Literature Essay
T.S Eliot was born in Missouri on September 26, 1888. He moved to England in 1914 and this is where he met Ezra Pound, who recognized his poetic talent and assisted in the publication of his work. His first book of poems, “Prufrock and Other Observations” was published in 1917 and immediately established him as one of the leading names in the “Modern Movement” revealing a new type of poetry that was segregated from the poetic tradition of the previous age. This new style of poetry criticised modern industrialised life and opposed the previous ideologies. Eliot’s religious background, being staunchly Unitarian, influenced this new type of poetry. It was based upon common sense and morality instead of mystical spirituality. He viewed the decay of religion, the source of culture and tradition, as the cause of cultural collapse. The Unitarian faith encouraged skepticism rather than belief and this instituted a completely new belief system for Eliot, shaping everything he wrote, from poetry to criticism. It also provided the foundations of his cultural and historical theories. As the 1920’s passed, religion became the key source for Eliot in dealing with personal problems. The last of the “Selected Poems” dealt with reverence, the soul, grace and revelation. Therefore, one can assume that these were ‘religious poems’. Eliot, did however, move away from religious themes to a more sordid and revolting kind of poetry, most evident in his “Prufrock and Other Observations” book. This can be further explored through his two poems “Preludes” and “Rhapsody on a Windy Night.” Both poems share a similar theme of city life and discuss subjective experience. Eliot portrays modern industrialised life as being artificial and “dingy.” The people in his poems are contorted and deformed and he creates them with a sense of emptiness. He believed that Western culture was a fragmentary mess and that people were becoming negatively affected by this new way of living. He portrayed these views through his poetry which harshly criticised the modern industrialised way of living and all its ideologies and values.
