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Preludes (1917) - Coggle Diagram
Preludes (1917)
CONTEXT
Little escape from the everyday urban life of drudgery reality of the working class / narrative of the proletarian
Fractured existence of humanity, man’s alienation in a hostile universe and the inevitability of death in a world incapacitated by the devastations of war
Advances in technology and in the increasing ease and comfort of living should not be mistaken for the moral and intellectual improvement of human beings
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Dreams, visions and associative powers of imagination in poetry
MACRO
Title of poem appears ironic as the term “prelude” which signifies a musical introduction to a day of the modern world, has no meaning in the poem as the poet epitomizes the monotony and schedule of urban life as he narrates the drudgery of daily existence
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Free verse, however Eliot uses rhyming couplets and end rhyme when he wishes to emphasize a point
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Emphasis on the internal (psychological) reality – experience of the mind; focus on individual’s perception or perspective, leading to an emphasis on the strange mechanism of memory and the individual experience of time passing
The city as sordid and threatening in its ordinariness - implicit theme of modern city as weariness, boredom and alienation.
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"And now a gusty shower wraps/The grimy scraps/Of withered leaves about your feet/And newspapers from vacant lots"
Enjambment and accumulation of desolate landscape. Emptiness of meaning in metropolis, socially and metaphysically. The urban world devoid of and at an opposition with nature. Decay and disintegration evident in purposeless of routine of city life.
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Tensions of modernity and the flaws of humanity illustrates the dilapidation and degradation of the modern world through a reflective internal monologue.
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"Preludes" is paradoxical; introductions to the symphonies of human existence are disturbing and discordant → Presents parodies of everyday people under larger industrial complex.
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