T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot 1888-1965

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T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot1888-1965

• Presenters
• Rita, Jones, Ally
• Teresa, Christine,
  

source http//www.love-poems.me.uk/eliot_macavity
_the_mystery_cat.htm
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T. S. Eliot as

• An expatriate
• A modern symbolist-Metaphysical
• A critic
• A playwright

Source http//www.arts.monash.edu.au/english/unde
rgraduate/2000/2470.html
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Eliots Background

• 1888
• born in St. Louis, Missouri, of New England
  stock
• 1906-10
• Harvard, undergraduate
• 1910-11
• Paris, and Germany
• 1911-14
• Harvard, graduate work
• 1914 WWI
• London (Greek philosophy at Oxford)
• Oral defense required for the Ph. D. degree
• Academics ? poetry
• 1915
• married Vivienne Haigh-Wood (1933 mental home)
• The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (Poetry,
  Chicago)

Image Source http//www.2idiotsinaboat.com/pilgri
m/media/Eliot1.jpg
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Eliots Background

• 1921
• breakdown, Swiss sanitorium
• Paris, the manuscript of the Waste Land (Ezra
  Pound)
• 1922
• quarterly Criterion
• The Waste Land (Criterion, the Dial) Ulysses by
  Joyce
• 1927
• British subject, Church of England
• Journey of the Magi
• 1935
• Four Quartets
• 1948 WWII
• the Order of Merit by King George VI
• the Nobel Prize in literature
• his poetic cunning, his fine craftsmanship, his
  original accent, his historical and
  representative importance as the poet of the
  modern symbolist Metaphysical tradition
• 1957 married Valerie Fletcher

Image Source http//theatre.msu.edu/images/ta/Eli
ot_TS-001.jpg
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Features of Eliots Poetry

• The Metaphysical poets
• wit passion ( John Donne)
• The French symbolists
• precise image endlessly suggestive meaning
• ModernistEzra Pound
• against romantic softness
• to regard the poetic medium rather than the
  poets personality as the important factor
• French PoetJules LaForgue
• precision, symbolic suggestion, ironic mockery
• Other late-nineteenth century French poets

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• Vievienne Haigh-Wood

• Valerie Fletcher

• Jules LaForgue

• Ezra Pound

Source http//www.bc.edu/publications/bcm/winter_
2001/ll_poet.html http//www.npg.org.uk/live/searc
h/portrait.asp?LinkIDmp72287rNo2rolesit http
//www.alucier.web.wesleyan.edu/dbeveridge/wescours
es/2002f/chem160/01/ http//www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp
/hishika/pound.htm
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The Long Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Source http//www.mediatriangle.com/TGSportraits/
malkovich.html
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Summary

• J. Alfred Prufrock, a middle-aged, intellectual,
  indecisive man, invites the reader along with him
  through the modern city. He describes the street
  scene and notes a social gathering of women
  discussing Renaissance artist Michelangelo. He
  describes yellow smoke and fog outside the house
  of the gathering, and keeps insisting that there
  will be time to do many things in the social
  world.

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Summary

• Prufrock agonizes over his social actions,
  worrying over how others will see him. He thinks
  about women's arms and perfume, but does not know
  how to act. He walks through the streets and
  watches lonely men leaning out their windows. The
  day passes but he cannot gather the strength to
  act, and he admits that he is afraid.

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Summary

• Prufrock wonders if his efforts would have
  been worthwhile. He excuses his fear by
  rationalizing that his speaking to the woman
  would not have achieved any real purpose. He
  thinks he is not a Prince Hamlet figure, but a
  secondary character in life. Worried over growing
  old, he adopts the fashions of youth. However,
  Prufrock will finally retreat into a solitary old
  age.

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Annotation

• 1. "Like a patient etherized upon a table" (line
  3)
• "half-deserted streets" (line 4)
• "one-night cheap hotels / And sawdust
  restaurants" (lines 6-7).
• A barren and deathly city, where Prufrock
  lives in solitary gloom.
• 2. "Do I dare/ Disturb the universe? ( lines
  45-46)
• The universe refers to is his small social
  circle of middle-class acquaintances.

