rhapsody on a windy night (1911) Flashcards
what are the key ideas/ contextual concerns represented in rhapsody on a windy night?
1) subjugation of individual agency to time and industrialization.
2) rejection of romanticism as a mode of conveying modern concerns.
what year was rhapsody on a windy night written? and what was the contextual concern in this era?
published in 1911, there was rapid scientific development in the 19th/ 20th century causing individuals to become fragmented, losing their individual agency (memory) to time and industrialization. this led to the destabilization of norms and how the internal sense has been disorientated in modernity.
what is a critic/ influence that Eliot took in writing rhapsody on a windy night?
Bergson: “our memory is nothing but what we hold onto to protect our own psyche”. Ts Eliot provides an alternate perspective of the concept of memory, that memory could just be fragmented collages of images that are reorganized according to societal standards.
what is a quote that represents the subjugation of individual agency to time and industrialization?
the time stamp and personification of the lamp “the lamp said..”, is a representation of the intrusion of mechanized time into our daily lives. ultimately, the lamp has more agency than the protagonist, conveying that modern industrialization is what controls the persona.
what is another quote that represents the subjugation of individual agency to time and industrialization (especially in everyday routines)
the accumulation of mundane images “the bed is open, the toothbrush hangs on the wall, put your shoes at the door, sleep, prepare for life”. this creates a set of routines, that demonstrate their lack of agency over their own time, memory & mind.
what are the 6 quotes you’re going to use for rhapsody?
1) “the lamp said..”
2) “the moon has lost her memory, washed-out smallpox cracks her face”
3) “the bed is open, the toothbrush is hanging on the wall, put your shoes at the door, sleep, prepare for life”
4) “the last twist of a knife” “twisted branch upon the beach” “twisted like a crooked pin”
5) “madman shakes a geranium”
6) “I could see nothing behind that child’s eyes”
what is a quote that represents a rejection of romanticism as a mode of conveying modern concerns?
“the moon has lost her memory, washed-out smallpox cracks her face”
the romantic symbol is juxtaposed with modernist imagery, associated with science and technology. this is metaphoric of romantic symbolism being sickened by society.
what are 2 quotes the represent the effects of subjugation of individuals to time and industrialization?
“madman shakes a geranium” “I could see nothing behind that child’s eye”
Paradoxes of a flower that can’t die become a paradoxical warning of the ultimate decay and effects of subjugation of individuals, morality in the modern age.
what is a quote that provokes disorientation in the audience?
motif of twisted images “the last twist of a knife” “twisted branches upon a beach” “twisted like a crooked pin”
provokes disorientation in the audience, that are all fragmented in its proximity to other poems, communications the ultimate incoherent narrative in modernity as a result of industrialisation.
