Analysis of "Preludes" by Thomas Sterns Elliot.

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Preludes

By Thomas Stearns Eliot

"Preludes" is a poem by T.S Eliot about what life was like in the beginning of the twentieth century. The poet pictured a typical city which represents all others in the western world. The pictures portray society as it is today lacking morals and ethics and fear of god which is religion.

The poet portrays his point in four parts. The poet introduces the technique of montage in which consecutive pictures that are linked are presented consecutively.  The first two scenes or rather images depict the cityscape as it is in the evening and the morning and the scenes in the third and fourth parts portray modern women and men. Through this poem the poet conveys his thoughts on the modern western society as it turned out to be in the beginning of the twentieth century.

Part I THE poem begins with the line “the winter evening settled down”. Here the winter and evening symbolize the dying part of the year and day respectively. It is an unusual way for a poet to begin a poem- it could have begun with a picture of morning but the poet deliberately doesn’t do so to set a decaying tone and create an image of something breaking down and decaying. This is how the poet sees the modern world. The city is crowded and smelly and congested. The word “smell” as in the line “with smells of steaks in passageways” doesn’t sound very inviting and seems like the smell of steaks is not very pleasant so we see that the poet is again trying to create an image if something that’s dying.

6 o clock is twilight time which immediately forms an image of the end of day and is an obvious image that indicates decaying in the reader’s mind. The “burnt out ends metaphorically refer to the end of the day. The word “smoky” strikes a negative image. The day is like a candle- looking at the evening, its how the poet feels about the day.  

In the next part of the first part the poet takes us to the areas of the city where nothing has been built referred to as “vacant lots” in the poem. The rain and winds causes the fallen leaves to wrap around your feet as in the line “the grimy scraps of withered leaves about your feet”. The poet doesn’t say fresh leaves but withered ones to cast an image of decay. The are old and dirty and not whole leaves but pieces of them along with newspaper bits. The line “the showers beat” introduces another image which is of oppression. It seems as though the shower is pressing down on something. It beats on blinds as in the line “on broken blinds and chimney pots”. Again these are broken blinds that reinforce the image of something decaying. Through the horse that is standing alone on the street the poet portrays an image of isolation. There is steam coming out of his mouth because of the cold weather and he stamps in an attempt to keep himself warm. Thus the modern world and man is portrayed through the images of decay, oppression and isolation.

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There is no obvious reference to any human here except when the poet says “feet” and when someone comes out and lights the lamps in the evening as in the line “and then the lightening of the lamp”.

Part II IN this part the cityscape is portrayed as in appears in the morning. It seems as though the people were unconscious previously (through out the night). This, along with the smell of beer, which is mentioned in the line “the morning came to consciousness to faint stale smells of beer”, reinforces the idea that the people didn’t know ...

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This essay makes some very good points and analyses language well. I would like to see further exploration of structure and tome and consideration of these points alongside the observations made on language. Some contextual factors are considered which is good and they could be developed further at points in the essay. 4 Stars