iii

t
 KEY
alienatidmonobnylaekapdgeneroeu.TT
Elio Poe r
Context - Born 1888, St Louis, Missouri
- Youngest of six, raised Unitarian
- Studied philosophy at Harvard ’0 -’0 then Sorbonne Paris ’10-‘11
- World was changing following the industrial revolution and in the lead up to the lead up to
WWI
- Then WWI = period of general pessimism
- Met Ezra Pound, created modernism
- Unhappy marriage from 1915
- Converted to Anglo-Catholicism in 1927
Audience Originally literary associates who would instantly get his classic references, but this changed in
1981 when Webber created the musical ‘Cats’ based on Eliot’s work
Purpose - Mockery of love in world gone mad
-

- Comment on how individuals fit into modern world

-

- Warns of a society where individuals cannot connect or find meaning

-
Themes - All poems characterised by despair, doom, hopelessness

Alienation, social paralysis, monotony of modern life, indecisiveness, lack of purpose

Prufrock General Evidence Explanation
1910 - Dramatic 1. Title, “Love Song of J. Alfred - Ironic (opposite of a love

G-
=
monologue Prufrock” song)
- Inferiority - Play on ‘prude frock’
complex - English gentry
connotation
2. Epigraph – Dante - No one comes back from
hell
3. “let us go then, you and I…” - Talks to reader w/ 2nd p.
-

4. “like a patient etherised - Contemporary

upon a table” development of world
expressed through
medical imagery
5. “Restless nights in one - Contrasts protagonist
night cheap hotels”
6. “Streets that follow like a
-
- Tiresome nature of
tedious argument of modern life
insidious intent to lead you
to an overwhelming
question…”
7. “In the room the women - Repeated
-

come and go, talking of - Inferiority of protagonist

Michelangelo”
8. “yellow fog that rubs its
back upon the window
panes, the yellow smoke
vs. superiority of women
- Art gallery setting
- Industrial reference –
-
sulfur
- Cigarette smoke?
- Giving animal qualities to
↳ zoomorphism

1
 that rubs its muzzle on the - Repeated later
window panes…”
9. “There will be time, there - Repetition for literal

will be time”
10. “To prepare a face to meet
the faces that you meet”
11. “time for all the works and
T
emphasis (so much time
we can say it twice)
- Prides self on academic
games
- Internal reality vs. façade
that we put on
- synecdoche

=
days of hands that life and
drop a question on your
plate”
12. for a h ndred indeci ion - soft sounds =
and for a hundred visions uncertainty
and revisions, before the r ing o alk o
aking of oa and ea women
- sense of isolation,
uncertainty, paranoia
- longing for relationships
13. Do I dare di rb he - enjambment
ni er e
14. I ha e mea red o m - symbolises society:
life with coffee poon useless, out of place
- time motif
15. “eyes that fix you in a - alliteration of ‘f’ sounds
formulated phrase” emphasises key words
16. “lonely men in shirt- - struggle to find meaning
sleeves, leaning out of in modern world
windows”
17. “Should I, after tea and - contrast of meaningless
-

cake and ices, have the and meaningful

strength to force the - imposition of will
moment into crisis?”
18. “wept and fasted, wept and - religious/biblical allusion
prayed” john the Baptist

=
theme of disconnect
19. “I am no prophet” ultimate purpose

20. “I have seen my head…

brought in upon a platter”

21. “I am Lazarus…”
22. “to have… to have… to roll… - anaphora of transitive
to say…” verbs to explore the
hypothetical

2
 23. If one e ling a pillow or
throwing off a shawl, and
turning toward the
indo
24. I am no Prince Hamle
o I dare to eat a peach?”
25. “Do
- romantic overtones as P
entertains the idea of
talking to women
- o be or no o be
Pr rie o hed hi
indecisiveness but ends
p a almo a ime
the fool in ead
- Future becomes present
-

- Ultimate realisation of
Pru’s indecision and self-
consciousness
26. Till h man oice ake - Pru feels the ideal reality
and e dro n he is too afraid to attain
will only end in
disappointment and
death (like everything
else)
Preludes - About working 1. Title, “Preludes” - Suggests something
1910/1911 class people more important is to
- Parody of come

=
romantic poem 2. “the winter evening settles - Pathetic fallacy

=
- Tone of down” - Death
desolation - routine
explores the 3. “smell of stakes in passage - olfactory imagery
sordid and ways” assault on senses like
solitary being in city
experience of 4. “six o’clock” - time motif
the spiritually 5. he b rn o end of - =
plosive consonants =