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Annotation

• 3. And I have known the eyes already, known
  them all -
• The eyes that fix you in a formulated phase,
• And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
  
• When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall.
  (lines 55-58)
• "Sprawling on a pin" refers to the practice
  of pinning insect specimens for study, suggesting
  Prufrock feels similarly scrutinized.

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Annotation

• 4. I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers
  rolled. / Shall I part my hair behind? (lines
  121-122)
• At the time, both styles were considered
  bohemian the middle-aged Prufrock pathetically
  wonders if he can reverse his aging by embracing
  such youthful fashions.
• 5. Do I dare to eat a peach?" (line 122)
• The peach refers to immortality and marriage.
  They are both Prufrocks concerns but he cant
  accomplish.

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Annotation

• 6. "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to
  each" (line 124)
• The mermaids refers to the society of women
  who ignore him.

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Allusion

• Sio credesse che mia risposta fosse
• a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
• questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse
• ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
• non torno vivo alcun, siodo il vero,
• senza tema dinfamia ti rispondo.
• A quoted passage from Dante's Inferno,
  suggesting that Prufrock is one of the damned and
  that he speaks only because he is sure no one
  will disclose his secret.

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Allusion

• And indeed there will be time (line 23)
• Cf. "Had we but world enough, and time," from
  Metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy
  Mistress."
• The speaker of the poem argues to his "coy
  mistress" that they could take their time in
  courtship games only if they were immortal
  ironically, Prufrock deludes himself into
  thinking there will be time to court his lady or
  ladies.

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Allusion

• works and days of hands (line 29)
• "Works and Days" is a poem about the farming
  year by Greek poet Hesiod (8th century B.C.). The
  ironic divide is between useful agricultural
  labor and the futile "works and days of hands"
  engaged in meaningless social gesturing.

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Allusion

• a pair of ragged claws (line 73)
• Self-pitying remark that he would have been
  better as a crab at the bottom of the ocean. Cf.
  Hamlet 2.2.205-206, Hamlet mocks the unwitting
  and aging Polonius, saying that Polonius could
  become young like Hamlet only if he somehow went
  back in time "for you yourself, sir, should be
  old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go
  backward."

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Allusion

• Though I have seen my head...brought in upon a
  platter (line 82)
• Matthew 143-11, Mark 617-29 in the Bible
  the death of John the Baptist. A dancing girl
  named Salome requested the head of John the
  Baptist on a silver platter from King Herod.
  Prufrock's observation of his "grown slightly
  bald" head parodies the event and gives it the
  flavor of mock-heroism found throughout the poem.

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• Salome receives John Baptist's head on a platter.

Aubrey Beardsley illustration for Oscar Wilde's
play Salome
Source http//www.phespirit.info/pictures/caravag
gio/
21
Allusion

• To have squeezed the universe into a ball (line
  92)
• Cf. Andrew Marvell "To His Coy Mistress"
  (41-44) "Let us roll all our strength and all /
  Our sweetness up into one ball, / And tear our
  pleasures with rough strife / Thorough the iron
  gates of life." The imagery is suggestive of
  sexual intercourse and union.

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Allusion

• Lazarus (line 94)
• Luke 1619-31 in the Bible. In the parable,
  Lazarus, a beggar, went to Heaven, while Dives, a
  rich man, went to Hell. Dives wanted to warn his
  brothers about Hell and appeased to Abraham
  (unsuccessfully) for Lazarus to be sent back to
  tell them. The parable is perhaps suggestive of
  the Dante-Guido da Montefeltro allusion in the
  epigraph both concern themselves with the
  possibility of returning from the afterlife.

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Question 1

• How does the imagery of the first fourteen lines
  of the poem create its psychological and
  emotional atmosphere?

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Analysis

• Title
• Writing style
• Key items
• the speaker, listener
• Setting
• tone
• Prufrocks characteristics
• Words repeated in the poem

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Title

• The title, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,
  seems to suggest this is a poem about love. In
  fact, the title implies an ironic contrast
  between the romantic words of love song and the
  dully name J. Alfred Prufrock. (Eliot 2364,
  note 1. )

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Writing style

• The poem was written in a form of dramatic
  monologue, which was a presence of the speakers
  inner heart. The speaker is not equal to the
  poet. There are three items presenting the fact.
• 1. they are the speech of specific individual
  at a specific moment.
• 2. the monologue is specifically directed to a
  listener or listeners who didnt directly appear
  in the poem, and the listener(s) is merely
  suggested in the speakers words.
• 3. the primary focus is the development and
  revelation of the speakers character.

