Thomas S. Eliot English Poetry Revision Notes Covering: - The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock - Preludes - Aunt Helen - from The Waste Land II. A Game of Chess - Journey of the Magi - from Landscapes III. Usk - from Landscapes IV. Rannoch, by Glencoe - from The Four Quartets East Coker IV. irevise.com 2016 1 TS Eliot Poetry English Revision notes.
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Thomas S Eliot. T.S. Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1888. He published his first poetic masterpiece, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," in 1915. In 1921, he wrote the poem "The Waste Land" while recovering from exhaustion. The dense, allusionheavy poem went on to redefine the genre and become one of the most talked about poems in literary history. For his lifetime of poetic innovation, Eliot won the Order of Merit and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Part of the ex-pat community of the 1920s, he spent most of his life in Europe, dying in London, England, in 1965. The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock Text The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock S io credesse che mia risposta fosse A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo Non torno vivo alcun, s i odo il vero, Senza tema d infamia ti rispondo. Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question... Oh, do not ask, What is it? Let us go and make our visit. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, 4 TS Eliot Poetry English Revision notes.
And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. And indeed there will be time To wonder, Do I dare? and, Do I dare? Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair (They will say: How his hair is growing thin! ) My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin (They will say: But how his arms and legs are thin! ) Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume? And I have known the eyes already, known them all The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? And how should I presume? And I have known the arms already, known them all Arms that are braceleted and white and bare (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!) 5 TS Eliot Poetry English Revision notes.
Is it perfume from a dress That makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin? Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?... I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep... tired... or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet and here s no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid. And would it have been worth it, after all, After the cups, the marmalade, the tea, Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me, Would it have been worth while, To have bitten off the matter with a smile, To have squeezed the universe into a ball To roll it towards some overwhelming question, To say: I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all If one, settling a pillow by her head Should say: That is not what I meant at all; That is not it, at all. And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while, After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor And this, and so much more? It is impossible to say just what I mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: That is not it at all, 6 TS Eliot Poetry English Revision notes.
That is not what I meant, at all. No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous Almost, at times, the Fool. I grow old... I grow old... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me. I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown. Summary This poem, the earliest of Eliot s major works, was completed in 1910 or 1911 but not published until 1915. It is an examination of the tortured psyche of the more typical modern man of that era overeducated, eloquent, neurotic, and emotionally stilted. Prufrock, the poem s speaker, seems to be addressing a potential lover, with whom he would like to force the moment to its crisis by somehow consummating their relationship. But Prufrock knows too much of life to dare an approach to the woman: in his mind, he hears the comments others make about his inadequacies, and he chides himself for presuming emotional interaction could be possible at all. The poem moves from a series of fairly concrete (for Eliot) physical settings a cityscape (the famous patient etherised upon a table ) and several interiors (women s arms in the lamplight, coffee spoons, fireplaces) to a series of vague ocean images conveying Prufrock s emotional distance from the world as he comes to recognize his second-rate status ( I am not Prince Hamlet ). Prufrock is powerful for its range of intellectual reference and also for the vividness of character Eliot achieved in writing it. 7 TS Eliot Poetry English Revision notes.
Annotation The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock (this phrase reveals Prufrock as narrator) S io credesse che mia risposta fosse A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo Non torno vivo alcun, s i odo il vero, Senza tema d infamia ti rispondo. If I believed my answer was to a person who'd ever get back to the world, this flame would keep still without moving any further. But since from those undergrounds no one has ever come back alive, if I hear what's true, I answer you without fear of infamy. (this quotation implies that the narrator is motivated to act by his fear of death and time, of time running out and it being too late) Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; (anaesthetized; not a particularly romantic image for the evening this couple could share) Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, ( then omitted when narrator repeats his urging phrase, suggests his sense of urgency) The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: (sense of romance s absence continues, possible settings for this evening seem seedy and thoughtlessly chosen on the narrator s part, as if anywhere will do once she agrees to go with him) Streets that follow like a tedious argument (dull and seemingly pointless) Of insidious intent (proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with very harmful effects; evocative of the manner in which the narrator is trying to woo his audience, and the impact his being successful may have on her) To lead you to an overwhelming question... (irony: this poem is all about what he asks of her, and yet he does not ask the actual question ) Oh, do not ask, What is it? (an innocent narrator might be embarrassed at having to ask; this narrator s character thus far suggests he doesn t want to have to ask, that he feels she should know what he wants without him having to spell it out) Let us go and make our visit. (request repeated for a third time; where are they leaving from?); (seems a euphemism for make love) In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. (hints at the speaker s setting, possibly a museum or art gallery, the Sistine Chapel?) The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, (windows could be of stained glass, with the sunlight creating the image of fog then smoke for the narrator; 8 TS Eliot Poetry English Revision notes.
smoke compounds the fog, suggesting the narrator is becoming more impatient at having to wait) Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, (this imagery is arguably zoomorphism, attributing the qualities of an animal to an object; the fading sunlight is portrayed as an animal, possibly a dog) And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. (the October night has fallen; the sun/dog is asleep ) And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; (Yes, the speaker is saying, the sun will rise again; tonight is not our end) There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; (switches from the acceptance of the previous line; here the speaker resumes his encouragement of his audience; she will be able to hide what they end up doing from others) There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; (some of the things life means to the narrator taking and giving life, working and socializing) Time for you and time for me, (suggestion that they can continue to be separate, even if they come together for this one night) And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea. (speaker returns to the more imminent present; all of this can happen before either supper of breakfast) In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. (repetition of previous stanza; the life of this setting is passing the narrator by. He is focused only on his insidious intent ) And indeed there will be time To wonder, Do I dare? and, Do I dare? Time to turn back and descend the stair, (speaker proceeds with the present, suggests that his audience could still change her mind, even if they leave the room together) With a bald spot in the middle of my hair (They will say: How his hair is growing thin! ) My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin (They will say: But how his arms and legs are thin! ) (narrator describes his own appearance; he is aging but is still relatively fit and well) Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time 9 TS Eliot Poetry English Revision notes.
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. (reminiscent of Hamlet s To be or not to be monologue; speaker weighs up the importance of choosing to act, and such a choice s consequences) For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, (suggests that the narrator has already been faced with choices to make in his life) I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; (the narrator seems bored by his life s routine) I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room. (narrator returns to the sentiment of the poem s opening quotation; death comes to us all, the time is now, etc.) So how should I presume? (nothing is sure in life, unless we make it so) To read more upgrade become A Grade member. Click here Get Unlimited Access Why become A-Grade member? Access unlimited Revision Premium revision notes Created by top class teachers and subject experts. Access revision content across a wide range of subjects. Access almost 1000 maths tutorials helping you understand, learn and approach maths questions to ace your exams. Access A Grade Sample Answers to help steer you in the right direction. Access mock exam papers (unseen) and marking schemes to help you continuously practice. Access revision notes any time any where Only 5.99 per month "My daughter was a member of mocks.ie last year, she found it great and excellent value. She got access to revision notes, A grade sample answers and exam papers. I would have no hesitation in recommending any parent signing their students up for the year!! All in all an excellent revision resource" - Sinead Leonard, Sligo." Get Unlimited Access 10 TS Eliot Poetry English Revision notes.
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