Section II : kim

Eliot gives the impression that there are two people meeting for tea – an older presumptuous ‘lady’ who, according to the first section, has invited a younger man to tea. She controls the conversation and relentlessly talks about life in relation to age: “What life is”, “youth”, one about to reach her journeys end”. Throughout this the reader is given the impression that the man is not interested in what she is talking about since a simple action: “(slowly twisting the lilac stalks)”, is enough to distract him from her words, and “I smile, of course | And go on drinking tea,” implies that he’s simply obliging her wishes by being there and ironically reiterates the line before “and smile’s at situations which it cannot see”. He describing her as “the voice” insinuates that the man isn’t interested in her as a person and is not looking at her given that ‘the voice’ is disembodied and by describing her as “the insistent out-of-tune of a broken violin” Eliot relates the man’s feelings of annoyance.

This reflects Eliot’s belief that his own society isn’t romantic or perfect, by containing personas that are plain and ordinary.

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prep for assessment

You guys need to do some serious reading up on Modernism, particularly in reference to TS Eliot's poetry. The essay will ask you to discuss what you feel his poetry is about, therefore a solid understanding of his life, context and influences will assist you form a personal understanding. Here are some links.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/tseliot.htm
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5664
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/18
http://www.gradesaver.com/author/t-eliot/
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/eliot.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernist_literature
http://au.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_781528555/Modernism_(literature).html
http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/modernist.html
Good luck! Read more...

Katie's Post (Stanza 2)

I wrote something, it's a bit long but you did say "approx"..



T.S Eliot gives the impression that there is a male and a female persona. It can be seen that the female persona is female as she is referred to by ‘she’, but as the poem is written in first person identifying the male persona is more subtle. We naturally assume the persona is male because T.S. Eliot is, but there is further evidence such as lines like “I take my hat” and “reading the comics and the sporting page” – things that women would be unlikely to do at the time.

Beyond this, we are given the impression that the woman is pretentious through her repetition of phrases, as in “ah, my fried, you do not know, you do not know”, and that she is old, as suggested when she refers to herself as “one about to reach her journey’s end”. She is also shown to be dominant, in the high modality of the language she uses and the frequent use of the second person pronoun, such as in “I am always sure you understand/ My feelings, always sure that you feel”.

The male persona, on the other hand, is portrayed as being disrespectful when he appears to be focusing on what the women is doing rather than saying – “(slowing twisting the lilac stalks)”, and through similie likens her voice to unpleasant music: “like the insistent out-of- tune/ of a broken violin”. Eliot also gives the impression that the male person in introverted as he frequently uses “I”: “I take my hat: how can I make cowardly amends”, while is also somewhat pretentious, as suggested in the line “I keep my countenance”.

The impressions given of these personas suggest that Eliot has negative opinions of his own society and believes that everyone is flawed. Read more...

I've decided to get you guys answering some questions on here in preparation for your essays. I'm going to assign you a topic and you'll all post on it, and build on what each other has said. You'll be divided into three groups to mirror the three sections of the poem. Each section builds on the previous one so you'll have different things to say.

What impression does TS Eliot give us of his two personas in the poem? How does he achieve these impressions? How might this reflect his ideas about his own society?

Group 1 will post on the first section, Group 2 the second etc.

I'll assign you a group tomorrow in class and this will before Monday (150-200 wds approx) Read more...

Just in case people didn't hear today...
When your core hw mentions the prescribed list of poems, we mean the ones you've been given:
Prufrock,
Portrait,
Rhapsody,
Preludes and
Journey of the Magi.
Just so you know we're unlikely to get to Magi before the end of term.
Thanks
Ms Race Read more...

Prescribed List???

Hey Miss,

Is there a chance of us getting that prescribed list that we're meant to chose our poems for core HW from? Cause its a bit hard when u dont know what u can choose from...

Thanks,

Taylor

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