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Key items

• Speaker J. Alfred Prufrock
• Listener readers or the speaker himself.
• Setting (1) time-evening. (lines 2- 3)
• (2) place- a room in a city.
  (lines 13-16)
• Tone pessimistic and ironic. (lines 39- 46)
• 
  (lines 120 -125)

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Prufrocks characteristics

• middle-aged (lines 39-40,120)
• Bald (lines 39 - 41 )
• Thin (lines 42 - 44)
• Lack of confidence indecisive pessimistic
• (sentences including How should I ? and Do
  I dare? )

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Words repeated in the poem

• In he room the women come and go Talking of
  Michelangelo.
• (lines 13-14 lines 35-36)
• ? The contrast between the speaker and
  Michelangelo, and other active writers, artists
  
• there will be time
• (lines 26 - 29 lines 37-38)
• the speaker is afraid of aging, yet he remains
  indecisive and inactive.
• And would it have been worth it, after all
  (lines 87, 99-100)

The statue of David
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Question 2

• I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
  I dont think that they will sing to me. What
  does the passage suggest?

Aubrey Beardsley. "Black Coffee" "In the room the
women come and go...."
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Symbols of Debasement

• Cats
• Specimens of insects
• Crabs

DebasementCats

• Line 15-22
• Compare the yellow fog and smoke with cats
• From activity to inactivity
• Rubs, licked, lingered, slipped, made a sudden
  leap, seeing, curled, and fell asleep
• Alienation
• Both the yellow fog (cat) and Prufrock are
  outside the house.
• Anxiety of social occasions

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DebasementSpecimens of Insects

• Lines 55-58
• Womens eyes and remark as a pin
• Without confidence (lines 41, 44-46)

Source http//www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomology/
ythfacts/4h/unit2/
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DebasementCrabs

• Lines 73-74
• I should have been a pair of ragged claws
  Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
• indecision and anxiety of aging
• Movementback and forth
• Echoing to the theme fragment
• Eat rotten meat

Source http//www.animationfactory.com/animations
/animals/ocean/556c1/
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Themes

• Paralysis
• Inactivity
• Indecision

• Fragment
• Allusions
• Form
• Disintegrated

Source http//www.animalmedicalcentreofmedina.com
/about_us.htm
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paralysisinactivity

• Lines 2-3
• When the evening is spread out against the sky/
  Like a patient etherised upon table
• Lines 15-22
• The yellow fog that rubslickedlingeredslipped
  leap seeingcurledand fell asleep (line 15-22)
• lines 129-131
• We have lingered in the chambers of the sea/ By
  sea-girls/ Till human voices, and we drown.

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paralysisindecision

• lines 23-39
• And indeed there will be timeTo prepare a face
  to meetto murder and createfor a hundred
  indecisionsfor a hundred visions and
  revisionsto turn back and descend the stair.
• lines 45-48
• Do I dare/ Disturb the universe/ In a minute
  there is time/ For decisions and revisions which
  a minute will reverse.
• line 112
• No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be

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fragment

• literary allusions
• reconstruction from ruins
• form
• opens with an uncompleted sonnet
• ends with an sextet
• lines begin with the word And
• comma, and semicolon suggest fragment and pause
  (lines 111-19)

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fragment

• disintegrated selfreason ?? desire
• dramatic monologue
• Let us go then, you and I. (line 1)
• Let us go and make our visit. (line 12)
• Till human voices wake us, and we drown. (line
  131)
• Women appear as fragmented bodies and
  disconnected gestures braceleted arms (line
  63) that lie along a table (line 67) or
  faceless people who settle a pillow (line 96) or
  throw off a shawl (line 107).

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Questions

1. Who are we or us in line 1, 10, 129, and 131?
2. Is there any language in the poem that seems
   lyrical or romantic or that would justify Eliots
   naming the poem a love song?

