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how literature affects lives of people in society
how literature affects lives of people in society
how to t.s. eliot influence poetry
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Modernism was the time period between 1865 and 1950 that consisted of a change in the perspectives of how Americans examined themselves and their role in society. Many things occurred during these eighty five years that accounted for a great social change. Among these things were World War I, the Civil Rights Movement, prohibition, women suffrage, and the Great Depression. Particularly after World War I and during women’s suffrage, society’s standpoint on certain issues changed dramatically. After World War I, people’s attitudes swung with high expectations for themselves but were soon lowered after the economy’s fall. During women’s suffrage, society’s focus on simple traditions shifted to concentrate on more of urban culture. The Great Depression also caused major stress and hopelessness for the nation resulting in a time of despair for much of the world. Meanwhile, many writers emerged, such as Ezra Pound, e.e. cummings, Langston Hughes, and Wallace Stevens. These writers found themselves in a generation of consecutive movements. While having to sustain their creativity, they had to go forward with the seasons at the same time. Their works are characterized as “breaking away from patterned responses and predictable forms”(Reuben). Many of their pieces challenged tradition against new manners. The outlook of society changed from a moral perspective to fast times. Many people tended to look apart from average events that occurred in their daily lives to find greater reasoning.
T.S. Eliot is considered to be one of the most prominent poets and playwrights of his time and his works are said to have promoted to “reshape modern literature” (World Book). He was born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri and studied at Harvard and Oxford. It was at Harvard where he met his guide and mentor Ezra Pound, a well-known modernist poet. Pound encouraged Eliot to expand his writing abilities and publish his work. Eliot became an England citizen in 1925 and received the Nobel Peace Prize for literature in 1948. Eliot connected most of his earlier works to French Symbolists, such as Mallarme, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud and first came into contact with these three in college while reading The Symbolist Movement in Literature by Arthur Symons (Pearce). He created a eminent style that was original and new. He gained their ability to write poetry filled with wisdom while adding his ow...
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...earned rather than being passed down. . “Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour,” Eliot writes.
In conclusion, Eliot’s poetry connects to society by providing a window into individual thoughts and behaviors of that time period. Eliot was engaged with what kind of society we claimed and where we was going from there.
Works Cited
Eliot, T.S. The Complete Poems and Plays. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1971.
Keep, Christopher, Tim McLaughlin, and Robin Parmer. The Electronic Labyrinth. 1993. <a href="http://www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu/elab.html">http://www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu/elab.html. 24 Apr 01
Pearce, Roy Harvey. The Continuity of American Poetry. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1961.
Reuben, Paul P. “Chapter 7: Early Twentieth Century-T.S. Eliot.” PAL: Perspectives in American Literature-- A Research and Reference Guide. 7 June 2000. <a href="http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal.html">http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal.html. 24 Apr 01.
“T.S. Eliot.” World Book Encyclopedia. World Book, Inc. 1985. pp. 185-186.
...f course, this analysis leaves me with a glaring question. Why does Eliot hold onto the morality defined by Christianity after surrendering its God? Why doesn't she re-evaluate that structure as well, rather than holding onto it by transferring authority? Why bother dismissing God if the visible fabric remains static? Perhaps she's being pragmatic -- perhaps she fears anarchy in the wake of a passing God.
“Modern critics agree… that the novel has unity that its subject is an exploration of human aspiration and fulfillment by individual and social influences…” as a lining for various themes that Eliot uses through imagery and language. (Doyle 118) Beginning wi...
Eliot departed for Harvard in 1906, where he impressed many classmates with his social ease. In December 1908, Eliot found a book in Harvard library that changed his life. It was the symbolist movement o...
T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. ed. M. H. Abrams New York, London: Norton, 1993.
During T. S. Eliot’s time many of his contemporaries including himself were in the custom of alluding to classic works of poetry. They incorporated references to notable texts like Dante. Eliot especially is a main perpetrator of alluding. Eliot has the ability create a picture for the reader and provide historical context to his works. A contemporary of Eliot, Pound, once said you should try to “be influenced by as many great artists as [they] can” (Pound 95). Eliot is following what Pound said by incorporating allusions in his works.
"T.S. Eliot: Childhood & Young Scholar." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
...s, Colleen. The love song of T.S. Eliot: elegiac homoeroticism in the early poetry. Gender, Desire, and Sexuality in T. S. Eliot. Ed. Cassandra Laity. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. p. 20
Williamson, George. A Reader's Guide to T.S. Eliot; a Poem by Poem Analysis. New York:
The early poetry of T. S. Eliot, poems such as "The Wasteland" or "The Love Song
But the prevailing of his contradictions involves two major themes in his poetry: history and faith. He was, in his life, a self-described "Anglo-Catholic," but was raised a Midwestern Unitarian in St. Louis. Eliot biographer Peter Ackroyd describes the religion of Eliot's ancestors as "a faith [that] reside[s] in the Church, the City, and the University since it is a faith primarily of social intent, and concerned with the nature of moral obligations within a society. It place[s] its trust in good works, in reverence for authority and the institutions of authority, in public service, in thrift, and in success" (18). It is through Eliot's insistence of these "moral obligations" that his didactic poetry gives us a glimpse of both his outwardly rejected faith and his inability to shun its tenets. He becomes, through his greatest poetry, a professor of that which he supposedly does not believe.
T.S. Eliot is often considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th Century. Not only were his highly regarded poems such as “The Wasteland” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” influential to the literary style of his time, but his work as a publisher highlighted the work of many talented poets. Analyzing his poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” with psychoanalytic criticism reveals several core issues in the speaker of the poem, and may reflect Eliot himself.
T.S Eliot, widely considered to be one of the fathers of modern poetry, has written many great poems. Among the most well known of these are “The Waste Land, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, which share similar messages, but are also quite different. In both poems, Eliot uses various poetic techniques to convey themes of repression, alienation, and a general breakdown in western society. Some of the best techniques to examine are ones such as theme, structure, imagery and language, which all figure prominently in his poetry. These techniques in particular are used by Eliot to both enhance and support the purpose of his poems.
T.S. Eliot’s poems are mainly what got him famous. When “Murder In The Cathedral” was out there was a reviewer That actually said, “it may well mark a turning point in English drama.” When his poem, “The Waste Land”, got published he won a two thousand dial award. In 1954 he got the Hanseatic Goethe prize; Confidential Clerk. Two years later he got to lecture an audience of fourteen thousand people at the University of Minnesota.
Southam, B.C. A guide to the Selected Poems of T. S. Eliot. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1994.
...lore life and death in his poetry. He portrays significant themes of disillusionment and restoration. Eliot believes in restoring the bad having new beginnings. In conclusion, Eliot revolutionizes poetry to a new level and is one of the most prestigious poets to this day.