Preludes - TS Eliot [1888-1965]
Relevant Background
Thomas Stearns [TS] Eliot was born in into a wealthy family in St Louis, Missouri, America in 1888
He became a British citizen at the age of 39 in 1927.
As he grew up, Eliot got used to the two sides of life in St. Louis. He saw the poorer people of St. Louis living in its muddy streets. He also saw the better off people and their posh lifestyle.
His father was president of a brick making company. His mother wrote poetry and was once a teacher and social volunteer. They were determined to educate Thomas well.
TS Eliot’s awareness of how differently some people lived inspired a lot of the descriptions found in ‘Preludes’.
Through the work of his mother and grandfather TS Eliot became aware of poverty and the boring reality of peoples’ lives.
In 1917 he published ‘Preludes’. ‘Preludes’ consists of four short poems, numbered I, II, III and IV.
Some say that in ‘Preludes’ Eliot tried to imagine the thoughts and observations of four badly-off city dwellers. It is possible on the other hand that he is observing a prostitute in the first three ‘Preludes’ and a tramp in the fourth ‘Prelude’. This is open to discussion.
He set the first prelude at dusk, the second in the morning, the third at night and dawn, the fourth in the late afternoon.
In each prelude the Eliot reveals the thoughts and feelings of a person about an aspect of everyday living in a city. Eliot felt that life for poor city dwellers was monotonous. He felt that they suffered from boredom and a poor quality of life. In these ‘Preludes’ Eliot looked at human despair and feelings of rejection and failure.
Eliot published these short poems in a book of poetry that contained long poems about city life. As all four poems are short pieces, each of them is like an introduction to the longer poems. He called them preludes and grouped them together.
A prelude is a short piece of music that introduces a longer piece of music. In music a prelude is sometimes referred to as an overture. In writing a short introductory piece is often called a preface.
As poetry is a form of music made with words, Eliot decided that his four short pieces could be called preludes rather than prefaces. These pieces about city-dwellers lives were similar to each other. There are certain sounds, ideas, images, moods and words that occur in all of them. They are set at four different times of day, which in combination make up a full day. These details meant that Eliot felt he should put them together as a group of poems under one title. The first three preludes may be linked by the ‘you’ of Prelude I and III. She may be a prostitute.
Thus the title ‘Preludes’ draws our attention to repetition of sounds and images. It also suggests that the pieces may have a similar overall theme.
Perhaps the overall theme is the misery of poverty.
Since the setting is early 20th century, we realise that people’s pastime options were limited. There was none of the recreations and activities provided by modern technology. People didn’t even have electric light. All they had was newspapers, as Prelude I mentions.
Summary
Prelude I
In this short poem, a hidden observer describes dusk on a winter’s evening in a poor part of a city.
The observer is outside, observing the appearance and atmosphere of a street and neighbourhood.
Possibly the observer who describes the scene is Eliot himself. Or it may be the cab driver. Perhaps Eliot is observing a street prostitute, the ‘you’ of the poem, as she stands on the pavement among the withered leaves.
It might be helpful to regard this poem, like the others, as a video post-card of this moment, six o’clock on the winter’s evening. Eliot used words as his way of painting the picture.
The time is pinpointed at 6 o’clock precisely.
Residents, living probably in one-roomed apartments, are cooking their evening meal all at the same time. They are probably all workers living in flats. The word ‘passageways’ suggests the houses have been turned into flats for rent. Even though it seems a run-down part of town, the residents can afford steak.
By linking the scene here with the ‘stale smells of beer’ and ‘dingy shades’ in furnished rooms of ‘Prelude II’ and the ‘thousand sordid images’ of ‘Prelude III’, one could assume that the Preludes are set in a red-light district of a city.
The smell of steak is a signal that day is done and night is beginning. Because of city smoke the day is described as smoky. Maybe the smoke occurs because people are cooking at the same time. The tiredness of the workers is suggested by the word ‘burnt-out’. Or is there a humorous suggestion that they over cook the steaks?
