Quotes for T.S Eliot PDF

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Journey of the Magi Quote

Technique

Analysis It's a poetic monologue and it's not as fractured or fragmented -- it tells a far more cohesive story. The coherence of this poem in comparison to the fragmentation of others is a stark contrast. here you can see Elliot search for purpose through all of his work, he finds the answer in religion and becomes a devout anglochristian.

'A cold coming we had of it, just the worst time of the year for a journey, and such a long journey: the ways deep and the weather sharp, the very dead of Winter.'

This is a religious and historical allusion coming from an actual sermon delivered by the bishop Andrews in 1622. Intertextuality and allusion.

A direct reference to the Bible exemplifies Elliot's perception of himself as a selfproclaimed classicist. By alluding to the Bible he reinstates his belief that by returning to the classics he could enrich a disintegrating world, therefore he integrated into his poetry for the reader to subsequently be enriched. For him, he surrenders himself to God to make sense of the world around him.

And the silken girls bringing sherbet

And the acts as anaphora

The usage of anaphora to incite a sense of a prolonged journey with the repetition of 'and the and the and the'. Not only does this allude to the audience of the difficulty of the physical journey but can also be an extended metaphor for eliot's journey in his pursuit of spiritual meaning in the desolate modern world and how gruelling and onerous that has been. The poem is an away the reward for his struggle reflecting his acceptance of God and thus instilling purpose and

meaning within his life. and running away, and wanting them liquor and women

Cumulative list, accumulative snapshots

He comments on the moral decay in the modern world and in history, creating a universality to make the text ever more relevant to the reader across various contexts. Essentially he comments that regardless of the time period humans will always pursue debauchery with the spiritual aspect of the poem counterposing this ideology

Three trees on the low sky

Acts as an allusion to jesus' crucifixation (biblical)

this stanza is characterized by lots of imagery of renewal and life this notion of hope to come as reprieve for the hardships and challenges depicted in the first stanza. Essentially the peace acts as an extended metaphor for life depicting the tumultuous nature of the journey of life it's hope and fear of change.

This: well we'll add all that way for birth or death?

the usage of the colon demarcates the beginning of this epiphany. Birth and death are paradoxical. The techniques syntax and paradox.

The third stanza is characterized as the reflection, depicting an apprehension to change with rhetorical question inciting philosophersation as to the Future of religious order.

Birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like death, our death

Personification and repetition of death

death and birth year a symbolic of the death of pagan religions and the birth of Christianity which is the religion Elliot adheres to, it is a historical and religious symbol for Elliot letting go of his past and his acceptance of religion. The conversation between paganism and Christianity serves as reflective of Elliot's spiritual

conversation with the past and the future. this is even further by the naturalistic and theme of finding god found in this poem exclusively, which contradicts his hatred of romanticism though in actuality furthers his own removal from past beliefs. I should be glad of another death

there are a very strong religious paradigms make sense of a nonsensical world as though through faith and God he has aided his discontent. in association Elliott accepts his death because he believes in religion now and thus it's eternal life. His intent here is to say to the audience that purpose may be found in the abandonment of morality and purpose in the modern world if one submits themself to God.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Quote

‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.’

Technique

Irony/paradox

Analysis

The persona has seemed to live a life without love

Poetic form is dramatic monologue, external manifestation of internal dialogue à stream of consciousness 1st stanza

Acts as an invitation for a journey

Lyrical quality + deliberately elusive

Reflective of the nature of life

‘Let us go then, you and I.’

Direct address

Very intimate poem, inviting us into the poetic journey

‘When the evening is spread out against the sky, Like a patient etherised upon a table.’

Simile, contrasting of romantic description

Etherised has a numbing quality, reflective of the paralysis of a modern existence – the pursuit of nothingness. It's the stark contrast of romantic imagery with Blunt and visually unpleasing sights that acts as a subversion of the love song -- that there are no feelings, no emotions that are prevails the modern existence (a constant dissatisfaction and neutrality) and that even the naturalistic beauty of the sky has been subdued by the haze of industrialisation.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes, yellow smoke that rubs it's muzzle on the window panes

Zoomorphism

The domesticated cat represents domestic tedium, even the smoke subjects itself to routine à comments upon the perpetual cycle Eliot and

his audience are subjected to – and the urban landscape, with its grit and grime, coiling up to envelop the reader into the world he manufactures whilst serving as a physical representation for the grime and pollution of modern existence

To lead you to an overwhelming question... Oh, do not ask, 'what is it?'