=
moiled in a mok da barraging
drab modern 6. broken: blind - desolation
city 7. “withered leaves about - ignorance of decay, 2nd
- Loss of soul, your feet” p. lang
existing > living 8. “And then the lighting of - emphasised by
- No specific the lamps” paragraph break
characters = -
-

ritualistic
homogenised 9. “the morning comes into - naturalistic sensibility
society consciousness of faint stale - possibility
- Poetry as smells of beer” - routine monotony
quarrel w/in contrasted with
oneself - negative olfactory
=
imagery
- no hope

3
 10. “masquerades that time
assumes”
11. “all the hands raising dingy
shades”
12. “watched the night
revealing the thousand
sordid images of which your
soul was constituted”
13. he ligh crep p
between the shutters and
you heard the sparrows in
he g er
14. o had ch a i ion of
the street as the street
hardly nder and
15. “clasped the yellow soles of
feet in the palms of both
soiled hands”
16. “his soul stretched tight
across the skies”
17. “that fade behind a city
block or trampled by
insistent feet”
- hiding identity
- conformity
- play roles and pretend to
live meaningful lives
- uniformity
- synecdoche: symbol of
=
work
- sympathetic view of
working class
- negative
=
- her life
- hyperbole diminishes
soul
- insomnia
- corrupt nature of
humanity
- sexual connotations
- hope
- world forces itself on
individual
- beauty is compromised
me aphor for orld
- no one else can see the
desolation of the city or
understand the decay
they live in
- orld o ldn
recognise itself
- disturbed by visions
from last night
- fragmentation
=
- lexical choice: dirty
existence
- not romantic in spite of
sexual connotations
- contemplating getting
out of bed
- God?
- Crucifixion lack of
religion in modern world
- Sunset
- Industrial urbanisation
destroys beauty
- People don’t have
identities
- Souls trampled
- Land and air
4
 18. “at four and five and six - Time motif
-
o’clock” - Day in the life
- Cyclical (repetition)
19. Ne paper - =
Metonym for waste
resulting from human
industry and progress
paper onl e i bc
we do so they are
rendered obsolete
20. “certain certainties” - Tautology (saying same
-
thing twice)
- Predetermined patterns
- Certainty that world
doesn’t change

personification#
21. he con cience of he - Loss of spirituality +
blackened street impatient urban decay
o a me he orld
22. “I am moved by fancies that - Aestheticism

t.io#ogoI
are curled around these
images, and cling: the
notion of some infinitely
gentle, infinitely suffering
hing
- Pity/empathy for soulless
people
- Christ like figure
(religious allusion)
- Innocence and

Vs.
23. Wipe o hand acro
o r mo h and la gh
24. “the worlds revolve like
ancient women gathering
fuel in vacant lots”
I
childhood
Juxtaposed w/
- Mockery
- Existence devoid of
dignity survival: return
to naturalistic reality
- Personification

=
- Degradation have
natural world has
trapped individuals
- Only simile in the poem
reflective tone to
closing lines
Rhapsody - Walking 1. Title, “Rhapsody on a - Free-flowing and
1911 around town Windy Night” spontaneous
and - Ecstatic expression of
remembering feeling ∴- ironic
- Depressing - Where does the wind
state of come from?
modern world Chaos.
- Poet 2. “twelve o’clock” - Time motif
-
presented as a 3. “held in a lunar synthesis” - Distorts memories
visionary 4. L nar incan a ion - Personification of the
-
hi pering di ol e night

5
- Almost stream 5. S ree lamp bea
of conscience: 6. Midnigh hake he
fragmented, memor
linked by 7. a a madman shakes a - Symbolises happiness

#
lamps and dead gerani m and good health
time - Hardy, grown in difficult
irony -
conditions
Sinister tone
- Decay + isolation
8. he door hich open on - Rhyme to establish
her like a grin =
connection:
9. o ee he corner of her Sinister images of
-

eye twists like a crooked contorted/perverted life

pin objec i e corela i e
-
- Inurn
Simile
10. “that cat which… slips out - desperation
its tongue and devours a
morsel of rancid butter”
11. “I could see nothing behind - loss of humanity in
that child’s eye” modern world
- all memories become a
reflection of the present
12. “the moon holds no - French
grudges” - Removes audience from
rhythm
- Musicality of language
- Drop in standards
13. “she is alone / with all the - Enjambment
-

old nocturnal smells” - Emphasises isolation of

moon
14. “that cross and cross across - personification of moon
=
- - -

her brain” - tautology

15. “the lamp said” - Personification
16. “Memory! You have the - exclamation
ke - he can get to his
memories
realises its importance
ability to create
meaning
17. he la i of he knife - waking nightmare of life
- reality is worse than
dream
- repe i ion of
-
i

