T. S. Eliot Flashcards
T. S. Eliot and the Symbolist City
Barry J Faulk
‘a linguistic and cultural babel, an urban jungle, and both the heart and frontier of empire’ - Joseph McLaughlin
City provided cultural spaces, of both high and low culture: the opera and the music hall.
Eliot’s early poems show a knowledge and enjoyment of the streets that is reminiscient of the symbolist flaneur. (Portrait of A Lady / Rhapsody on a Windy Night/ Preludes / Lovesong)
The Wastland City Quotes
Unreal City
A Crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
The human engine waits / Like a taxi throbbing waiting
The river sweats / Oil and tar
Highbury bore me. Richmond and Key / Undid me.
My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart / Under my feet.
What is the city over the mountains Crack and reform and bursts in the violet air Falling towers Jerusalem Athens Alexandria Vienna London Unreal.
