The Use of Imagery in Preludes by T.S. Eliot
In T.S. Eliot's poem "Preludes" he portrays the world as a dark and depressing with no future. His Imagery is sharp and clear and he exercises many techniques. He uses literal imagery, which is a clear description of what something is, so it can pictured it in the mind. His word choice is a big factor in that he uses words that bring a certain picture to the mind, he also describes humans by their body parts or their presence. His unique syntax and use of rhythm also heighten the effects of his poetry. His attitude towards this world is summed up in the last two stanzas. Eliot's imagery achieves its effect through his use of literal imagery, word choice, descriptions of the human influence, syntax, and rhythm. His attitude is one of total indifference, towards this world.
Eliot uses literal imagery in "Preludes". He doesn't use vague or hard to picture images. Since it is impossible to picture to picture "tasting desire", he would never use, "From what I have tasted of desire" which is from Robert Frost's poem "Fire and Ice". He uses descriptions like "[t]he faint stale smells of beer" (15). This image clearly brings a smell to your mind. His word choice is a big part of this. He uses words that bring clear pictures to the mind. For Example, the words "[W]ithered leaves"(7) gives a clear sharp image, as does, "... grimy scraps" (6).
Eliot also uses an interesting syntax in his poem. He makes inanimate objects the subject of his sentences, for example "The winter evening settles down / With smell of steaks in passageways." (1-2). He makes the winter evening the subject of the sentence, not the human presence. In "[o]f withered leaves about your feet / and newspapers fr...
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...sk since the beginning so why should he try to change it.
Eliot created a world full of images of dirt, ugliness and dankness. He uses many forms of imagery to get this across to the reader. He uses syntax, rhythm, description of the people's extremities and presence, word choice and literal imagery. His attitude though towards the world is very much indifference to it. T.S. Eliot wrote about a world that is solemn and hopeless. He creates such strong emotions in readers that they can feel the hopelessness of the world, through his imagery. His imagery makes the poem and should not be over looked.
Bibliography:
Work Cited
Eliot, T.S. "Preludes." Twentieth-century Poetry and Poetics. 4th ed. Ed. Gary Geddes. Toronto: Oxford, 1996.
Frost Robert "Fire and Ice." Twentieth-century Poetry and Poetics. 4th ed. Ed. Gary Geddes. Toronto: Oxford, 1996.
There are multiple examples of visual imagery in this poem. An example of a simile is “curled like a possum within the hollow trunk”. The effect this has is the way it creates an image for the reader to see how the man is sleeping. An example of personification is, “yet both belonged to the bush, and now are one”. The result this has is how it creates an emotion for the reader to feel
Everett, Nicholas From The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Ed. Ian Hamiltong. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Copyright 1994 by Oxford University Press.
Imagery is made up of the five senses, which are sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. The first sense of sight is seen throughout the whole poem, specifically in the first two lines, “I had the idea of sitting still/while others rushed by.” This sight she envisions is so calm and still and the perfect example of appreciating the little things that life has to offer. Through the use of these terse statements, she allows it to have more meaning than some novels do as a whole.
Each literary work portrays something different, leaving a unique impression on all who read that piece of writing. Some poems or stories make one feel happy, while others are more solemn. This has very much to do with what the author is talking about in his or her writing, leaving a bit of their heart and soul in the work. F. Scott Fitzgerald, when writing The Great Gatsby, wrote about the real world, yet he didn’t paint a rosy picture for the reader. The same can be said about T.S. Eliot, whose poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,” presents his interpretation of hell. Both pieces of writing have many similarities, but the most similar of them all is the tone of each one.
T.S. Eliot had very philosophical and religious meanings behind this poem, and that helped me relate personally very well with this work of his. He used allusions to other poems, letting me make connections with works I have read before. He also used inclusive language and had the same opinion as me portrayed in this work. Based on these, T.S. Eliot has convinced me of his messages in this poem, as well as made this by far my favorite of his.
Eliot, T.S. “Preludes” T.S. Eliot: Selected Poems. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1958. 22-4.
Ferguson, Margaret W., Salter, Mary J., and Stallworthy, Jon. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. fifth ed. N.p.: W.W. Norton, 2005. 2120-2121. 2 Print.
Throughout Preludes, the structural element of time is portrayed through images and sensations associated with daily actions. Points in time are made obvious through meaningless tasks; early mornings are defined by the raising of dingy shades and evenings by the "smells of steaks in passageways," (T.S.Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays [CPP], 12) and the lighting of the lamps. As the initial stanza begins, we are aware that evening is upon us. The notion of scheduled action is made through the reference of, "Six o’clock," (CPP, 12). Images of poverty and lower class filth set the scene and allude to "the burnt-out ends of smoky days," (CPP, 12) painting a disgusting picture of society’s surroundings. Deepening the feeling of emptiness, there stands a "lonely cab-horse," (CPP, 12) the first notion of actual emotion on a street of meaningless leaves and newspaper.
Imagery is a key part of any poem or literary piece and creates an illustration in the mind of the reader by using descriptive and vivid language. Olds creates a vibrant mental picture of the couple’s surroundings, “the red tiles glinting like bent plates of blood/ the
The recurring sensory images that Eliot uses appeal to the reader’s fear of the loss
Ellmann, Richard and O'Clair, Robert, ed. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, Second Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
“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...
Moody, Anthony David. The Cambridge Companion to T.S. Eliot. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994. 121. Print.
...mpossible to overstate Eliot's influence or his importance to twentieth-century poetry. Through his essays and especially through his own poetic practice, he played a major role in establishing the modernist conception of poetry: learned, culturally allusive, ironic, impersonal in manner (but, in his case, packed with powerful reserves of private feeling), organized by associative rather than logical connections, and difficult at times to the point of obscurity. But, despite the brilliance and penetration of his best essays, Eliot could not have accomplished so wholesale a revolution by precept alone. First and last, it was through the example of his own superb poetry that he carried the day, and the poetry will survive undiminished as his critical influence waxes and wanes, and as the details of his career recede into literary history.
...required a reinvention of poetics and the very use and meaning of language. Since the modern period is said to extend to this day (it's debated whether it's post-modern or not, since both elements survive), any final say on the matter is difficult. What can be said is that Eliot's poetry, as misinterpreted, misread, and misunderstood as it may be, is a quintessential cornerstone in modernist thought, a fragment in the puzzle, which may yield an emergent whole, though it may not be fully grasped.