6
Hollow Men - difficulty 1. Epigraph: “Mistah Kurtz – - heart of darkness
1925 believing in he dead / a penny for the intertextuality
-

religion bc of old guy” - MK made self a god,

WWI represents hollowness

I
- two voices in - Guy Fawkes, gun powder
conflict: plot now burn
religious desire scarecrows
and - both lived flamboyantly
naturalistic but with no higher
intellect purpose, their existence
- lyrical verse only brought destruction
2. “We are the hollow men, - establishes link b/n
=
we are the stuffed men”
-
epigraph & poem
anaphora: verb of being
-

- scare crow
- inclusive language
3. “headpiece filled with - =
scarecrow motif
straw. Alas!”
4. “shape without form, shade - paradox
-
without colour, paralysed - recognising reality
-

-
force, gesture without - spiritual parallels bc of
-
motion” lack of belief in rebirth
bc of death, life
meaningless
5. “those who have crossed, -= Christians
with direct eyes, to death’s - Fearless
-
other Kingdom” - Death has 2 kingdoms
6. e e I dare no mee in - Judged by God
-
dream - Contrast w/ fearlessness
of Christians
7. “more distant and more - Over Bethlamhem
solemn than an unfading = inability to believe in
star” afterlife
8. le me al o ear ch - Implie Chri ian belief
delibera e di g i e ra is a lie to hide
coat, crowskin, crossed hollowness
a e all he ame
- Negative imagery
9. hi i he dead land hi - Reality of society
i cac land - Anaphora
-

- Meaningless and unable

10. here he one image
receive the supplication of
a dead man hand
metaphor
to sustain life
- Various efforts of
humanity to establish
spiritual meaning are
redundant

7
 11. “trembling with tenderness,
lips that would kiss, form
prayers to broken stone”
12. in hi hollo alle
13. “here we go round the
prickly pear”
- Religious desire is beaten
by naturalistic intellect
but cannot be repressed
- Psychological impact of
lack of belief:
hollowness extends
beyond people
- Meaningless cycle of
repetition
- Parody of child’s nursery
-

rhyme w/ adult
perspective to highlight
loss of innocence
14. For Thine i Life i For - Parody of Christian

=
Thine i he worship service to
emphasise victory of
naturalistic intellect
- Fragmen ed n a
Elio oice?
15. “This is the way the world - Embarrassing
ends, not with a bang but a plea for immortality
whimper” - Individuals decide own
moral purpose in
absence of God
- Ridicules own religious
desire
Magi - Modernist free 1. Title, “Journey of the Magi” - 3 wise men, redemption
1927 verse of the world

#
⇐
- E has 2. and b - Polysyndeton:
converted Religion has conjunctions create a
- Monologue allow Eliot to
shed pessimism
sense of journey &
past tense monotony
recount 3. “the ways deep and the - Natural hardship
- Personal weather sharp” arduous journey
journey so 1st reflects difficulty of
p. language spiritual journey
-

-
⇐
Conversational
tone
Colons/semi 5.
4. “there were times we
regretted”
he camel men r nning
-
-
-
Existential crisis
Regret leaving home
Human nature creates
develop train away, and wanting their hardship
of though liq or and omen - Temptations of flesh =
distractions from
spiritual quest
6. “voices singing in our ears, - Modern world rejects
sirens saying that this was all
folly”
Christian belief and
makes it sound pretty

