1. Thomas Stearns Eliot (1885-1965)

2. T. S. Eliot (1885-1965)  He was a quite important figure in the Western literature.  He once has been the leading figure at the beginning of the last century in poetry and also in literary criticism (New Criticism).

3. New Criticism  New Criticism emphasizes explication, or "close reading," of "the work itself." It rejects old historicism's attention to biographical and sociological matters. Instead, the objective determination as to "how a piece works" can be found through close focus and analysis, rather than through extraneous and erudite special knowledge.  It is a type of formalist current of literary theory that dominated Anglo-American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object.

4. A Brief Biography T.S. Eliot was born in 1888 in St. Louis. He was one of the son of a prominent industrialist who came from a well- connected Boston family. Eliot always felt the loss of his family’s New England roots and seemed to be somewhat ashamed of his father’s business success; throughout his life he continually sought to return to Anglo- Saxon culture, first by attending Harvard and then by emigrating to England, where he lived from 1914 until his death.

5. A brief biography (continued) Eliot began graduate study in philosophy at Harvard and completed his dissertation. However, he didn’t received the degree for the outbreak of W W Ⅰ. Eliot met Ezra Pound in 1914 who became his main mentor and editor lately as well as edited and published Eliot’s The Waste Land. From then on Eliot began to write criticism, partly in an effort to explain his own methods.

6. A brief biography In 1925, Eliot went to work for the publishing house Faber & Faber. In the later 1920s Eliot became interested in religion and eventually converted to Anglicanism. Eliot died in 1965 in London.

7. Summary of His Biography (1)born in St. Louis in Missouri (2)cultured parents and wealthy family; good education (3)graduated from Harvard; M. A. degree (4)came to Europe for research; stayed in England because of WWI (5)first worked as a bank clerk and then an editor (6)in 1927, became an English citizen; won Nobel Prize in 1948

8. Eliot’s Poems “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915) “The Waste Land” (1922) “The Hollow Man” (1925) “Ash- Wednesday” (1930) “Four Quartets” (1935-1942)

9. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock  Prufrock is a representative character who cannot reconcile his thoughts and understanding with his feelings and will.  The poem displays several levels of irony, the most important of which grows out of the vain, weak man's insights into his sterile life and his lack of will to change that life.  The poem is full of images of enervation and paralysis, such as the evening described as "etherized," immobile. Prufrock understands that he and his associates lack authenticity. One part of himself would like to startle them out of their meaningless lives, but to accomplish this he would have to risk disturbing his "universe," being rejected.  The latter part of the poem captures his sense defeat for failing to act courageously.  Eliot helped to set the modernist fashion for blending references to the classics with the most sordid type of realism, then expressing the blend in majestic language which seems to mock the subject.

10. The beginning epigraph  S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse  A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,  Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.  Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo  Non torno vivo alcun, s'i'odo il vero,  Senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo. Meaning 

11. The epigraph comes from the Inferno of Dante's Divine Comedy (XXVII, 61-66). Count Guido da Montefeltro, embodied in a flame, replies to Dante's question about his identity as one condemned for giving lying advice: "If I believed that my answer would be to someone who would ever return to earth, this flame would move no more, but because no one has ever returned alive from this gulf, if what I hear is true, I can reply with no fear of infamy."

12. Explanation of the Title  T. S. Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) originally entitled this poem "Prufrock Among the Women." He changed the title to "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" before publishing the poem in Poetry magazine in 1915.  The words "Love Song" seem apt, for one of the definitions of love song is narrative poem. And, of course, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a narrative, presenting a moment in the life of the title character. It is also a poem. In addition, the work has characteristics of most love songs, such as repetition (or refrain), rhyme, and rhythm. It also focuses on the womanly love that eludes Prufrock.

13. Type of Work: Dramatic Monologue  A modernistic poem in the form of a dramatic monologue.modernistic  A dramatic monologue presents a moment in which a narrator/speaker discusses a topic and, in so doing, reveals his personal feelings to a listener. Only the narrator, talks—hence the term monologue, meaning "single (mono) discourse (logue)." During his discourse, the speaker intentionally and unintentionally reveals information about himself. The main focus of a dramatic monologue is this personal information, not the speaker's topic. Therefore, a dramatic monologue is a type of character study.