Perhaps an allusion to Hamlet's ultimate question (NOT 100%) +the syntaxical usage of the ellipses allows readers to consider what was left unsaid

If I do use this: this is once again a drawing upon from the classicists elliots so admired -- this moment serves as a building of suspense to draw the reader in to continuing his work so that they may eventually find the answer but essentially his remarks that people follow these perpetual existence is in the mundane, no one contemplates the big questions anymore and instead of providing us with the answers the reader seeks, both within the poem and within real life, he forces us to think -something he believes is not present any more in the modern world with our thoughts becoming as unoriginal and mass produced as the technology we surround ourselves in -- A notion becoming ever more prevalent with the increasing digitalisation of our society

The sense of observing others causes inner conflict. Even thinking isolates us from the masses who continue with the lives without any form of contemplation. The modern world is one without thought. The notion of thought is ever

present within the poem, with the persona continually repeating questions to reflect the paradoxes of life and question the absurdity of the modern world to incite his audiences to do the same. Moreover this repetition and use of imagery serves to reflect the repetition and tedium of life. At it's core prufrock is about how isolating an alienating the modern world is, portraying that the internal torment that we suffer from is universal yet we still exist in perpetual loneliness. In the room the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo

Representative of a polite society

Elliot seems concerned with the perpetration of facades in the modern existence as a way of masking the suffering that we all endure. He depicts the superficiality of the modern and how the persona, prufrock, debates whether he should steer from the norm, 'Do dare disturb the universe?' This is furthered by the direct address to the audience, 'there will be time to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet,' essentially stating that we as the readers eventually make the choice as to whether we want to assimilate into society by up holding a facade at the consequence of perpetually existing in isolation as no one truly knows you beyond your superficial image.

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons

Metaphor

Should I, after tea and cake and ices, have the strength to force the moment to it's crisis.

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;

Representative of the polite society amalgamated with the tedium of routine utilising mundane imagery to reflect a measurement of ones existence. Something as inconsequential as coffee is being compared to his lifespan alluding to the audience that with an existence as purposeless as it is in the modern world coffee and life have almost no distinction in value.

Should I cut through the bullshit, veneer, politeness? this ties in with the earlier point regarding how readers must make the choice at some point in the lives whether they choose to live as they truly are or continue to exist submissively to their facades.

Literary allusion and metaphor

Hamlet was a character who oscillator between the need for action and contemplation, another protagonist who tries to search for meaning. Ultimately Prufrock come to the conclusion that he is not the leading man and rather just an ordinary person, 'almost, at times, the fool.' for him it is more comfortable to go along with the facade then to shed the image, an epiphany that resonates with the masses as Elliott prescribes we may

be the leading person in our own lives but in the grand scale of the modern world we are insignificant and all ourselves to be subjected to a lack of purpose and eternal routine rather than question the state of our existences and consequently be ostracised from society. Prufrock Clauses: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Modern man’s struggle Paralysing self-consciousness Proclivity for introspection and speculation yet an inability to effect change Intense insecurity about place in world, a giure lost in his own fears and anxieties Harbours longing -- painful futility to it -- ultimately sees himself as marginalised from society Typical of self-conscious Modernist figure crippled by his existential anxiety Self-deprecating Avoids ever actually confronting the world, condenses himself to an inane and meaningless existence on the margins Teeters on the overwhelming question -- he’s not ever able to articulate it Paralysis is reflective of the paralysis of the time

Preludes Quote

Technique

Analysis Pointlessness of existence, time imagery and the notion of time passing same pointless routine (mundanity), titular paradox - the cycle of prelude. Each stanza is a different window into the pointlessness of existence The tone is fatigue, tired, burnt out, lonely, utilises olfactory imagery, sombre, mundane, judgemental and scathing

‘Preludes’

Irony

Ironic with the insinuation that the poem is an introduction of some sort. The reader is in expectation of something to occur but, by the conclusion, nothing happens. This is symbolic of Eliot’s purpose in exposing the truth of modern life: that individuals live in expectation of some grand event but are inevitably submissive towards the suffering of routine.

The grimy scraps of withered leaves about your feet.

Objective Correlative

Eliot utilises the objective correlative, a chain of events which will thereby serve as the formula for a particular emotion, to resonate with readers. He paints modern world desolated by the impacts of urbanisation with the leaves being symbolic of the death of all that was once natural -- he subverts and, in a way, mocks the obsession with nature’s beauty seen within romanticism to create a landscape that lacks vitality as a physical reflection of the

decay of the modern existence, tying the state of life with the state of the reader’s physical landscape -- both of which are becoming increasingly industrialised ‘And the light crept up between the shutters, And you heard the sparrows in the gutter.’

Anaphora and sudden shift into rhyme -- disjointed -makes meaning obtuse

Art & life are reflective of one another, that is the theory of Mimesis. Therefore, Elliot was of the belief that the truly reflect life within his work, which is an intangible an elusive entity, then he therefore must make his meaning and content elusive. The lights creeping up and the sounds of sparrows in the gutter may seem insignificant to describing elliot's intent however he utilises these lines to create a universal experience within his works, using moments and feelings shared by most as a way of resonating with the reader, despite the obtusity of his content. The intent of his work was not to be easily accessible as the meaning of life, which attempts to imitate within his works, is not easily accessible. He wants his readers to feel more, to feel his works rather than picking apart every line and attempting to understand them. The lines, when taken out of context, mean nothing and it is only with each line strewn together that he is able to construct a whole, interpretable piece.

