness of human life, in his poem "Journey of the Magi"(Journey), Eliot retells the story of the journey of the Three Wise Men from their homeland to the stable in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, "such a long journey". Eliot gives his own spin on the well-known story, and he then questions the meaning of life.
"Were we brought all this way for
Birth or Death?"
The magus describes how, when he returned home, people were leading meaningless lives, and how he waits for death,
"No longer at ease here, in the old dispensation
with an alien people clutching at their gods
I should be glad of another death".
Eliot also explores this theme in other poems, such as "The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock"(Prufrock), where Prufrock is frustrated at his life, measured out "in coffee spoons". There is no purpose or meaning to Prufrock's life, and he compares waking from a dream state to drowning. Prufrock does not like reality, he believes a daydream to be more meaningful
"Till human voices wake us, and we drown"

Another of Eliot's themes is communication difficulties between people. In both "Prufrock" and "A Game of Chess(from the Waste Land)"(Chess), the personnae have difficulty in expressing themselves to others,
"I cannot say just what I mean!"
The rich lady in "Chess" entreats her partner to talk with her
"What are you thinking? What? Thinking what?
I never know what you are thinking. Think"
Her partner replies
"I think we are in rat's alley
Where dead men lost their bones"
He doesn't, however, reply directly, but the punctuation implies that he thinks his answer. In "Prufrock", Eliot presents to us a man who obsesses over every detail
"time yet...
For a hundred visions and revisions".
He cannot ask his "overwhelming question" because,
"In short, [he] was afraid".
This communication breakdown between people provokes many thoughts in the reader's mind and has universal appeal.

Christianity is another of Eliot's themes. In poems such as "Journey" and "East Coker IV"(Coker), Eliot explores the paradox of Christianity; that in order to attain eternal salvation, we must first suffer,
"this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death".
In "Coker", Eliot describes the world as a "hospital", given to us by Adam, the "ruined millionaire". The last verse questions our celebration of Our Lord's suffering
"In spite of that we call this Friday Good".

Eliot makes us wonder, with his themes, is life meaningless? Does everyone, regardless of class, gender or age, experience communication difficulties? Doe we really have to suffer in order to gain eternal salvation? He clearly makes us think, and his poems stay with us long after we have closed the book. This greatly raises his standard as a poet.

The way in which he expresses himself is a huge feature of Eliot's work. He uses unique images and uses the allusions to enhance the meaning of his poems. Eliot was a master of allusions, which feature particularly strongly in "Chess". Even the title takes it's name from Middleton's play, in which a mother plays a game of chess while her daughter is raped. The opening stanza contains allusions to Cleopatra, Dido and Philomel. Cleopatra and Dido are infamous for their love affairs, and subsequent suicides, while Philomel was raped by her brother in law in Greek mythology. These suggest that the women in the poem have uneasy lives. As the poem progresses, Eliot makes more allusions;
"Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet ladies. Good night. Good night."
These are Ophelia's final words (in Shakespeare's "Hamlet") in her madness shortly before she drowns herself. All these allusions to women who met unfortunate ends heightens our appreciation of the poem and suggests that neither Lil nor the rich lady will have a long or happy life.

Eliot is, generally, and impersonal poet with a formal tone. The only personal poem of his that I have studied is "Aunt Helen", and even in describing the death of his aunt, the young Eliot remains detatched and formal,
"Miss Helen Slingsby was my maiden aunt".
Formality features strongly in all of Eliot's poems and stay firmly in the mind of the reader.

Eliot liked to use the objective correlative in his poetry. This is the idea that a poet can describe something, not by using his own words, but by showing the reader and equivilent. He uses this to enhance his imagery, and his images often carry the meaning of the poem. In "Prufrock", Prufrock's self-loathing is revealed when he compares himself to an insect ("sprawling on a pin") and when he states
"I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas."

Eliot's poetry is both extremely though-provoking and memorable, and he usues many poetic techniques to heightn our enjoyment and understanding of his poetry. His poetry is, in his own words,
"so elegant
So intelligent".

Crow92

I wonder if you got the notes from the same place s me....???

Eliot believed tht much of human activity is habitual, futile and a waste of time. Because of the reprtitiveness of the daily grind. Eliot assumed people found it meaninglesss. He felt that humans therefore found life unfulfilling. Even in his religious poetry, Eliot depicted people's sense of defeat, even the necessity for human life to be a failure.

Eliot suggests that a thinking individualy inevitably feels weary, alienated, dislocated or even worthless.

Eliot suggest that humans find it hard to communicate; they are seperated by misunderstanding or selfishness. People betray each other. Sometimes they live in their own world. Eliot questions people's sense of reality.

Eliot refers to time in various ways. He evokes evening, night and dawn. He refers to future time. Eliot argues that the present contains the past in fragmented mmories or in various forms of continuity.


Anyways thats an excellent essay and I appreciate you posting it. It gives me a good sense of how to attempt this question as ATM,
All i know is prufrock, game of chess and journey of the magi, off by heart and his themes but was wondering how to gel them nicely together. So thanks

cailin_donn

No prob, and I got my notes from my English teacher, but where she got them, God only knows! She has a whole folder marked "Eliot", it's a goldmine in there!

Crow92

Nice my only trick was that I got T.S Eliot reciting his poetry on my i-pod, I just listening to it time after time whenever and know them like a song now lol, everything else will come to me on the day...:rolleyes: