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Preludes - Coggle Diagram
Preludes
Depiction of the modern metropolis as a wasteland
III: "and you heard the sparrows in the gutters"
juxtaposition between beauty and ugly
I: "the grimy scraps of withered leaved about your feet"
Sordid imagery creates a depiction of a wasteland
I: "a lonely cab-horse steams and stamps. And then the lighting of the lamps"
Eliot uses industrial imagery as an aesthetic identity of the city as a representative of modernity
the lamp is symbolic for the enlightenment of modernity
Society and Class
I: "with the smell of steaks in passageways. Six o'clock. The burnt out ends of smoky days"
Olfactory imagery heightens the readers experience
Descriptive language references cigarette culture and working class and describes the mundane lifestyle
Timestamp references working class culture
II: "faint stale smells of beer from sawdust-trampled street with all its muddy feet"
The mention of beer alludes to the working class
Sordid imagery portrays the environment as a wasteland
Synecdoche highlight the fragmentation of humaity
IV: "at four and five and six o'clock"
the time stamp highlights the cyclical nature of the poem and emphasises the idea of the mundane routine of the lower class
Context
Eliot immerses himself in and appropriates the Avant Garde culture of modernism
Flaneur
derived from Eliot's fascination with Baudelaire
build a portrayal of the modern city through the eyes of an ambiguous persona
Ideas of the modern metropolis and decay are intended to replace late Romanticism
Depiction of Women
III: "you lay upon your back, and waited"
Parisian sexual decadence alludes that there was a prostitute
Change from 3rd to second person created ambiguity
III: "of which your soul was constituted"
the 'christian' idea of soul (synecdoche) juxtaposes with the sordid imagery and sexual decadence
II: sitting along the bed's edge, where you curled the papers from your hair
sexual decadance
the idea of getting ready/dressing up alludes to the idea of multiplicity and multiple identities
Fragmentation of Humanity and ambiguity
II: "with the other masquerades that time resumes"
reoccurring motif of multiple identities/facades among Eliot's other poems
Creates the idea of ambiguity
IV: "his soul stretched tight across the skies"
soul (synecdoche) shows the fragmentation of humanity and introduces a spiritual persona
the change in perspective to third person creates ambiguity
sibilance
Title
A re-work of traditional poetry by modelling in response to French modernism
Musical allusion
Rejection of traditional poetry and Romanticism
I: "the grimy scraps of withered leaved about your feet"
Sordid imagery creates a depiction of a wasteland
natural imagery juxtaposed with sordid imagery reflects Eliot's rejection of traditional values