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Works Cited

• Eliot, T. S. The Love Song of J. Alfred
  Prufrock. The Norton Anthology of English
  Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York
  Norton, 2000. 2364-7.
• Eliots poetry study guide. Sparknotes. 28
  Nov. 2005
• lthttp//www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/sect
  ion1.htmlgt.
• Hecimovich, Gregg A. Notes on The Love Song of
  J. Alfred Prufrock. 20 Nov. 2005
  lthttp//www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/english/English151W
  -03/prufrock.htmgt.
• Stoicheff, Peter et al. The Prufrock Papers.
  25 Nov. 2005 lthttp//www.usask.ca/english/prufro
  ck/index.htmlgt.
• Visual Arts. PBS. 28 Nov. 2005
  lthttp//www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/
  visualarts/david_a.htmlgt.
• Wayne, Teddy. ClassicNote on The Love Song of
  J. Alfred Prufrock. GradeSaver. 4 Nov. 2005
  lthttp//www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/pru
  frock/gt.

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Journey of the Magi byT.S. Eliot
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Background

• In 1927 Eliot changed his
• nationality
• - published
• Journey of the Magi.

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Summary

• It is a story about one of the Magi
  remembering his bitter experiences in deadly cold
  winter in order to search for Christ child, and
  at the end of his journey, he converted his
  religion.

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Analysis

• 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.
• And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
• Lying down in the melting snow,
• There were times we regretted
• The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
• And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
• Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
• And running away, and wanting their liquor and
  women,
• And the night-fires going out, and the lack of
  shelters,
• And the cities hostile and the towns
  unfriendly

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• And the villages dirty and charging high
  prices
• A hard time we had of it.
• At the end we preferred to travel all night,
• Sleeping in snatches,
• With the voices singing in our ears, saying
• That this was all folly.
• first five lines are adapted from a sermon
  preached by Bishop
• Lancelot Andrewes in 1622.
• The summer palaces on slopes means their past
  life of luxury, leisure, and sensuality.
• travel all night means his determination

46

• Then at dawn we came down to a temperate
  valley,
• Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation
• With a running stream and a water mill beating
  the darkness,
• And three trees on the low sky.
• And an old white horse galloped away in the
  meadow.
• Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over
  the lintel,
• Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of
  silver,
• And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
• But there was no information, and so we continued
• And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
• Finding the place it was (you may say )
  satisfactory.
• valley represents life
• vine-leaves represents life, Jesus holy blood,
  and sacrifice.

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• three trees derives from New Testament then
  two bandits were crucified with him, one on the
  right and one on the left. (Mat 2738)
• an old white horse derives from New Testament
  Immediately I saw a white horse appear,to go
  from victory to victory (The Rev 62)
• Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of
  silver derives from New Testament derives from
  New Testament When he found that Jesus had been
  condemned,just as the Lord directed me.
• (Mat 273-10 ) And now I saw heaven
  open,in uprightness he judges and makes war.
  (The Rev 1911)

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• All this was a long time ago, I remember,
• And I would do it again, but set down
• This set down
• This were we led all that way for
• Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
• We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth
  and death,
• But had thought they were different this Birth
  was
• Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our
  death.
• We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
• But no longer at ease here, in the old
  dispensation,
• With an alien people clutching their gods.
• I should be glad of another death.
• Birth represents the birth of Jesus, and the
  birth of the magis religion.
• old dispensation represents the dead past life.

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Theme

• Conversion of faith
• Alienation from the past

Technique

• Monologue
• Free verse

50
Works Cited

• Christian Conversion in T. S. Eliots Journey
  of the Magi. 7 Nov. 2005 lthttp//fray.ca/schoo
  l/tseliot.htmlgt.
• Eliot, T. S. Journey of the Magi. The Norton
  Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H.
  Abrams. 7the ed. New York Norton, 2000.
  2386-7.
• The New Jerusalem Bible. Ed. Standard.
  Doubleday, 1999.
• ??? ?????? ?????, ??. 1984.
• ??? ?????? ?????, ??. 1991.
• ???? ????????. 1975.

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Source of Pictures

• Pictures. 28. Nov. 2005 lthttp//www2.tku.edu.tw/t
  ahx/lau/list16.htmgt.
• Pictures. ???. lt?????????????.gt 28. Nov. 2005
• lthttp//life.fhl.net/Art/3wen2.htmgt.