In ''Portrait of a Lady" music becomes one of the factors of attachment. Part one is beginning with contemptuous allusions to "the latest Pole" who broadcasts "the Preludes, through his hair and finger-tips." The dialogue of the piano performance of Chopin, "so intimate," transforms to "attenuated tones of violins" and "remote cornets" as the lady speaks. When the poem goes back to the voice of the man, those noises have been changed to flat "windings of the violins" and "cracked cornets." These not so positive attributes go on as he explains his ideas in the musical metaphors of a "dull tom-tom," "Absurdly hammering a prelude," "Capricious monotone," show the woman's voice has the displeasing, "out-of-tune," resemblance of a "broken violin." Eliot repeats "always”, “sure” and “feelings” to render this urge. As well as the "street piano," like the man's self-worth, is "mechanical and tired," it is no longer authentic, it will solely repeat "some worn-out common song." Eventually the music finishes, it ends with a "dying fall." Much like Eliot's early poems of social personalities, Portrait of a Lady broadcasts scenes of a lady in her small world. Even though the word portrait is in the title, the poem does not include a full picture of the lady. In fact, it only shows elements, the artist chose to illustrate. The title mentions an observer, and it is in fact, a man who gives his perception of the woman and shares moments from his finite perspective. This is best shown due to the reason that only a fragmented discussion instead of a continuous tale. In the first part of the poem it starts with “smoke and fog of a December afternoon”, then once in the second section it is said that the “lilacs are in bloom”. “October night”, men... ... middle of paper ... ...uses in, “Portrait of a Lady”, the eulogy ties the readers with an entire monastery of women’s deaths. “The ‘atmosphere of Juliet's tomb’ ties this poem to the tragic misunderstanding and death found in ‘the tradition’ of Shakespeare; in the external world, a ‘Greek was murdered;’ the lady speaks of a ‘buried’ history and alludes to her own death since she is one ‘about to meet her journey's end’”.(cite) When it comes to the man thinking of her death, at the end, is when he ponders how that result would ultimately influence him. “However, the central death of "Portrait" is that of the faltering relationship between the two” (cite). Works Cited Salzmann, S. Early and Late: Eliot Changes Style "Portrait of a Lady" and "Hollow Men". Undergraduate Review, 3, 10. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=rev
Despite the similarities between these two poems, Corso and Eliot shared little in common. Corso spent much of his early life between foster parents and prison, the latter being where he was introduced to poetry. Now credited as a key member of the “Beat Generation”, a group of poets who were opposed to social conformity and the traditional forms of poetry, Corso typically wrote poetry “on serious philosophical issues” (Olson 53). On the other hand Eliot’s upbringing was more traditional where he attended Harvard and went on to become a figure of immense influence in the literary world. Eliot’s first major poetic publication: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock bares many resemblances to Corso’s postmodern poem Marriage, a poem written to criticize the philosophical issues associated with marriage.
... “the Appearance of a Gentleman” (236). She then baits him with a story, insisting that he “cannot, when you hear my Story, refuse that Assistance which is in your Power to give an unhappy Woman, who without it, may be rendered the most miserable of all created Beings” (236). Furthermore, the reason Beauplaisir concludes that the Widow Bloomer will be sexually responsive is her description of her previous marriage: “From that she passed to a Description of the Happiness of mutual Affection; —the unspeakable Ecstasy of those who meet with equal Ardency; and represented it in Colours so lively, and disclosed by the Gestures with which her Words were accompanied, and the Accent of her Voice so true a Feeling of what she said” (237). By distracting Beauplaisir with his own visual appearance, the Widow Bloomer supersedes his masculine power through her own auditory power.
The poetry written by Thomas Stearns Eliot, Portrait of a Lady has a strong connection with the novel by Henry James. Both deal with almost the same issues. In the poem Eliot talks about how a person will live his or her life during the 19th century. How they would always do exactly what was considered right during that era in society.
The most obvious stylistic device used by Eliot is that of personification. She uses this device to create two people from her thoughts on old and new leisure. The fist person is New Leisure, who we can infer to be part of the growth of industry in the 19th century. He is eager and interested in science, politics, and philosophy. He reads exciting novels and leads a hurried life, attempting to do many things at once. Such characteristics help us to create an image of New Leisure as Eliot sees him.
Thomas Stearns Eliot was perhaps one of the most critical writers in the English language’s history. Youngest of seven children and born to the owner of a Brick Company, he wasn’t exactly bathed in poverty at all. Once he graduated from Harvard, he went on to found the Unitarian church of St. Luis. Soon after, Eliot became more serious about literature. As previously stated, his literature works were possibly some of the most famous in history. Dr. Tim McGee of Worland High School said that he would be the richest writer in history if he was still alive, and I have no choice but to believe him. In the past week many of his works have been observed in my English literature class. Of Thomas Stearns Eliot’s poems Preludes, The Journey of the Magi, The Hollow Men, The Waste Land, and Four Quartets, I personally find his poem The Hollow men to be the most relatable because of its musical allusions, use of inclusive language, and his opinion on society.