The weather is bad; a windy shower beats on the buildings and on the horse outside. The cold rain evaporates as steam off the horse’s back.
It is early winter as the autumn leaves are still on the ground. The filth of the place is revealed by the phrase ‘grimy scraps’.
The street is untidy as newspapers are blown around the place.
There are many empty or vacant spaces without a building on the street.
The details show that the street is rundown as the word ‘broken’ is used to describe the window-blinds.
The buildings are probably three or four storey houses rather than factories as the observer refers to the chimney pots. In ‘Prelude IV’ the observer refers to the houses as being in blocks.
The means of transport is by cab-horse. A mysterious visitor to a house makes the cab-horse wait. It seems to stamp its feet to beat off the cold or its boredom. The horse is lonely.
We are given no clue about the mystery visitor. The poem invites us to guess for ourselves who the visitor might be. Perhaps he is a client of the woman with yellow feet in ‘Prelude III’, a woman whose hand raised a ‘dingy shade’ in ‘Prelude II’. Might he be visiting a prostitute? Or has he called to eat a steak?
The only other event noted by the observer is the turning on of the streetlights or lamps. In other words, not much is happening outside.
Prelude II
In this short poem the observer describes the early morning scene on a street as workers dash for a quick coffee on the way to their job.
The observer is outside, observing the appearance and atmosphere of a street and neighbourhood.
The muddy feet suggest a poorer neighbourhood of St. Louis, where Eliot grew up.
There are probably some public houses on the street. They would account for the slight odour of beer and the sawdust. Floors of cheap pubs would have had sawdust on their floor to dry up mud and spilt beer.
The observer says that morning time causes ‘masquerades’ to start up again. ‘Masquerades’ are pretences, tricks or false actions put on for show.
Thus, as he observes shades being lifted on various street-facing windows, he thinks of the secret lives that will be hidden in the daylight by so called normal behaviour. The dingy hands are probably the same soiled hands that hold yellow feet in ‘Prelude III’.
Perhaps the observer thinks a lot of people show off and do not reveal their true selves in public. They act innocently as they head for the coffee stands, even though they might have been drunk with a prostitute under cover of darkness the night before.
Eliot suggests that the truth may lie in up to a thousand filthy one room apartments where the prostitutes that served the previous nights clients are also waking up and letting the shades up.
Prelude III
The observer addresses a ‘you’—perhaps the ‘you’ whose feet were surrounded by ‘grimy scraps’ as she stood on the pavement in ‘Prelude I’.
The observer is inside, observing the appearance and atmosphere of a room and its occupant.
The action of tossing a blanket from the bed and waiting has a strong sexual suggestion about it.
This idea is strengthened with the reference to a ‘thousand sordid images’. The word ‘thousand’ echoes the furnished rooms of ‘Prelude II’. The person’s soul is made up of a thousand dirty pictures—perhaps of clients who undressed while she tossed the blanket and waited.
The person in the room may be living in a personal hell. The fact that the pictures in her head ‘flickered’ suggests flames, and in turn hell. During the night the world left her and returned at dawn.
The light creeps back to her dark world. Sparrows in the water chutes are the first normal sounds she hears. It is as if her room at night had become a room in hell. At dawn everything seems normal again. In ‘Prelude II’ Eliot had suggested that people put on false shows after the shades went up.
The observer imagines she has an insight into or awareness of the street which is different than others have. Perhaps she knows secrets that some of the crowd rushing for coffee don’t suspect, secrets that others in that crowd hide.
She removes the paper curlers from her hair. Are these made from some of the same old newspapers that flapped around the pavement in ‘Prelude I’? Is she preparing to keep up appearances for her work later that evening? Perhaps she has nothing to do till nightfall. This is suggested by the idle gesture of clasping her feet. This gesture also betrays her dissatisfaction with her life.
The fact that her hands are soiled may be a reference to the newsprint on the curling papers blackening her hands, to her general lack of hygiene or to some dirty deeds that happened in the night.
Prelude IV
In this short poem, a hidden observer describes a winter’s afternoon on a city street when it is busy. We know this because the sky fades and crowds move urgently along city blocks. Is it the same street mentioned in previous preludes or is it in the commercial district?
