Analysis---- T.S.

Eliot: Waste Land Eliot attributed a great deal of his early style to the French SymbolistsRimbaud, Baudelaire, Mallarm, and Laforguewhom he first encountered in college, in a book by rthur Symons called The Symbolist Movement in Literature. !t is easy to understand why a young as"iring "oet would want to imitate these glamorous bohemian figures, but their ultimate effect on his "oetry is "erha"s less "rofound than he claimed# $hile he took from them their ability to infuse "oetry with high intellectualism while maintaining a sensuousness of language, Eliot also de%elo"ed a great deal that was new and original# &is early works, like '(he Lo%e Song of )# lfred *rufrock+ and The Waste Land, draw on a wide range of cultural reference to de"ict a modern world that is in ruins yet somehow beautiful and dee"ly meaningful# Eliot uses techni,ues like "astiche and -u.ta"osition to make his "oints without ha%ing to argue them e."licitly# s E/ra *ound once famously said, Eliot truly did 'moderni/e himself#+ !n addition to showcasing a %ariety of "oetic inno%ations, Eliot0s early "oetry also de%elo"s a series of characters who fit the ty"e of the modern man as described by Fit/gerald, Faulkner, and others of Eliot0s contem"oraries# (he title character of '*rufrock+ is a "erfect e.am"le1 solitary, neurasthenic, o%erly intellectual, and utterly inca"able of e."ressing himself to the outside world# s Eliot grew older, and "articularly after he con%erted to 2hristianity, his "oetry changed# (he later "oems em"hasi/e de"th of analysis o%er breadth of allusion3 they simultaneously become more ho"eful in tone1 (hus, a work such as Four Quartets e."lores more "hiloso"hical territory and offers "ro"ositions instead of nihilism# (he e."eriences of li%ing in England during $orld $ar !! inform the Quartets, which address issues of time, e."erience, mortality, and art# Rather than lamenting the ruin of modern culture and seeking redem"tion in the cultural "ast, as The Waste Land does, the ,uartets offer ways around human limits through art and s"irituality# (he "astiche of the earlier works is re"laced by "hiloso"hy and logic, and the formal e."eriments of his early years are "ut aside in fa%or of a new language consciousness, which em"hasi/es the sounds and other "hysical "ro"erties of words to create musical, dramatic, and other subtle effects# &owe%er, while Eliot0s "oetry underwent significance transformations o%er the course of his career, his "oems also bear many unifying as"ects1 all of Eliot0s "oetry is marked by a conscious desire to bring together the intellectual, the aesthetic, and the emotional in a way that both honors the "ast and acknowledges the "resent# Eliot is always conscious of his own efforts, and he fre,uently comments on his "oetic endea%ors in the "oems themsel%es# (his humility, which often comes across as melancholy, makes Eliot0s some of the most "ersonal, as well as the most intellectually satisfying, "oetry in the English language#