Form often follows function in poetry, and in this case, Eliot uses this notion whe...
The purpose of the present paper is to discuss a very interesting piece of art, Fra Filippo Lippi's “Portrait of a woman with a man at a Casement”. I will begin by the analysis of the formal qualities of the painting such as the composition, the color, line, texture, proportion, balance, contrast and rhythm. I will then discuss how the work fits a certain stylistic category. I will demonstrate that the painting reflects the social and cultural trends of the period in which it was created.
This poem by T.S Eliot is not all about a love song rather quite the opposite. This poem however may be interpreted in a different form as it is quite open. J. Alfred Prufrock who is the narrator of the poem is quite disappointed with the kind of society he lives in. Looking at different aspects of literature used such as imagery and the intended audience, one can easily tell the view of Prufrock on life. The interpretation the narrator has about life can be deduced to bleak, vacant and repetitive.
Other images of Eliot’s, in contrast, are much larger than Shakespeare, but again succeed in making Eliot’s character look small and insignificant in comparison. Eliot describes the enormous amount of adornments around the room, including her ‘vials of ivory and coloured glass’, which contain many perfumes, which are described as ‘drowning the sense in odours’ and again it is the lack of subtlety t...
In Henry James’s novel, The Portrait of a Lady, two characters, Madame Merle and Isabel Archer, discuss what constitutes the self. Madame Merle states that the things we chose to surround ourselves with, our clothes and our hobbies, are what make up one’s self. Isabel Archer states that nothing other than herself, her thoughts and feelings, expresses who she is. I agree with Isabel Archer that one should be seen for how one acts or thinks, but I also agree with Madame Merle that what we chose to surround ourselves with is an extension of oneself.
Eliot further portrays this disconnection from the industrialised world in his poem “Preludes”, in particular the deliberate break from the traditional scheme of writing. This change from the Romantic to the Modernist era is indicated through the form of his poetry in “Six o’clock”, “...The morning comes to consciousness”, “...Watched the night revealing” and”... Evening newspapers”, whereby the progression of the day indicates that the structure of the poem is segmented by time. From this, it is evident that through Winterson’s perspective of Eliot in “Needed some sort of membrane between himself and experience which for him became language”, Eliot is able to provide us with an insight of the modernist world around him through his use of language, meanwhile accounting for the sense of isolation or disconnection of the persona from the word around him. Hence, through the evocative use of the inconsistent rhythm of the progression with time, Eliot emphasises the breaking from the previous generations traditional rhythmic scheme of writing to establish a sense of discomfort and unpredictability as a result of the skips in line. From this, Eliot enables the audience throughout time to continually resonate with this idea of the shift in context from Romanticism to Modernism as they are the ideological
Written in two different literary periods “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning and T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” share various similarities with one another. While Browning can not be credited for inventing the dramatic monologue himself it was his fondness and skill for it that raised it to a highly sophisticated level. He also helped increase its popularity both with poets and the general public. His huge success with dramatic monologues served as inspiration for Eliot years later. Based on his work, Eliot was clearly influenced by the dramatic monologue style used by Browning. However, despite their similarities there are stark differences between the poems by Browning and Eliot. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” shows a clear movement away from the Victorian style found in “My Last Duchess” and goes towards Modernism.
“In Tradition and the Individual Talent”, T.S. Eliot affirms that the greatest writers are those who are conscious of the writers who came before, as if they write with a sense of continuity. T.S Eliot addresses literary tradition as well as poetic tradition, and states that it is important to focus on “significant emotion, emotion which has its life in the poem and not in the history of the poet” (18). In this sense, the importance of tradition in poetry relies on the fact that a poet must be aware of the achievements of his predecessors, for, as we shall see in the case of Stevens and Ashbery, “the emotion of art is impersonal. And the poet cannot reach this impersonality without surrendering himself wholly to the work to be done. And he is not likely to know what is to be done unless he lives in what is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past, unless...
Portraiture artwork includes painting, drawing, sculptures, medallions, and busts. Painting starts with painting the face, moves to the shoulders, then it includes hand gestures moving in different directions, the movement of eyes, communicating individual personalities and actions. The subject could wear clothes or not, be standing or sitting, and be individuals or a group, such as couple or a family. The painters can use oils, watercolor, pastel, or acrylic. Portraiture has different sizes; furthermore, creating a portrait normally spans about four sittings. However, according to (Simon, 1987, p. 129 & 131) some, such as Hans Holbein the Younger, one can make a drawing of the face, and then complete the rest of the painting without the sitter.
T.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 “The Waste Land, and “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, which all figure prominently in his poetry. These techniques in particular are used by Eliot to both enhance and support the purpose of his poems.