Eliot's Pessimism: Imagery and Influence in Poetry

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imagery to compare life as “The Hollow Men” to Hell and endless torment. It is possible that compared to Vivienne’s vivacious and boisterous personality, Eliot felt as insignificant as the hollow men. He concludes the poem with “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper” (82). Such an ominous ending invokes both thought and sympathy in readers. The negative influence that Vivienne had on Eliot and his misfortune with women is maintained by his many sexually passive, shy characters, and tone. Eliot’s earliest poetry (The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Waste Land) consist of dramatic monologues and a consistent development of character. Eliot contrasts romance with his pessimistic tone, which illuminates the modernity of his time period. In poetry such as The Wast Land, published in 1922, Eliot abandons actual time limits and makes use of juxtaposition to give a surreal tone. He writes “And I will show you something different from either your shadow at morning striding behind you, or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust” (53). By speaking of both morning and night, and describing two different shadows, he fragments time and place, as influenced by his editor Ezra Pound. …show more content…

His mental state is confirmed when he remarks that his “nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. Stay with me. Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak. What are you thinking of? What thinking?” (110) Still recuperating from overwhelming stress and anxiety, Eliot successfully manages to express his weaknesses through his poetry. Throughout The Waste Land, Eliot mentions an “unreal city,” perhaps parallel to his own move to London. A crowd is described as flowing “over the

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