Evaluate the contribution of T.S. Eliot as a modern poet
A Great Modernist Poet
T.S. Eliot, along with Ezra Pound and James Joyce, was one of the leading figures among people associated with English-language modernism. The group of these literary men was known as 'Men of 1914' and their guiding mantra was 'Make It New'.
The years between the two World Wars (1919-1939) witnessed prolific poetic activity. It was a period when tradition and innovation went side by side. The poetry during this period was experimental, irregular and difficult.
The modern poets used a kind of language which was without grammar or syntax. They used unconventional images. They condemned the romantic idea of poetry. T.S. Eliot was undoubtedly the greater representative of this period, and therefore he has been regarded as the greatest of the modern poets.
His Theory of Poetry: Tradition and Individual Talent
Eliot is the champion of the impersonal theory of poetry. He rejects the Romantic theory of personal poetry formulated by Wordsworth. According to him, "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality."
To achieve impersonality, Eliot offers two methods. First, the poet should surrender himself to 'tradition'. Secondly, the poet should seek an 'objective correlative' so that he may objectify his personal feelings and impressions.
Eliot's idea of unification of sensibility also has an important place in his theory of poetry. It means that the poet should feel his thoughts. The fusion of thought and feeling, he says, is the mark of good poetry.
In addition to these, the poet should also use his individual talent in his poetry. Eliot's concepts exercised a great influence on contemporary poets and paved the way for modern poetry as we know it today. Thus, through his critical theories, Eliot changed the existing mode of poetry. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a fine example of the application of Eliot's theories in poetry.
His Classicism
Eliot is a thoroughgoing 'classicist' as a poet and a critic. He was a great scholar of the classics. He developed his own principles of classicism. He wanted to bring order and design back to poetry. For him, poetry was not inspiration, but an organization, not the 'spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings', but the artistic pattern of emotions.
To achieve this controlled expression of emotion, emotion and intellect should, be united together. His recommendation of 'tradition' and impersonality in poetry are also the components of his classicism. He was against romanticism. In the poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, the central character fails in his love affair because he is a romantic.
His Use of Imagery: Unification of Sensibility
Eliot was a staunch admirer of Ezra Pound who was one of the exponents of the poetic movement called 'Imagism' From Pound he learnt the use of visual, concrete, suggestive, appropriate, clear, precise and definite poetic images. A close study of Eliot's imagery is essential to understanding his poetry.
Like the Imagist poets, he is always concrete. His pictures are clearly realized and based on close and accurate observation. For Eliot, images are the means for the 'unification of sensibility'. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is full of a variety of images. Thus, we have images of living creatures, images drawn from the superficial city life.
But in each case, Eliot's images are raised to the height of poetic intensity. His images at once remind us of those of the Metaphysical poets. For example, in the opening lines of the poem we have the following image which is in the nature of a metaphysical conceit:
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table.
In the above lines, the relationship between the evening and Prufrock's mind is effectively conveyed. Then we have another beautiful image which describes Prufrock's helplessness and mental suffering when he faces his beloved:
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin ....?
Use of Symbols
The use of symbols is another conspicuous feature of Eliot's poetry. In his symbolism, he was highly influenced by the pioneers of the French symbolist movement like Laforgue, Mallarme, Verlaine, Baudelaire and others. These symbolists exploited an order of private symbols in a poetry of rich suggestiveness. They aimed for a poetry of rich suggestion rather than of direct statements.
In the manner of French symbolists, Eliot uses private symbols, but he also uses traditional symbols. He has been regarded as "the giant of personal symbolism". He uses highly suggestive words ds and phrases.
In his essay on The Metaphysical Poets. Eliot writes that "our our civilization comprehends great variety and complexity" and to express this 'variety and complexity' the poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force language into his meaning.
That is the reason why Eliot uses symbols. In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Eliot uses symbols to express the barrenness, mental tension, frustration and irresolution of the modern man. For him, symbols are the medium by means of which he transmutes his ideas into sensations.
Use of Allusions, References and Quotations
Eliot writes in a poetic style that is very elusive. He makes ample use of references to ancient mythology and past literature. Moreover, he also quotes from literary works. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is loaded with allusions, references and quotations. Just before the English text of the poem begins, we have a Latin quotation taken from Dante's Inferno, Canto 27. It reads:
If I thought my answer were to one who could return to the world,
this flame would shake no more,
but since no one ever did return alive from this depth,
if what I hear be true, I answer thee without fear of infamy.
The line, "I have seen my head brought in upon a platter", refers to the story of John the Baptist in the Bible. Then we have a reference to Lazarus, the poor beggar in the Bible. This is followed by the reference to Hamlet, the prince of Denmark:
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be.
Language, Diction and Verification
As a poet, Eliot was a great craftsman with style and diction. His place in the history of English poetry is secured chiefly on the basis of the fact that he developed a new poetic technique. His use of language is characterised by precision, economy, compression, variety and appropriateness.
He had a rare command over words which he chose with great care. The range of his diction is remarkable. He had a natural gift for memorable phrases. Eliot adopted a purely contemporary idiom for his poetry. the language of common conversation is scattered throughout a number of his poems. Here is an example from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock :
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap around a shawl,
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?
Sometimes, Eliot's poems produce a powerful effect by the repetition of certain words and phrases. In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, we have a number of examples of refrains which are repeated in the poem:
1. In the room the women come and go Talking about Michelangelo.
2. There will be time....,
3. Then how should I begin? And how should I presume?
4. "That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all."
5. Would it have been worthwhile......
Eliot rejected the traditional verse forms and rhythms. In his poetry, he employed irregular verse with lines of unequal length and metre. Most of his poems are written in verse libre, which is also known as the free verse.
In The Love Song, the metrical base is iambic. The rhymes come at irregular intervals. The conventional five-foot iambic verse is freely varied and broken in order to give a faithful picture of Prufrock's mind. The rhymes are mostly functional. Take, for example, the following lines:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent….
In the above lines, the word 'tedious' rhymes with 'insidious', and 'argument' with 'intent'. Such rhymes serve to intensify the meaning.
Eliot's Contemporaneity: His Place as a Poet
T.S. Eliot is essentially a poet with a modern sensibility. He has given expression to the dominant anxieties and feelings of contemporary European civilization. His poems represent him as the poet of urban landscapes, social tensions, disillusionment and frustration, spiritual barrenness and materialism.
According to John Berryman, The Lover Song is "the archetypal monument of poetic modernity in English." At the end of his life, Eliot noted that he would "perhaps have a certain historic place in the history of our period".
It will be more truthful to say that the literary history of the first half of the 20th century has been largely shaped by and around T.S. Eliot. His influence on modern literature has been profound and unquestionable. Thus, it may be concluded that Eliot is the greatest literary figure of the twentieth century. He has influenced the course of modern literature more than any other contemporary writer.
