After World War I, modernist writers caught a glimpse of the world around them and thought: “It’s all different now.” They noticed that whole nations were wounded. Men returning from war were trying to find their place in the world. Feminism was on the rise, women were earning wages, which took everyone by surprise, including Eliot as reflected in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. The themes changed. The way poetry was perceived changed. It was about time. Someone doesn’t earn a Nobel Prize in Literature for “outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry” in 1948 if they don’t keep pace with the constant vicissitude of society. TS Eliot’s writing style is characterized by his ability to cautiously use allusions, exegeses, footnotes and quotations. He used fragmentation in his poetry to juxtapose literary texts against one another. When it comes to topics, Eliot saw society as helpless and wounded, furthermore he visualized that culture was decaying, and he tried to capture that. As a modernist writer, Eliot was fascinated by the idea of symbolism, and consequently, this can be observed in his poems. Usually making use of symbolism using music, he juxtaposed lyrics from an opera by Richard Wagner with songs from pubs in “The Waste Land”. He believed that high culture, including art, opera, and drama, was in decline while popular culture was on the rise. So why is it that Eliot was cunning enough to become one of the most influential writers of all time? How
The Roaring Twenties, a time of economic prosperity and modernity swept many Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar “consumer society.” But with every high, comes a low and at the turn of the decade came the stock market crash ending the luxurious era as we know it. Thus, began the completely contrasted age known as the Dirty Thirties. These twenty years brought forward new inventions such as radars, jazz music, movies with sound all while the Modernism movement continued to transpire and thrive. Great works such as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, were famous modernist novels written thirteen years apart which showed the dreams and aspirations of different individuals in the
I. Introductory Paragraph and Thesis Statement Phillis Wheatley has changed the world of the literature and poetry for the better with her groundbreaking advancements for women and African Americans alike, despite the many challenges she faced. By being a voice for those who can not speak for themselves, Phillis Wheatley has given life to a new era of literature for all to create and enjoy. Without Wheatley’s ingenious writing based off of her grueling and sorrowful life, many poets and writers of today’s culture may not exist. Despite all of the odds stacked against her, Phillis Wheatley prevailed and made a difference in the world that would shape the world of writing and poetry for the better. II.
Peyton Williamson Professor Tanya Boler English 223301 March 23, 2015 Analysis of the Modern Connections Present in “The Love Story of J. Alfred Prufrock” T.S. Elliot was one of the most well-read literary composers and seemed to be his own endless book of literary references. His mind could simply make literary connections in a work without his actual conscious consent. There were times when his own literary works were made up almost entirely of allusions to other works of literature.
How to Live According to Irving Singer Throughout Irving Singer acclaimed trilogy, The Nature of Love, the viewer can observe how he unveils rich insight into fundamental aspects of human relationships through literature, the complexities of our being, and the history of ideas. In his sequel, The Pursuit of Love, Singer approaches love from a distinct standpoint; he reveals his collection of extended essays where he presents psychological and philosophical theories of his own. The audience can examine how he displays love as he systematically maps the facets of religion, sexual desire, love from a parent, family member, child or friend. Irving explores the distinction between wanting to be loved and wanting to love another, which ultimately originates from the moment an individual is born.
Do we really love what we do? In the article “In the Name of Love,” Miya Tokumitsu covers the issue that doing what you love (DWYL) gives false hope to the working class. Tokumitsu reviews how those who are given jobs ultimately cannot truly love what they do because of the employers who make jobs possible. These same employers keep their employees overlooked.
The idea that our actions could be meaningless is one that is not uncommon for one to ponder; though a troubling thought, it cannot be denied that once an individual is dead, their previous actions don't make any difference to things anymore. This idea is elaborated on by two great writers, William Shakespeare and T. S. Eliot. A universal theme about the futility of life is shared in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Eliot's The Wasteland. In Shakespeare's play, the main character, Hamlet, regularly has doubtful and somewhat nihilistic views on his life.