The observer is outside, observing a passing crowd on the street. He may also be observing a single man who is suffering somewhat.
This man may be a street beggar who is being ignored by the passing crowd. The patch of sky visible between city blocks represents this man’s soul. The soul may also be the spirit of the city or of Christ.
His soul is fading with the light of day. He is ignored and walked upon by the busy passers by. Some of them carry the evening newspaper home with them. Some of the crowd are pipe-smoking men, whose only thought just then is focused on their pipes. Their eyes show that they have fixed views. They are full of simple certainties.
Some of them may be the clients of the red light district, whose lives are a lie or ‘masquerade’. They are ‘impatient’ with the beggar and any other distraction and feel they alone make up reality, ‘the world’.
The beggar may represent their lost conscience. They have lost touch with their human selves, as they rush along pretending that their lives alone are what matters. They trample on the beggar or on the soul of the city.
The crowds are so big the street is ‘blackened’. Or the street blackens at dusk for all those strange visits and sordid images the day-time street hardly understands. Or the street is black in a moral sense as people ignore their conscience. Perhaps Eliot wants us to have all three meanings at once.
On the other hand Eliot may be having a Christian vision here. The ‘soul’ may be the soul of Christ. In that case he is accusing the busy passers-by of ignoring Christ. It is as if the crowd are crucifying Christ in their selfish and sinful lives, too full of their own certainty.
The observer then makes personal remarks about the scenes shown in the four preludes.
Eliot is touched by the characters he has portrayed in the four preludes. He pities them in their quiet suffering.
He feels that there are a lot of gentle people, perhaps like the girl revealed in ‘Prelude III’, who lead a life of suffering.
He may even be referring hopefully to the constant spiritual presence of the suffering Christ. The idea is that Christ would redeem or give meaning to the lost lives of these city dwellers.
Then another side of Eliot comes out. He shocks us by sneering at the thought he has just had. He laughs mockingly.
He seems to realise that women have always had a tough time. They will continue to struggle for survival. Human life goes in cycles and poverty will always be part of those cycles. In old age the same women, who made their living from sordid actions as they tossed their blanket, will poke around in empty building sites for sticks for the fire. That’s what makes the world go round.
Eliot’s final position is that there is no crucified Christ in the background providing spiritual meaning for people as they suffer.
Themes
Suffering
People live harsh lives, full of routine and boredom. Life is an unchanging cycle of day and night. There is a sense of people waiting and rushing but not really enjoying their lives. People endure the discomfort of winter. They live in filthy conditions. Some hide false lives from the eyes of others. Women struggle, leading sordid and unhygienic lives. The poet pities this suffering and seeks a spiritual significance for it. But he gives up and laughs at it all.
The Nature Of Life In The City
Day and night are different in the city. By day it is a scene of rushing crowds heading to coffee stands before work or heading home from newspaper stands after work. For many their daily life is a masquerade in comparison to what they do at night. A woman has a vision of the street that others don’t have. At night the street is blackened and a type of filthy underworld exists. At night people live their secret lives, creating ‘sordid’ images.
Women And Men
Around 1910 a woman’s life was difficult. The poem portrays a woman passing an uneasy night in bed, tormented by sordid images, perhaps of her clients. Her hands are dirty, like the dingy hands that lift thousand shades. Old women are reduced to picking twigs as fire fuel. Men on the other hand are portrayed as living lives that are busy but false. They are full of certainty. They light their pipes and read evening newspapers. The women use the same papers only for hair curlers as they prepare themselves for men.
Pretence
People lead double lives. The respectable life people live by day hides a sordid night-life. Beer and sordid images are the reality of night-life for some. By day they act out a cleaner life as they rush for the coffee stands and work, pretending to have a clean conscience. They ignore the suffering of a beggar as they get on with their busy and important lives. But it is all a ‘masquerade’ or pretence.
Time
Eliot looks at the faces of the city at different times: dusk, night-time, morning, afternoon. In time nothing changes, the world revolves around human misery, especially the misery of women.