14. The Speaker/Narrator  The poem centers on a balding, insecure middle- aged man. He expresses his thoughts about the dull, uneventful, mediocre life he leads as a result of his feelings of inadequacy and his fear of making decisions. Unable to seize opportunities or take risks (especially with women), he lives in a world that is the same today as it was yesterday and will be the same tomorrow as it is today. He does try to make progress, but his timidity and fear of failure inhibit him from taking action.

15. Setting  The action takes place in the evening in a bleak section of a smoky city. This city is probably St. Louis, where Eliot (1888-1965) grew up. But it could also be London, to which Eliot moved in 1914. However, Eliot probably intended the setting to be any city anywhere.

16. Characters  J. Alfred Prufrock: The speaker/narrator, a timid, overcautious middle- aged man. He escorts his silent listener through streets in a shabby part of a city, past cheap hotels and restaurants, to a social gathering where women he would like to meet are conversing. However, he is hesitant to take part in the activity for fear of making a fool of himself.  The Listener: An unidentified companion of Prufrock. The listener could also be Prufrock's inner self, one that prods him but fails to move him to action.  The Women: Women at a social gathering. Prufrock would like to meet one of them but worries that she will look down on him.  The Lonely Men in Shirtsleeves: Leaning out of their windows, they smoke pipes. They are like Prufrock in that they look upon a scene but do not become part of it. The smoke from their pipes helps form the haze over the city, the haze that serves as a metaphor for a timid cat— which is Prufrock.

17. Themes  Loneliness and Alienation: Prufrock is a pathetic man whose anxieties and obsessions have isolated him.  Indecision: Prufrock resists making decisions for fear that their outcomes will turn out wrong.  Inadequacy: Prufrock continually worries that he will make a fool of himself and that people will ridicule him for his clothes, his bald spot, and his overall physical appearance.  Pessimism: Prufrock sees only the negative side of his own life and the lives of others.

18. Interpretation of this Poem  Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats 5 Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster- shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question … 10 Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit.  The speaker invites the listener to walk with him into the streets on an evening that resembles a patient, anesthetized with ether (physicians used ether to render patients unconscious before an operation), lying on the table of a hospital operating room. The imagery suggests that the evening is lifeless and listless. The speaker and the listener will walk through lonely streets—the business day has ended—past cheap hotels and restaurants with sawdust on the floors. (Sawdust was used to absorb spilled beverages and food, making it easy to sweep up at the end of the day.) The shabby establishments will remind the speaker of his own shortcomings, their images remaining in his mind as he walks on. They will then prod the listener to ask the speaker a question about the speaker's life—perhaps why he visits these seedy haunts, which are symbols of his life, and why he has not acted to better himself or to take a wife.

19. Interpretation of this Poem  In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.  At a social gathering in a room, women discuss the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo. Prufrock may wonder how they could possibly be interested in him when they are discussing someone as illustrious as Michelango.

20. Interpretation of this Poem  The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, 15 The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, 20 And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.  Smoky haze spreads across the city. The haze is like a quiet, timid cat padding to and fro, rubbing its head on objects, licking its tongue, and curling up to sleep after allowing soot to fall upon it. The speaker resembles the cat as he looks into windows or into "the room," trying to decide whether to enter and become part of the activity. Eventually, he curls up in the safety and security of his own soft arms—alone, separate. What this stanza means is that Prufrock feels inferior and is unable to act decisively. He consigns himself to corners, as a timid person might at a dance; stands idly by doing nothing, as does a stagnant pool; and becomes the brunt of ridicule or condescension (the soot that falls on him).

21. Interpretation of this Poem  And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window- panes; 25 There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; 30 Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea.  There's no hurry, though, the speaker tells himself. There will be time to decide and then to act— time to put on the right face and demeanor to meet people. There will be time to kill and time to act; in fact, there will be time to do many things. There will even be time to think about doing things—time to dream and then revise those dreams—before sitting down with a woman to take toast and tea.

22. Interpretation of this Poem  In the room the women come and go 35 Talking of Michelangelo.  The women are still coming and going, still talking of Michelangelo, suggesting that life is repetitive and dull.

23. Interpretation of this Poem  And indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair— 40 [They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin— [They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”] Do I dare 45 Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.  Prufrock says there will be time to wonder whether he dares to approach a woman. He feels like turning back. After all, he has a bald spot, thinning hair, and thin arms and legs. Moreover, he has doubts about the acceptability of his clothing. What will people think of him? Does he dare to approach a woman? He will think about it and make a decision, then reverse the decision.

