Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

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Preludes: 1910 - 1911 The poem is a series of four short verses written by T.S Eliot, published in his first collection; Prufrock and Other Observations. A ‘prelude’ is a brief musical composition played before the play. Eliot’s choice of this title suggests that the verses are of a small scale, seeking to capture something small, such as the details of everyday inner city urban living. (Interesting Literature, 2017) Written before World War 1, the work is a rejection of emerging modern life but it also makes comment that there is beauty in realism, resilience, and bravely moving on; this in itself creating an intriguing paradox. It is episodic through its structure of four parts; morning, evening, and the addressing of the reader in the latter two parts. Preludes develops the themes such as disillusionment with modern life, lack of belonging and a state of decay that Eliot would later focus on and develop in his other works. The poem acts as a ‘prelude’, an introduction to the ideas that Eliot would go on to explore throughout his literary career. Paradoxically however, Preludes also encompasses an anti-romantic view, in itself radical, as the poem details the mundane details of everyday inner-city urban living. Eliot changes the tone and narrative perspective on multiple occasions to emphasise the sense of dislocation and to imitate the episodic nature of city life. Stanzas one and two are impersonal and descriptive and set the scene for the final two stanzas addressed to the reader in a semi- traditional style, where there is rhythm but not in the order that would be found in older, more traditional romantic poems. However, they are not romantic in the subject matter because they are detailing the dirt of city life of the ‘grimy scraps’, the discarded ‘newspapers from vacant lots’, and also the decay of ‘broken blinds and chimney-pots’. The loneliness of the ‘cab-horse [that] steams and stamps’ is a metaphor that highlights the alienation of modern-man and the loss of sense of community; in itself a harking back to tradition. The ‘lighting of the lamps’ suggests a gathering is occurring, signifying the comfort of home. The spacing before this final line highlights the juxtaposition of the journey through the dingy streets, to the final refuge of home and family; both traditional images. The second stanza describes the beginning of the day and the resumption of the tasks of everyday existence. The morning coming ‘to consciousness’ personifies the routine of awaking to the daily grind. City people are waking to the lingering taint of urban life; the