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Home , A Song for Simeon, Gerontion, Valerie Eliot

TIME IN THE POETRY OF T. S. ELIOT TIME IN THE POETRY OF T. S. ELIOT A Study in Structure and Theme

Nancy K. Gish

M ©Nancy K. Gish 1981 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981 978-0-333-28994-5 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission

First published 1981 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world

ISBN 978-1-349-05482-4 ISBN 978-1-349-05480-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05480-0

Typeset in Great Britain by Santype International Ltd., Salisbury Contents

Preface vii Acknowledgements ix 1 'The Evenings, Mornings, Afternoons': Prufrock and Other Observations 1 2 'Where are the Eagles and the Trumpets?': '' and the Satires 23 3 'Each in His Prison': 47 4 'The Word Within the World': Ash-Wednesday and the '' 58 5 'A Pattern of Timeless Moments': 91 Appendix A 121 Appendix B 126 Notes 133 Bibliography 140 Index 148 Preface

Poetry, however concentrated in image, symbol and rhythm, is made of words; and unlike musical notes, words carry unavoidable meaning. Although it may not exist to assert ideas or argue cases, poetry cannot escape ideas whatever else it may do or whatever degree of importance is attached to them. This is particularly true for a poet like Eliot who was trained as a philosopher and whose poetry reflects his continued interest in philosophy. As Dante described a journey of the soul both intimately personal and inseparable from deeply held con­ victions about the nature of reality, so Eliot, even when least overtly presenting any idea, based his poetic form and content on philosophic concepts. Despite his symbolist background and his consistent use of symbolist technique, his poems cannot be fully understood without reference to the ideas they assume and use. Nor does Eliot's commit­ ment to the music of poetry deny the importance of meaning. In ': His Metric and Poetry', Eliot commented on the special prob­ lem of poetry as a union of music and meaning: 'For poetry to approach the condition of music (Pound quotes approvingly the dictum of Pater) it is not necessary that poetry should be destitute of meaning.' Further on he adds: 'Words are perhaps the hardest of all material of art: for they must be used to express both visual beauty and beauty of sound, as well as communicating a grammatical statement.' This does not mean, of course, that a poem is no more than a gramma­ tical statement; but expression of ideas is one element of poetry, in­ separable from its 'music'. In all of Eliot's work no ideas are so consistently used, considered viii Preface

and later overtly discussed than ideas about time and the need to transcend it. Both the concept of time and the presentation of it change and develop throughout the poems, paralleling the movement from boredom, frustration and despair to significant action, acceptance and serenity. While the emphasis moves from individual experience oftime to the possibility of experiencing timelessness, the technique develops towards greater use of overtly stated doctrine combined with symbolist passages. Immediate experience of time is more easily expressed through image than is the moral imperative to reject it or to com­ prehend its relation to eternity. Timelessness, too, may be immediately experienced and thus conveyed through dramatic monologue or jux­ taposed images. But a poem presenting the priority of one or the meaning of either may be driven to more discursive methods. This is so, at least, for Eliot. Four Quartets combines passages of obscure and vivid images with almost prose-like commentary, but there is little, if any, of such commentary in the 1917 poems. Although Eliot scholarship has recognised the importance of time as a theme, there has been surprisingly little attempt to examine its effect on the poetry as a whole. Most discussions focus on defining a single time concept~Heraclitean, Neo-Platonic, Bergsonian~presumed to be present throughout the canon. My purpose is to clarify the meaning of time as it develops through the poetry and to show that mood, tone and structure as well as theme are largely determined by ideas oftime. The emptiness of Prufrock's life at least partially stems from his failure to apprehend a timeless reality beyond the aimless cycle of daily rout­ ine. Gerontion's terror reflects the paradox of a history filled with meaning but empty to him. In the later poems the question of time is increasingly religious: 'How and to what extent can humanity achieve apprehension of and union with a timeless God?' The anguished seek­ ing of Ash-Wednesday and the almost weary resignation of'' or 'A Song for ' depend on the apparent opposition of time and eternity, an opposition reconciled only in' '. Because Eliot's poetry is rich and complex, it must be seen from many perspectives and our understanding must be continually renewed. This study works from a sJX:cific perspective~the treatment of time~yet both understanding and appreciation of the whole are enhanced by clarification of the part. Acknowledgements

I wish to thank my colleagues and friends who helped make this book possible. Special thanks are due to Boris Ford, Walter Clark, Leo McNamara, James Gindin, and Morris Greenhut, who offered criti­ cism and encouragement from the beginning of the project, and to Mark Schechner and David De Laura, who read and commented on the manuscript. My gratitude also goes to Vicki Schipper, Patricia Cornett and Eamonn Long, who helped prepare the manuscript, to George Gish for personal encouragement and support and to my students at the University of Pennsylvania, whose insights and enthusiasm have helped clarify my own ideas. Finally, I dedicate this book to Neil Smith, who read, criticised, typed and commented on the book at every stage, and without whose support it could not have been completed.

The author and publishers wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material: Mrs and Ltd, for extracts from uncollected sources by T. S. Eliot featured in early editions of Athenaeum, Dia~ Vanity Fair and Criterion; Faber and Faber Ltd and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., for extracts from poems 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', 'Sweeney Erect', Gerontion', 'Journey of the Magi' and '' taken from Collected Poems 1909-1962 by T. S. Eliot, and an extract from 'Little Gidding' from Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot, copyright© 1971 by Esme Valerie Eliot. N.K.G.