T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

12
T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas

Transcript of T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

Page 1: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

T.S. Eliot: An American Poet

Abroad

Brief Biography

Eliot the Modernist

Prufrock Ideas

Page 2: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.
Page 3: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

Biography

Sept. 26, 1888

Thomas Stearns Eliot is born in St. Louis, Missouri.

1906-1909 Undergraduate at Harvard. Discovers Symbolists, including Laforgue.

1909-1910 Grad. Student at Harvard

1910-1911 Studies in Paris. “Prufrock” completed.

1911-1914 Continues Grad. Studies at Harvard

1915 Eliot becomes resident of London and marries Vivien Haigh-Wood in July.

Page 4: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

Biography (continued)

1915-1922 Eliot holds several jobs, including being a teacher, bank clerk and editor of the literary magazine Egoist and The Criterion.

1917 Prufrock and Other Observations

1920 Poems and Sacred Wood: Essays in Poetry and Criticism

1922 The Waste Land

1925 The Hollow Men

Page 5: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

Biography (continued)

1927 Eliot is confirmed in the Church of England and becomes a naturalized British citizen. Publishes “The Journey of the Magi.”

1930 Ash Wednesday

1939 Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats

1943 Four Quartets

1948 Eliot is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature

1950-58

The Cocktail Party, The Confidential Clerk, The Elder Statesman

1965 Died in London

Page 6: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

Eliot as Modernist

Break in Logical Sequence—to think in human way, like a stream-of-consciousness approach

Thick Language—layers/allusions/puns Inner (Psychological) Reality—perspective of

world from one person Impressionism—focuses on the the act of noticing

things in the world—how is it shaped, what is going on?

Juxtapositions—In The Waste Land, idea of forced multiperspectivism (like Picasso). In “Prufrock,” idea of shocking reader with contrasting images

Open Endings-some ideas unresolved/ also resists single-interpretation

Page 7: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is from a collection of poems titled Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)

Originally titled “Prufrock Among the Women”

“J. Alfred Prufrock” follows early form of Eliot’s signature: “T. Stearns Eliot”

As we read, we want to question what about this poem makes it a love song.

The Titles

Page 8: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

The Epigraph

These lines are taken from Dante's Inferno (all part of The Divine Comedy), and are spoken by the character of Count Guido da Montefelltro. Dante meets the punished Guido da Montefelltro in the Eighth chasm of Hell. He explains that he is speaking freely to Dante only because he believes Dante is one of the dead who could never return to earth to report what he says.

Page 9: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Translation

"If I thought that my reply would be to someone who would ever return to earth, this flame would remain without further movement; but as no one has ever returned alive from this gulf, if what I hear is true, I can answer you with no fear of infamy."

Page 10: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Biblical References

Matthew 14:3-11, Mark 6:17-29 in the Bible; the death of John the Baptist. King Herod was enamored of a dancing girl named Salome. He offered her a gift of anything she wanted in his kingdom. Salome's mother told her to request the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter. Herod complied.

Page 11: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock

"And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'"

"But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'"

"And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'"

"He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead'" (Luke 16:19-31).

Page 12: T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

“For everything there is a season, And a time for every matter under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; A time to seek, and a time to lose; A time to keep, and a time to throw away; A time to tear, and a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate, A time for war, and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).