T.S. ELIOT (1888-1965)

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FRAGMENTED WORLD = FRAGMENTED POETRY

THE WASTE LAND

First part: The Burial of the Dead

full of references and quotes from: the Classics; Dante, the Bible, Shakespare

MODERNISM

On the contrary CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY is depicted like a dry and sterile Land without water

There are many references to IMAGES conveying feelings and emotions of DEATH and DESPAIR

ex.: heap of dust, stony rubbish, sun beats, no shelter, dry stone etc.. (Lines 20-30)

LONDON

The inhabitants of modern London are spiritually dead and are compared with the damned souls in Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno) who live without praise or blame. there are only "sounds of death" , "sighs" "brown fog" ... (lines 48-60)

Before War Life was cheerful and nice (lines: 13-17)

OBJECTIVE CORRELATIVE

Frequently found in his poems

innovative technique created by Eliot: a set of objects or chain of events describe a feeling or emotion without naming it

Written in free verse no rhyme, free length of verse, free punctuation use of figures of speech (Paradox; oxymoron ...)

One of his main poems

MAIN THEMES we find in Eliot's poem:

LAST LINES : the DEAD CORPSE is connected to the image of the ROOTS at the beginning of the poem

like the ROOTS the CORPSE is unable to come back to LIFE (lines: 59-64)

Paradoxically WINTER is better because it "keeps us warm" and preserves "memory and desire" under the snow (lines: 1-7)

In which: SPRING "is the cruellest month" because it triggers "memories and desire" and it gives us only the illusion of rebirth in a "no man's land"

THE WORLD AFTER WAR IS A DESOLATED AND STERILE WORLD WITHOUT HOPE OR JOY

Depicted like an "unreal city" crowded by dead people, pessimistic vision gloomy city

The Burial of th Dead was also an anglican tradition

T.S. ELIOT (1888-1965)

No faith in contemporary society/ not identity/ no sense of bilonging no truth/ no certainty

He refuses traditional narrative sctructure

He was one of the main MODERNIST poets

He was a poet, playwright and literary critic

He was born in Missouri (USA) but he moved to England in 1914