A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EZRA POUND'S IN A ..., Lecture notes of English Language

Download A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EZRA POUND'S IN A ... and more Lecture notes English Language in PDF only on Docsity! 108 | P a g e A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EZRA POUND’S IN A STATION OF THE METRO AND T.S. ELIOT’S THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK MAHRUKH BAIG M.Phil Applied Linguistics, “Lecturer English” University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. ABSTRACT Pound and Eliot’s satiric criticism on the new morality of the modern world is skillfully achieved in their famous poems, “In a Station of the Metro” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. This research paper is aimed at a comparative analysis of these poems, with particular regards to their thematic concerns and stylistic features. Key words: American Literature, Satiric criticism, Comparative analysis, Critique of the Modern World, Existentialism Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, two of the most prominent and prolific literary figures of 20th “None of us get out of here alive; if I thought that you could tell the world of my shame, I would reveal nothing, but since you cannot escape this hell, I might as well have a confidante.” century America, had seen all the limits of misery and despair in the world. They had been ‘in many a land’ to realize that there was ‘naught else in living’. The backdrop of the World Wars and 1930s Great Depression reflects an extreme sense of loss, dejection and melancholy in their literary output. Both, Eliot’s ‘Prufrock Song’ and Pound’s ‘Metro Poem’, deal with the similar contemporary issues in a critical tone. These poems launch a stark comment on the modern man living in moral world of immoralities, darkened with the evils of capitalism, hypocrisy, indifference, emotional and aesthetic downfall and social alienation. All these societal vices end up with the establishment of a fatal “USURA System” that sucks the life from man’s body reducing him to the level of cadavers; “Corpses are set to banquet/ At behest of usura”, says Pound. Eliot’s primary concern in the ‘Prufrock Song’ is that of the hell to which human being are subjected every day of their lives. The Epigraph to this song has been taken from Dante’s “Inferno”. Translated from the original Italian, the lines are as follows: 1 1 Calvin, K. (2001) ‘Glossary of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”’ (online article) DOI: www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/prufrock.htm This hell of Prufrock is not his alone; it is shared by every human being who ever lived. In Pound’s view this could be interpreted as the hell of ‘Usura’ in the modern world, from where there’s no escape for the modern man. The ‘faces’ at the ‘station of the metro’ that Pound comes across are all searching their way out of the material hell, however, they’re unable to pluck themselves off the ‘wet, black bough’. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EZRA POUND’S “IN A STATION OF THE METRO” AND……… MAHRUKH BAIG 109 | P a g e This hell of ‘usura’ has caused a definite sense of social-alienation and detachment in the modern man’s life. J. Alfred Prufrock, a vivid representation of modern man, is divided between two selves— “You and I”, the real and the social selves. This split personality of Prufrock parallels the alienated existence of the people at the ‘metro station’, scattered as ‘petals’. Lost in a ‘crowd’, they are yet alone, being detached from society as well as from their own true selves. The allusions to “wetness” and “yellow fog” in these poems are symbolic of the liquidity of modern man’s life. This fog signifies his mental state and indifferent attitude that doesn’t allow him to remove the vacuum from his life and have a clear vision of the humanity around. Man’s internal conflict due to the gap between his inner and outer selves is reflective of his social hypocrisy also. He’s wearing the masks to hide his real self in order to survive in a world of false moralities. Prufrock, the mouth-piece of Eliot, comments on the social face that is being used to kill the ‘true’ face of the man. “To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; / There will be time to murder and create” (Line 26-27), he says. ‘The apparition of these faces’ on the Metro station exemplifies Eliot’s critique on the masked-existence of modern man. These people in a ‘crowd’ are putting on false ‘faces’ on their real personalities. They have thus no energy to confront reality by cracking the masks of deceptive appearances. This split and alienated personality of modern man has not only generated an identity crisis in his life, but also has resulted in his reduction to a non-human lacking the emotionality and a humanitarian strength. For instance, Eliot compares Prufrock with animals like a cat ‘rubbing its back upon the window panes’ (line 15) or ‘a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floor of silent seas’ (line 73-74). Similarly, Pound views ‘these faces’ as an apparition, reducing them to the level of ghosts, highlighting the vagueness and uncertainty of their lives. Boredom is one of the most prominent characteristics of the modern times. Today’s man is bored by the decorum and routine of modern life, and can find nothing substantial to hold on to or no higher purpose to look forward to. His life is a monotonous whole in spite of the constant movement of ‘metro’ with which Pound compares it. The ‘faces at metro station’ and a persona like Prufrock epitomize the frustration and impotence of the modern individual. They seem to represent unfulfilled desires and modern disillusionment. Such phrases as "I have measured out my life in coffee spoons" (Prufrock: line 51) capture the sense of a bored un-heroic nature of life in the twentieth century. Prufrock's weaknesses could be mocked, but he is a pathetic figure, not grand or substantial enough to be tragic, so are the people in Pound’s poem as they could be called Eliot’s ‘Oyster-shells’ hollow from within, having no expression on their ‘faces’ like ghosts. Moreover, both the poems exhibit a definite sense of defeat and hopelessness, typical of modern man’s life. “In a station of the metro” compares train with a “wet, black bough” and since train is representative of life, the modern life thus is being called a dark, unproductive impotent branch with which the men are hanging like petals. The idea of ‘petals’ itself signifies the hopelessness and defeat of these ‘faces’ moving in a modern ‘crowd’, for the petals alone are of no productive nature unless they get assembled in form of flower. In other words, they are dead. Secondly, the grave-like image of the sub-ground metro station establishes the idea of lifelessness and bleakness in life. “Flowers underground; flowers out of the sun; flowers seen as if against a natural gleam, the bough’s wetness gleaming on its darkness, in this place where wheels turn and nothing grows”(pg.185)2 2 Kenner, H.(1971) “The Pound Era”, California: University of California Press . Likewise in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, Prufrock expresses a sense of defeat and hopelessness as regards to his quest for spiritual meaning and love in life. His inactivity and passive resignation is evident throughout the poem. “I grow old…I grow old (line 120)”, he says, expressing his hopeless approach towards a dynamic future life. In the end, being defeated, he gives up on love and