T.S. Eliot the Wasteland Essay - 1371 Words

Write a critical analysis, focusing particularly on what makes your chosen passage a piece of Modernist writing. Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many. Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. Flowed up the hill and down King William Street, To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: Stetson! You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! That corpse you planted last year in your garden, Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?†¦show more content†¦In a similar vein, the epigraph depicts the appalling fate of the Cumean Sibyl[3] - granted life immortal, but not youth eternal – destined to atrophy forever. This image of decay or the â€Å"living dead† is further perpetuated in the line â€Å"A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many.†[4] Here, Eliot borrows from Dante[5] to describe his vision of men commuting to work[6]. The â€Å"flow† of the crowd â€Å"over London Bridge† (and the river’s association with life in traditional literature) is symbolic of the crossing over from past to present, and a figurative surging of changing times. Eliot rephrases Baudelaire[7] to accentuate the unfamiliarity, uncertainty and foreignness of the present â€Å"Unreal City†[8] and the image of a putrid â€Å"brown fog of a winter dawn†[9] ties in with the city’s po rtrayal as a wasteland – toxic, barren and desolate. A strong sense of impotence and futility is thrown into the mix – â€Å"death had undone†[10], â€Å"Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled† (Dante again)[11], â€Å"each man fixed his eyes before his feet†[12]. There is a portending sense of doom as the crowd flows towards the church and its tolling clock, evoked by the â€Å"dead sound† as it strikes nine[13]. Eliot progresses to the idea of rebirth arising from death and decay. In Weston’s story, the Fisher King’s task of restorationShow MoreRelatedThe Wasteland by T.S. Eliot1017 Words   |  4 PagesT.S. Eliot’s most famous poem â€Å"The Wasteland,† a grim picture of post-war London is analyzed as being the most important poetic work of the twentieth century. The first glance at this poem leads one to the conclusion that the content of this piece is bleak and depressing. The assumption can be made that Eliot has diagnosed his society with a terminal disease, which he chooses to describe through his poem. After further analyzing â€Å"The Wasteland† it can be seen that out of the dust of this barren placeRead MoreThe Wasteland, by T.S. Eliot857 Words   |  4 Pagestwentieth century, T.S. Eliot transformed the traditional poetry form into a more modern style. Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 26, 1888. At the age of 25, Eliot moved to England where he began his career as a poet. Eliot greatly attracted the modernist movement, which was poetry written in the reaction of Victorian poetry. His first poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, was known as one of the most famous pieces of the Modernist movement. In his poetry, Eliot combines themesRead MoreThe Wasteland by T.S. Eliot Essay558 Words   |  3 PagesThe Wasteland by T.S. Eliot In the poem, The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot gives a primarily positive connotation by using the theme of speech, language, and failure of speech. In each of the sections, Eliot shows how speech and communication are important in life. He also shows that speech cannot always accomplish what actions can. The way the characters in the poem use speech show that speech and communication are important. A Game of Chess This section may be the best example of communicationRead MoreAnalysis of The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot Essay1620 Words   |  7 PagesAnalysis of The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot Q5 Much of what Eliot writes about is harsh and bleak, but he writes about it in a way that is often beautiful. Comment fully on both parts of this assertion. Most first time readers of Eliots work would, probably, agree that his poems read as bleak and depressing. They would also say that many of his poems portray society as having a terminal illness, but when we look deeper you can see that amid the anguish not all is lost and there is hopeRead More T.S. Eliots use of Poetic techniques in The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Wasteland1310 Words   |  6 PagesT.S Eliot, widely considered to be one of the fathers of modern poetry, has written many great poems. Among the most well known of these are â€Å"The Waste Land, and â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock†, which share similar messages, but are also quite different. In both poems, Eliot uses various poetic techniques to convey themes of repression, alienation, and a general breakdown in western society. Some of the best techniques to examine are ones such as theme, structure, imagery and language, whichRead MoreT.S. Eliots Writing Style and Use of Symbolism790 Wo rds   |  4 Pagesfar can possibly find out how far one can go,† T.S. Eliot is basically trying to say that only people who push their limit can actually see how much they can really accomplish. T.S. Eliot made poetry that showed his negative views on life, people, and world. T.S. Eliot took poetry to another level by the way he writes and uses symbolism. Thomas Stearns was born on September 26, 1888. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was Henry ware Eliot who was the president of the Hydraulic-press companyRead MoreThe Influence of T.S Eliot Through his Poetry Essay743 Words   |  3 PagesT.S. Eliot was a modern poet that was globally renowned for his contributions to poetry and the way that he envisioned society and managed to communicate those opinions through language. He had influenced many post modernists as well as fellow poets because of his indifference in the way that poetry had been set to be. He used language to develop patters in order to show how they can make sense as a whole once laid out instead of using the diction of the poetry to state ideas. T.S. Eliot had developedRead MoreThe Wasteland Analysis990 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Wasteland† Analysis After World War I, a movement known as Modernism changed poetry and literature. T.S. Eliot was one of the most influential Modernist writers in his time. His most famous poem, The Wasteland, is a great example of this movement. The poem talks about the negative impact of war, especially World War I, on society. It uses many literary techniques that present Eliots negative message about the decline of Western culture due to war. These literary techniques include metaphorRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Waste Land By T.s. Eliot819 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Waste land,† by T.S. Eliot, is a complex masterpiece with many incredible symbolic relationships occurs throughout the entirety of the poem. Eliot uses reliable comparisons between life and death, to depict how the seasons change within a given year. His simple yet extreme changes and exaggerations of ever so slight changes between months can help explain the tightly knitted connection we have, and what links the eart h and seasons together. At times, the earth can be dismal, harsh and even consideredRead MoreCan we conclude that T.S.Eliots ideas about culture are elitist and leave it at that?1759 Words   |  8 PagesEliot writes of culture as the way of life of a particular people living together in one place. That culture is made visible in their arts, in their social system, in their habits and customs, in their religion.(Milner, A (1994) Contemporary Cultural Theory: An Introduction. London: UCC Press.) A culture, then according to Eliot is one which is shared in common by a whole people, although he believed it was not shared equally between the people. Eliot divided the people into two groups, the elite