LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 20:9 September 2020
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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T. S. Eliot’s Poetry: A Barb on Sexuality and a Satire on Religious Practice and Modern Life

Dr. Poonam Sinha, Ph.D. (English)

Abstract Eliot’s Poetry mirrors the Modern man’s predicament in terms of love, religion, and life. The poet highlights it emphatically with a dig at each of the three.

Eliot is one of the most prominent poets of the Modern times. A Nobel Laureate, his poetry resounds with the versatility of his persona. Eliot as a poet is more emphatic and telling than as novelist and leaves an indelible imprint on the minds of the readers of Modern poetry. If the Twentieth century is remarkable in more ways than one, T.S. Eliot is definitely one of them. He was probably the most erudite poet of his time in the English language. As a poet, playwright, critic and editor, Eliot brought about a literary revolution in the Twentieth century with his outstanding works, a trendsetter in their own ways. His poems are a reflection of its time and highlight the complication, complexities, dilemma, hopelessness and despair of the modern life.

An undercurrent of pessimism runs through almost all his poems and Eliot’s narrative technique underscores it intensely. Whether Eliot’s use of the poetic dictions and references, an advertent attempt to make his poetry complex, is a moot point. But I personally opine that Eliot’s poetic technique—epigraphs, allusions, symbols, images, and the voluminous text—justifiably records the mood of its time and outlines the intricate modern life. I can draw an analogy between the composite text and the thorny life. It is no exaggeration then that Eliot also happens to be the most difficult of all the poets.

Eliot chose his subject meticulously and wrote on contemporary political, social, and religious issues. His poetic themes range from dejected love, lost religious faith, spiritual bankruptcy to trauma, war, death, destruction to a wishful thinking, what life would have been, had his lady-love been there. Though Eliot was a proponent of Impersonality in Art, his poems bear the overtones of unsatiated or unrequited love as was the case in his personal life.

Love and Sexuality

His first masterpiece, “The Love Songs of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a poem of dream and desire, of passion to propose the beloved, with a lurking fear of rejection and unacceptance. It is a dramatic monologue with the Speaker speaking in the First Person ‘I’ and addressing a friend, at times, as ‘You”. The protagonist is an aged, old lover with a very unpleasant appearance---bald-headed with a sparse hair-line, thin and loose limbs, feeble and jerky voice---but he still holds his excitement and emotion clung close to his heart, and wants to propose his beloved to marry him. His is a love-song divided between pessimism and timidity; he is high on his fervour but low on the degree of certainty vis-à-vis the reaction of his lady-love.

The speaker is in a state of ambivalence—thrilled at the thought of meeting the lady but disheartened at the idea of being snubbed by her. The old lover’s journey is grumpy and a struggle between hope and despair; the imagery used, as he set out to propose the woman, reflects his inner conflict and dilemma.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

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Dr. Poonam Sinha
Ph.D., PGD Mass Communication
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