T S Eliot in a Nutshell • Biographical detail Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965), most commonly known as T.S Eliot is a towering figure of the twentieth century who has taken up various roles in his literary career as an essayist, playwright, publisher as well as a literary and social critic in English literary field. To add an extra feather to his literary achievement, Eliot was awarded the Order of Merit and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 for his immense innovation and contribution to modern day poetry. Though he was an American by birth born in St. Louis, Missouri, one of the members of an old New England family, Eliot declined his citizenship and settled in Britain where he became a British citizen in 1927. He died on 4th January 1965, at his home in Kensington in London and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. • Works
In T.S. Eliot’s work “The LoveSong of J. Alfred Prufrock”, he uses diction to give an underlying meaning and tone to his poem in order to express the downfall of a man. The author uses his diction to give this poem Its tone as if he regrets what he did in life. He also shows great tone changes in this work, giving this poem a dramatic, almost tragic outlook. Many of his word choices also give his work an underlying meaning and adds to his theme and messages. A large part of his poem is also using metaphors to add to this underlying meaning and give more force to this tone he is trying to create.
George Eliot is a novelist and poet of the Victorian Age, who strategically analyzed the behaviors of society towards women. This cultivated author originally named Mary Ann Evans went by the pen name George Eliot because of the way women authors were analyzed and treated during the eighteen hundreds. Mary Evans did not want her works to be mistaken for romantic novels or held to the biased standards of a female author. Over her years of living she wrote many psychological novels revealing the attitudes and treatments of society. Mary Evans of all of the people in the Victorian Age knew the treatment of the Victorian Society against women all too well.
Set in the 1920ies, individualism and materialism was on the rise (khanacademy.org, par. 9). The time period was also characterised by a post-war emptiness and cynicism (www.telegraph.co.uk, par.14). As such, the modernist story (Keshmeri & Darzikola, p 99) deals with loss of meaningful life, with the sterility and vacuity of the modern world and with the crucial
Comparative Essay How can different perceptions about one topic be expressed in poetry? The main theme that the two sets of poems convey is war, but it’s expressed in different point of views through the use of diction that builds tone. The tones of these poems play a big role in conveying the differences between the different eras that these poems are written in, and shows how societies have changed from the Victorian era till the time of World War I. The diction and tone in Borden and Owen’s poems is so much different than the diction and tone in Lovelace and Tennyson’s poems due to different perspectives and point of views. In all four poems the main idea is war, but each set conveys a perspective of war, a positive perspective
If this technique is compared to the technique in Eliot’s The Wasteland one can understand clearly the relevance of Movement’s post-war return to “rules” of English. The sudden shifts of tone and style, of mood and movement the reader experiences in The Wasteland and the problems he encounters in the quotations and allusions, will call for quite an effort of attunement on his part. The Movement writers were in rejection of the magnificent themes of modernist poetry.
Modernism was a period in the early twentieth century that often dates back to the publication of T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” This movement broke the traditional ways of form, concepts, and style found in poetry and allowed poets to freely express their ideas and beliefs through various ways such as free verse, fragmentation, allusions, imagery etc. T.S. Eliot is known for modernizing himself on his own by using fragments that incorporate multiple voices into his work. Eliot’s use of fragmentation and allusions in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and The Waste Land demonstrates his belief that modern society is disordered and chaotic and his realization that reality is too disjointed to understand. Fragmentation
“Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is bonded with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words,”(Paul Engle). Poetry covers all spectrums of life, whether it encompasses morality, love, death, or finding ones true self. When reading poetry one may stumble across pure brilliance, words so powerful they have the ability challenge the mind. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman have that such gift, and are nothing short of illustrious.
Modernist poetry refers to poetry written, mainly in Europe and North America, between 1890 and 1950 in the tradition of modernist literature. It is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional styles of poetry and verse. Modernists experimented with literary expression and form, stick to Ezra Pound 's maxim to “Make it new”. This paper examines different methods that Ezra Pound used to break the boundaries of traditional poetry and the techniques he used to pave the way for later poets. To