24. Interpretation of this Poem  For I have known them all already, known them all:— Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, 50 I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume?  Prufrock realizes that the people here are the same as the people he has met many times before— the same, uninteresting people in the same uninteresting world. They all even sound the same. So why should he do anything?

25. Interpretation of this Poem  And I have known the eyes already, known them all— 55 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 To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? 60 And how should I presume?  He has seen their gazes before, many times—gazes that form an opinion of him, treating him like a butterfly or another insect pinned into place in a display. How will he be able to explain himself to them—the ordinariness, the mediocrity, of his life?

26. Interpretation of this Poem  And I have known the arms already, known them all— Arms that are braceleted and white and bare [But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!] It is perfume from a dress 65 That makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin?  Yes, he has known women like these before, wearing jewelry but really bare, lacking substance. Why is he thinking about them? Perhaps it is the smell of a woman's perfume.

27. Interpretation of this Poem  Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets 70 And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt- sleeves, leaning out of windows? I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.  Will he tell a woman that he came through narrow streets, where lonely men (like Prufrock) lean out of windows watching life go by but not taking part in it? He should have been nothing more than crab claws in the depths of the silent ocean.

28. Interpretation of this Poem  And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! 75 Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep … tired … or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? 80 But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, 85 And in short, I was afraid.  The time passes peacefully. It is as if the afternoon/evening is sleeping or simply wasting time, stretched out on the floor. Should the speaker sit down with someone and have dessert—should he take a chance, make an acquaintance, live? Oh, he has suffered; he has even imagined his head being brought in on a platter, like the head of John the Baptist. Of course, unlike John, he is no prophet. He has seen his opportunities pass and even seen death up close, holding his coat, snickering. He has been afraid.

29. Interpretation of this Poem  And would it have been worth it, after all, After the cups, the marmalade, the tea, Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me, Would it have been worth while, 90 To have bitten off the matter with a smile, To have squeezed the universe into a ball To roll it toward some overwhelming question, To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”— 95 If one, settling a pillow by her head, Should say: “That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all.”  Would it have been worth it for the speaker while drinking tea to try to make a connection with one of the women? Would it have been worth it to arise from his lifeless life and dare to engage in conversation with a woman, only to have her criticize him or reject him.

30. Interpretation of this Poem  And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while, 100 After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor— And this, and so much more?— It is impossible to say just what I mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: 105 Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: “That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all.”  Would it have been worth it, considering all the times he would be with the woman at sunset or with her in a dooryard? Would it have been worth it after all the mornings or evenings when workmen sprinkled the streets (see sprinkled streets, below), after all the novels he would discuss with her over tea, after all the times he heard the drag of her skirt along the floor, after so many other occasions? Would it have been worth it if, after plumping a pillow or throwing off her shawl, she turned casually toward a window and told him that he was mistaken about her intentions toward him? sprinkled streets, below

31. Interpretation of this Poem  No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, 115 Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous— Almost, at times, the Fool.  Prufrock and Hamlet (the protagonist of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark) are both indecisive. But Prufrock lacks the majesty and charisma of Hamlet. Therefore, he fancies himself as Polonius, the busybody lord chamberlain in Shakespeare's play.Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

32. Interpretation of this Poem  I grow old … I grow old … 120 I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. 16 Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. 17 I do not think that they will sing to me. 125 18 I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. 19 We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown 130 Till human voices wake us, and we drown.  The speaker realizes that time is passing and that he is growing old. However, like other men going through a middle-age crisis, he considers changing his hairstyle and clothes. Like Odysseus in the Odyssey, he has heard the song of the sirens. However, they are not singing to him. Odyssey

33. The Waste Land Section Ⅰ : The Burial of the Dead Section Ⅱ : A Game of Chess Section Ⅲ : The Fire Sermon Section Ⅳ : Death by Water Section Ⅴ : What the Thunder Said

34. The Burial of the Dead  It is made up of four vignettes, each seemingly from the perspective of a different speaker.  The first is an autobiographical snippet from the childhood of an aristocratic woman.  The second is a prophetic, apocalyptic( 【宗】启示的， 天启的 ) invitation to journey into a desert waste.  The third describes an imaginative reading.  The fourth is the most surreal in which the speaker asks a ghostly figure about the fate of a corpse planted in his garden.