8
 7. hen a da n e came
down to a temperate
alle
8. -
hree ree on he lo
sky, and an old white horse
galloped away in the
meado
9. “door dicing for pieces of
silver”
10. “Birth or Death? There was
a Birth, certainly.”
11. an alien people cl ching
heir god
lex choice
12. “I should be glad of another
death”
Rubric
Rubric:
The unity of a text; it’s
coherent use of form and
language to produce an
integrated whole in term
of meaning and value
- analytical and critical knowledge
- distinctive qualities, integrity, significance
- construction, language, content + evidence
- ideas
- aesthetic & imagination
- Juxtaposes last stanza
-
hope pro peri
- Crucifixion
- Apocalypse
- Relationship with God
doe n nega e ph ical
hardship in life
- Betrayal of Christ
images of hope
juxtaposed w/ images of
betrayal
- Birth of Christ
- Death leads to eternal
life for believers (birth of
new life involves death
of old)
- Death and resurrection
of Christ
- J born to die paradox
- Return from encounter
w/ transcendence and
are so changed that old
life is alien, others
desperately hold on
ignorance
- Hope, proclamation of
faith
9
 Example Essay I
1. Ontological search for meaning in modernism explores existentialism:
World changing, attempt to apply meaning.
- “Pru” centred on an unanswered Q (search for meaning without accountability)
- Destiny: “there will be time” (repetition) for “yellow smoke”, “you”, “me”
pathetic bc Pru is characterised as an indecisive “fool”
2. E i en iali m and Prel de
- Title suggests something more important to come
- “moved by fancies that are curled around these images”
tender imagery to usually course poem
- Sensory imagery assures of existence through objective correlative but makes us
question its meaning because of the negative overtones
- “one thinks of all the hands that are raising dingy shades”
no purpose, synecdoche (fragmentation)
3. Nihilism as logical response to desolate world
- Fuelled by “a deep fatalism” (Obama) future unable to be changed, so life
meaningless, search for meaning is futile – burnt out from trying
this has paralysed Pru: “do I dare disturb the universe” = enjambment
- Living w/ meaning is unthinkable
“measured out my life with coffee spoons” (society is symbolised as something
useless and out of place)
- Hope of meaning = mocked
Pru “ha[s] seen the enternal Footman hold [his] coat and snicker”
4. Nihili m Prel de follo a erie of charac er nable o find meaning in
desolate, modern landscape
- Mocks spiritual desire
laughs at “the notion of the infinitely gentle, infinitely suffering thing”
Bc E hadn’t embraced religion yet (e.g. liturgical parody in HM), instead is stuck in
routine
- Watching life go on in spite of desolation: “burnt out ends of smoky days” and
“broken blinds” (plosive consonants = business as usual emphasised by a paragraph
break, and “then the lighting of the lamps”

10
 Eliot Quotes
Created on TheTeachersCorner.net Fill-in-the-Blank Maker

1. “there be → “yellow “me” – Prufrock –

2. “I am an – Prufrock -

3. “I am by that are around these and the of

some thing” – preludes – to otherwise

poem

4. your hand your and – preludes – + mockery

5. “one of all the – preludes – negative +

6. “do I the – Prufrock –

7. “I have out my with – Prufrock – + motif

8. “I have the hold my and – Prufrock – hope is

9. out of days” & blinds” – preludes –

10. “then the of the – preludes – break + motif

11. “the scraps” your of – preludes – symbol of as ‘sad’

12. I not – hollow – for Christians

13. with lips that would from to – hollow –

to afterlife

14. receive the of a man’s – hollow – meaning is

15. “for / for / for is – hollow – religious

is

hands laugh” juxtaposition time fragmented tenderness, thine attendant “stone stone” images… notion supplication

“burnt synecdoche fool” plosive life feet” dare images (metonym) Footman thinks is hand” symbolism establish

“wipe seen gentle, tenderness “about coarse prayers mocked grimy kiss spoons” dingy “you’ coffee suffering

cling: will efforts ends thine time enjambment moved consonants synecdoche desire life snicker” contrast is

imagery fancies shades” lighting measured repetition across “newspapers” “broken disturb dare dead mouth

paragraph meet” infinitely characterisation “trembling eternal universe?” broken the” curled “eyes redundant meaning

time” smoke” raising infinitely coat, lamps” smoky

 Eliot Quotes
Created on TheTeachersCorner.net Fill-in-the-Blank Maker

1. “for a hundred and for a hundred and before the of

and – Prufrock – sounds = uncertainty + longing for = isolation

2. “Till wake us and we – Prufrock – ideal will end in

3. “the up the and you heard the in the –

preludes – beauty is

4. “you had such a of the as the hardly – preludes – world doesn’t

5. “the of the – preludes – loss of

6. Midnight the – rhapsody –

7. “the which on her like a + “you see the of her twists

like a – rhapsody – to establish connection: life

8. “you the – rhapsody – ability to

9. “the of the – rhapsody – is worse than

10. “this is the this is the – hollow – to emphasise

11. “in this – hollow – al + impact

12. – magi – = journey

13. “the running and wanting their and – magi –

of flesh

14. “then at we down to a – magi – last stanza w/

15. “an clutching their – magi – return to find others to

death people sparrows dream valley” taking crept gods” dead cactus valley” men… pin” street itself anaphora

blackened “shakes toast create street” light hope hollow clutching relationships ignorance crooked personification

tea” “and”, land, contorted voices bib meaning polysyndeton eye juxtaposes street have visions recognise “but”

women” reality corner last human dawn grin” temptation door revisions, compromised shutters between reality

psychological key” alien camel spirituality twist gutters” reality land” temperate conscience opens came liquor

memory” understands” away, knife” soft drown” vision rhyme indecisions