Gerontion by T.S. Eliot Essay - 1629 Words

History Over Nature: Effects of Revision in Gerontion After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions, Guides us by vanities. These lines from T.S. Eliots Gerontion (1429, 34-37) appear in the final version of the poem, published in 1920. The speaker of this dramatic monologue is an old man sitting inside a â€Å"decayed house.† The reference to knowledge invokes the original sin of Adam and Eve, signifying that the man (or society as a whole) has disobeyed God. Christ is no longer a symbol of forgiveness, but is instead represented by the fierce image of â€Å"Christ the tiger† (20, 49). In the absence of spiritual redemption,†¦show more content†¦The man describes an identical situation at the end of the poem, saying, â€Å"Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season† (76). The concept of nature as a source of order is based on its function as a cycle. The old man waits for the cycle to deliver him from his spiritually dry state to a place of fulfillment. But nature brings no change to the man and leaves him in the same arid condition in which he began. The failure of nature to p rovide a cycle is supported by the natural, stationary images in the poem, such as, â€Å"Rocks, moss, stonecrop, iron, merds† (12), and the â€Å"Gull against the wind, in the windy straits† (70), which shows nature forcefully impeding the progress of the bird, just as its lack of cycle reinforces the stagnation of the old man’s mind, body, and spirit. The idea of looking to nature to find order, or at least escape from a chaotic world, is seen early in Eliots career. In â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† ( [published 1915] 1420), the speaker, Prufrock, also finds himself alienated from the world. At the end of the poem, his monologue leaves the decaying city and disassociated society, describing a scene of natural beauty: â€Å"I have seen them [mermaids] riding seaward on the waves....We have lingered in the chambers of the sea/ By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown† (126,129-130). Through his imaginary escape into nature, Prufrock seems to have made a connection.Show MoreRelatedCan we conclude that T.S.Eliots ideas about culture are elitist and leave it at that?1759 Words   |  8 PagesEliot writes of culture as the way of life of a particular people living together in one place. That culture is made visible in their arts, in their social system, in their habits and customs, in their religion.( Milner, A (1994) Contemporary Cultural Theory: An Introduction. London: UCC Press.) A culture, then according to Eliot is one which is shared in common by a whole people, although he believed it was not shared equally between the people. Eliot divided the people into two groups, the eliteRead More Message of Hope in Eliots The Waste Land, Gerontion, and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock2426 Words   |  10 PagesMessage of Hope in Eliots The Waste Land, Gerontion, and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   Thomas Stearns Eliot was not a revolutionary, yet he revolutionized the way the Western world writes and reads poetry. Some of his works were as imagist and incomprehensible as could be most of it in free verse, yet his concentration was always on the meaning of his language, and the lessons he wished to teach with them. Eliot consorted with modernist literary iconoclast Ezra Pound butRead MoreAnalysis Of Eliot s Poem The Waste Land 1401 Words   |  6 PagesThomas Stearns Eliot, an American scholar, sophisticated, diverse, and also poetic genius claimed by both the United States and England, is the twentieth century s touchstone author. Thomas had a problem with religion, as noted by his poem â€Å"Journey of the Magi,† and eventually converted from Anglicanism (â€Å"T. S. Eliot: His Religion, His Poetry, His Roles†). First published in 1922, T.S. Eliot s poem The Waste Land is a major work of modern literature. His poem is written in the aftermath of theRe ad MoreCritical Analysis Of The Cocktail Party1100 Words   |  5 Pagesrealise their mistakes and to reconcile to live together again. Peter was assigned a job in Hollywood. Celia Copiestone chooses to live a religious order. She dies in a tribal insurgency. Her death evokes guilt and fertilises the lives of the rest. T.S. Eliots The Cocktail party is based of Euripides Greek tragic-comedy, Alcestis. In Alcestis, Admitus, the king of Thessaly, incurs a curse by god Artemes, and is destined to premature death. God Apollo, who is a 176 benefactor of Admetus, negotiatesRead MoreEliot s Poetry Of A Divided Mind2445 Words   |  10 Pagesourselves,† and Faulkner later added in his Nobel Prize Speech that good writing comes only from â€Å"the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself.† These insights are no more apt than when applied to the poetry of T.S. Eliot. Exploding onto the poetic scene in 1915, Eliot and his friend Ezra Pound were at the forefront of the modernist movement. They reacted strongly against the traditional techniques of the Georgians and others who came before them, who seemed to the modernists to be attemptingRead MorePower Behind Knowledge1413 Words   |  6 PagesAccording to the poem by T.S. Eliot, â€Å"Gerontion†, when an elderly man examines the political knowledge that he has gained from World War I, the damage done to an individual when he or she learns the inevitable changes the amount of curiosity that exhibit to the world is detrimental. Knowledge is perceived by different ages as an opportunity to learn more about themselves and the â€Å"world but in turn it causes more confusion and lower amounts of curiosity as they grow older† (Eliot). Similarly, the politicalRead MoreEliot as Dramatist1935 Words   |  8 PagesT.S. Eliot as a dramatist Introduction American-English poet, playwright, and critic, a leader of the modernist movement in literature. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948. His most famous work is THE WASTE LAND, written when he was 34. On one level this highly complex poem descibes cultural and spiritual crisis. The point of view which I am struggling to attack is perhaps related to the metaphysical theory of the substantial unity of the soul: for my meaning is