Download Analyzing T.S. Eliot's 'Preludes': Depicting City Life and Changing Perspectives and more Study notes English Language in PDF only on Docsity! Compiled and Circulated by Samir Kuilya, Faculty Member, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College ============================================== SEM –III ( GENERAL) , Paper-AECC-3 CORE The poem “Preludes” was composed between October 1910 and November 1911 by the modernist writer T.S. Eliot and was published in Wyndham Lewis’s journal Blast in July 1915. “Preludes” is based on Eliot’s direct experience of citylife (Eliot spent most of his adult life in London) as well as literary sources such as Baudelaire’ “Crépuscule du Soir” and “Crépuscule du Matin” (cf. Jain, 1991: 63). The title of the poem suggests a musical term that is commonly defined as “a short musical composition on one theme, esp. an introduction to a longer piece” (OLD, 2000). Jain, however, emphasizes that the poem’s content rather represents an “antithesis to the Preludes of Chopin” as it reveals the “grim reality of city life”. At first glance, “The Preludes” may therefore appear to be a faithful representation of urban life as it is without irrelevant comment. The putative objectivity and detachment of the speaker are, however, deceptive, as everything in the poem is imbued with his perceptions and told from his perspective. The speaker is probably a flaneur who writes down what he experiences while walking in the city. Even by their mere presence the people in the street are made accomplice to this act of writing, but they are unable to read the text they help to produce as long as they are part of the walking crowd. The hustle and bustle of every day life has clouded their view to such an extent that they can only grasp fragments of reality. Compiled and Circulated by Samir Kuilya, Faculty Member, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College ============================================== SEM –III ( GENERAL) , Paper-AECC-3 CORE It will, hence, be relevant to find how the city and the city dwellers are depicted in the poem. What has provoked their limited view on the world and how can it be overcome? From which perspective does the speaker tell the events and how does this relate to his world view? Answering these questions, one can draw the conclusion that changing one’s mental attitude automatically changes one’s outlook on the world. As a result, the map of life becomes readable only for those who perceive the world holistically from a higher and more distant perspective which allows them to discover the true nature of things. In continuation of the discussion of the poem, I will proceed in a more or less chronological order. The first stanza envisions a lonely street in the evening drawing a connection between writing and walking. The 2nd stanza shows probably the same street on a busy morning illustrating the restlessness of the city dwellers as well as their lack of self-determination. In the 3rd stanza the street scene is left altogether, instead a single woman is depicted lying in her bed. In a state of expanded awareness she gains a superior view on the world. In the last stanza I shall indicate how the blindness of everyday routine hinders the rest of the city dwellers from noticing this sort of spiritual revelation.