35. Form Form of Burial of the Dead This section can be seen as a modified dramatic monologue. The four speakers in this section are frantic in their need to speak, to find an audience, but they find themselves surrounded by dead people and thwarted by outside circumstances, like wars. Because the sections are so short and the situations so confusing, the effect is not one of an overwhelming impression of a single character; instead, the reader is left with the feeling of being trapped in a crowd, unable to find a familiar face.

36. Commentary The poet lives in a culture that has decayed and withered but will not expire, and he is forced to live with reminders of its former glory. The plot of the poem revolves two influential contemporary cultural/ anthropological texts, Jessie Weston’s From Ritual to Romance and Sir James Frazier’s The Golden Bough. Both of these works focus on the persistence of ancient fertility rituals in modern thought and religion; of particular interest to both authors is the story of the Fisher King.

37. Commentary (continued) Eliot provides copious footnotes that is an excellent source for tracking down the origins of a reference. Many of the references are from the Bible.

38. Commentary (continued) Memory in the first episode creates a confrontation of the past with the present, a juxtaposition that points out just how badly things have decayed. The second contains a troubled religious proposition. The speaker describes a true wasteland of “stony rubbish”. The third explores Eliot’s fascination with transformation. The final allows Eliot finally to establish the true wasteland of the poem, the modern city.

39. A Game of chess Summary This section focuses on two opposing scenes, one of high society and one of the lower classes. The first half of the section portrays a wealthy, highly groomed woman surrounded by exquisite furnishings. The second part shifts to a London barroom, where two women discuss a third woman.

40. A Game of chess Form The first part is largely in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines, or blank verse. As the section proceeds, the lines become increasingly irregular in length and meter, giving the feeling of disintegration, of things falling apart. The second part is a dialogue interrupted by the barman’s refrain, which constitutes a loose series of phrases connected by “I said (s)” and “she said (s).”

41. Commentary The two women of this section of the poem represent the two sides of modern sexuality: while one side of this sexuality is a dry, barren interchange inseparable from neurosis and self- destruction, the other side of this sexuality is a rampant fecundity associated with a lack of culture and rapid aging. Neither woman’s form of sexuality is regenerative.

42. The Fire Sermon Summary This title is taken from a sermon given by Buddha in which he encourages his followers to give up earthly passion (symbolized by fire) and seek freedom from earthly things.

43. The Fire Sermon Form This section is notable for its inclusion of popular poetic forms, particularly musical pieces, including Spenser’s wedding song (which becomes the song of the Thames- daughters), a soldier’s ballad, a nightingale’s chirps, a song from Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield, and a mandolin tune (which has no words but is echoed in “ a clatter and a chatter from within”).

44. Commentary The opening two stanzas of this section describe the ultimate “Waste Land” as Eliot sees it. The wasteland is cold, dry and barren, covered in garbage. Unlike the desert, which at least burns with heat, this place is static, save for a few scurrying rats. Even the river, normally a symbol of renewal, has been reduced to a “ dull canal”. The ugliness stands in implicit contrast to the “Sweet Thames” of Spenser’s time.

45. Commentary (continued) The most significant image in these lines is the rat. This section ends with only the single word “burning”, isolated on the page, reveals the futility of all of man’s struggles.

46. Death by water Summary The shortest section of the poem describes a man, Phlebas the Phoenician, who has died, apparently by drowning. In death he has forgotten his worldly cares as the creatures of the sea have picked his body apart. The narrator asks his reader to consider Phlebas and recall his or her own mortality.

47. Death by water Form It is one of the most formally organized sections of the poem. The alliteration and the deliberately archaic language (“O you”, “a fortnight dead”) also contribute to the serious, didactic feel of this section.

48. Commentary The major point of this short section is to rebut ideas of renewal and regeneration.

49. What the Thunder said Summary This section is dramatic in both its imagery and its events. Eliot draws on the traditional interpretation of “what the thunder says”, as taken from the Upanishads (Hindu fables). According to these fables, the thunder “gives”, “sympathizes”, and “controls” through its “speech”. Eliot launches into a meditation on each of these aspects of the thunder’s power.

50. What the Thunder said Form The final section moves away from more typical poetic forms to experiment with structures normally associated with religion and philosophy. Both formally and thematically, this part follows a pattern of obsession and resignation. Its patterning reflects the speaker’s offer at the end to “fit you”, to transform experience into poetry.

51. Commentary The last words of the poem are in a non- Western language that invoke an alternative set of paradigms to those of the Western world and offer a glimpse into a culture and a value system new to us and offer some hope for an alternative to our own dead world.

52. The End