At 4 and 5 and 6 o'clock

The usage of a time motif, modernist convention, and repetition, anaphora of 'and'

The passing of time acts as a reflection of the modernist concern regarding the routine of a modern Life. Does repetition in a way draws the reader into the cyclical nature

of not only the poem but of their lives, once again his drawing from the collective experience of all individuals at watching Time pass and evokes that sense of inescapability amalgamated with some form of regret that we can never reclaim lost time. This gives the poem a fatigued and sombre tone, with the conceptualisation of rising that time is inconsequential and meaningless and loses its value when there is no purpose in existence because the distinction of life and death doesn't really exist anymore, modern Life essentially is the roaming dead. In a way death has more liberty than life, an escape to the tedium of the modern world. With all its muddy feet that press + ‘Raising dingy shades in a thousand furnished rooms’

Muddy feet as symbolism, mundane grimy imagery to reflect the urbanisation of society (muddy gives sense of staining) Thousand = hyperbolisation

In section/stanza 2: City dwellers are reduced to symbols of their work: feet and hands, moving repetitiously. This is quite thought-provoking as it reduces the existence of the masses, and therefore the readers themselves, to their inconsequential remnants upon the streets, 'muddy feet that press'. This portrays the notion that individual existence is meaningless and upon our deaths, all that is left of our presence is in the tramplings upon the street, of which blend into the other foot steps and can be washed away by the next morning. This is the industrialisation of existence, that we live as a mass produced force without

individual purpose but complete in Unity. These individuals act as if in a play, with only a pretense of meaning. And their lives are all the same. The lines evoke a sense of unity, a collective experience that everyone is doing the same thing at the same time and that we all fall victim to the suffering of routine and the modern Life.

The worlds revolve like ancient women gathering fuel in vacant lots’

Symbolism, repetition of vacant lots throughout

The notion of ancient women makes the cycle seem eternal, that it's existed ever since the Dawn Of Time and is perpetual and inescapable. the lifting and gathering a fuel creates a fatigued tone for the poem's conclusion, the laborious nature of the act reflecting the laborious nature of existing. More so ancient gives the illusion of ruins, as though Elliot is trying to say in this modern world, one characterized by the ruins of culture and civilization, there is no point in seeking meaning because there is none left. Acts as a disturbing reminder for all audiences of all contexts, past and present, that life is an endless repeat, a monotonous cycle that holds no certain meaning or purpose and that individuals can never escape from.

The Hollow Men Quote

Technique

Analysis

‘We are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men,’

Symbolism, personification, paradox

Is symbolic of an empty person lacking intellectual substance, depicting Eliot’s purpose in satirising the masses as an uneducated people in need of salvation through culture. This also alludes to scarecrows as a personification of the spiritual emptiness around him and his longing for a rigid belief system to find a definite purpose amidst the routine and mass-production of the modern. The paradoxical nature of the opening, 'stuffed and hollow,' is reflective of the dichotomy of human existence Howie continue on the woods with our lives with empty purpose, stuffing ourselves with distraction from the hard 2 face reality and acceptance of our own purposelessness.

Paralysed force, gesture without motion

Paradoxical, oxymoron and antithesis

Applies not only to the ‘men’ but also the poem, with Eliot’s manipulation of form exhibiting little narrative progression beyond the conventional sense to highlight the continuation of life. Moreover, it eschews verbs of direct action to further instate a feeling of lack of movement. It instills a sense of futility in attempting to even move to depict that, for both the readers and the subject matter, no matter how hard we attempt to push through this meaningless cycle we are left numb and paralyzed by the suppression of the modern world. The only means of movement and

escape results in further isolation from the masse, only done by failing to adhere to the societal norms of the status quo -- that is the refusal to subject yourself to these routines and to actually contemplate the state of your existence. Assimilation into the modern world means to subject yourself to this dehumanisation and paralysis, a trap most have fallen to and precisely what Elliot attempts to raise awareness of ‘This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.’

Fragmentation and disjointed structure

His utilisation of fragmented and disjointed structure resonates with the individual’s detachment in the modern era. ‘This the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.’ ‘The Hollow Men’ gropes itself towards a conclusion only to end in hollow abstraction, broken prayer and the meaningless circularity of a children’s rhyme. This conclusive line provides insight into the paradoxical nature of Dread (aengste) -- inciting within the reader a simultaneous fear and intense awareness of nothingness though Elliot uses this open up the possibility of faith in an infinite beyond human life by 'laying bare all finite discovering that deceptions' by revealing the 'deadendedness' of life itself.

‘Prickly Pear, Prickly Pear,’

Subversion of children’s rhyme, italics, motif of child’s innocence

The connotation of a children’s rhyme being subverted, ‘Prickly Pear, Prickly Pear,’ creates a disturbing and twisted portrait of the modern life. The use of the italicised formatting draws

emphasis unto the passage, creating an absurdist quality through shifting the motif of a child’s innocence into a ritualistic entity that portrays a darker underbelly for the veneer of society to reflect the corruptative entity that the modern world acts as. The rhyme has almost a scathing tone to it and Elliot critiques the modern world as one characterized by the desolation of ...