T.S. Eliot Flashcards
Critical Study of Texts Module Sentence
By closely analysing the construction and content of texts, we can position ourselves to develop our own rich, personal interpretations of a composer’s work.
Prufrock “And would it have been worth it after all,…
after the cups, the marmalade, the tea,”
Hyperbole, all that stands out to Prufrock from his entire life is just breakfast.
Prufrock “I have measured out
my life in coffee spoons”
Explicit hyperbolic imagery which beautifully captures how mundane habits make up a good portion of one’s life.
Prufrock “There will be time”
Anaphora suggests eternal loop of mundanity.
Prufrock “Shall I part
my hair behind? Do I dare eat a peach?”
Succession of rhetorical questions amplifies despair amongst the mundane.
Prufrock “I grow old,
I grow old… I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.”
The stark contrast is cynical; he cannot escape the distraction of the mundane and face the big issues like mortality.
The Hollow Men “Shape without form,
shade without colour, paralysed force, gesture without motion”
The repeated antithesis is an intertextual allusion to Dante’s Divine Comedy, and is representative of Hell. Displaying the poem’s obsession with mortality.
The Hollow Men “Mistah Kurtz- he dead”
Allusion to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Being the opening line, It immediately positions a reader to be prepared for notions of death and mortality.
The Hollow Men “Eyes I dare
not meet in dreams In death’s dream kingdom”
The Hollow Men “This is the
dead land, This is the cactus land”
The landscape reflects, the inescapable, all-encompassing nature of mortality.
The Hollow Men “This is the way
the world ends; Not with a bang but with a whimper”
The Hollow Men “Remember us –
if at all – not as lost, violent souls, but as the hollow men, the stuffed men.”
Journey of the Magi Spiritual death
“Just the worst time of year for a journey, and such a long journey”
“There were times we regretted”
The death of old ways and traditions. He warns us to not expect instant gratification.
Journey of the Magi spiritual rebirth
“Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation”
“an old white horse galloped in the meadow”
Olfactory imagery and contrast to the cold of winter from previous stanza.
Oh no! they specified preludes…
“The thousand sordid images, of which your soul was constituted” – Moral corruption.
“The burnt out ends of smoky days”
“Sawdust trampled street with all its muddy feet”