Lifestyle
People’s lives in 1910 consisted of rushing to and from work, consuming coffee, beer and steaks, reading newspapers, smoking pipes and secret, sordid activities.
Poverty
Eliot portrays filth and neglect. Hands and feet are dirty. The streets are full of rubbish. Old women hunt for fuel. Young women sell their bodies. Women use newspapers for curlers.
Style
Repetition Many words and images are repeated. They link the preludes. Newspapers carried home to read in ‘Prelude III’ occur as rubbish and as curlers in Preludes I and II. Hands are mentioned in three preludes. Feet are mentioned in all the preludes. The sense of smell links the first two preludes. Time of day [see theme above] forms a connecting link between them. ‘Vacant lots’ links the first and last preludes. ‘Grimy’, ‘dingy’, ‘sordid’, ‘soiled’ and ‘blackened’ form a strong link between the preludes. ‘Blinds’, ‘shades’ and ‘shutters’ link three preludes.
Imagery The poem consists of a series of manly descriptive images. Examples include the sparrows, the restless female sleeper at night, withered leaves, a cab-horse, a gusty shower, evening newspapers, paper hair curlers, and the smells of beer. There are a large number of such word pictures in the poem.
Metaphor A day is burnt out. A soul is compared to an evening sky. Images in a woman’s mind flicker on her ceiling like flames.
Personification A street has a conscience. Morning has a consciousness. Light creeps. An evening settles down. A shower wraps.
Simile The worlds revolve like old women hunting for fuel.
Metonymy Body parts like eyes, hands and feet are used to represent a person.
Contrast Day is contrasted to night, men to women, the outdoor street to the interior of a room, light is contrasted to darkness.
Tone Detached at times, like the opening. The tone is scornful or sarcastic at times, such as with the use of the word ‘masquerades’. The tone is jeering at the end, with the poet’s mocking laughter. At many times the tone is disgusted, like when the awakening woman holds yellow feet in soiled hands. The word ‘trampled’ implies pity, as does the reference the gentle thing suffering.
Atmosphere Each prelude describes the mood of a city street or room at a time of day. The mood or atmosphere on a winter’s evening is very well described. The words ‘burnt-out’, ‘gusty’, ‘grimy’, ‘withered’, ‘vacant’, ‘broken’ and ‘lonely’ are all adjectives that capture a bleak and dreary place. They create a feeling of misery. The verbs ‘steams’ and ‘stamps’ are effective at showing the impatient mood of the lonely horse. The words ‘trampled’ and ‘insistent’ create the urgent atmosphere surrounding the public on the street. The verbs ‘tossed’, ‘lay’, ‘dozed’, and ‘clasped’ convey the restless or tormented world of the woman.
Paradox [apparent contradiction] The ‘certain certainties’ contradict the ‘masquerades’.
Pun ‘Muddy’ may mean literally covered in street mud, but it may also mean dirty or immoral, or it may mean that the feet are disguised for the ‘masquerade’.
Religious Allusion Eliot refers to the suffering Christ who may lie behind all the human suffering of the city—‘some infinitely gentle infinitely suffering thing’.
Alliteration ‘Smell of steaks’, ‘His soul stretched tight across the skies’—both of these are also examples of sibilance. ‘Broken blinds’. Alliteration contributes to the musical effects of the preludes.
Assonanance Note the ‘o’ sound that creates the music of the awakening sounds of morning: ‘The morning comes to consciousness of’. After this there is a sequence of ‘e’ sounds, which create a striking musical effect:
‘Smells of beer
From the sawdust-trampled street
With all its muddy feet that press
To early coffee-stands’.
Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sound] The repeating ‘s’ sounds in the opening description convey the distasteful nature of the house smells, linked especially to ‘steaks’. The continuing ‘s’ repletion also becomes an example of onomatopoeia when it captures the rasping or scraping sound of the blown leaves as they scrape the ground. Sibilance also conveys the mood of the impatient cab horse more vividly. Sibilance is used throughout the poem—it reinforces the atmosphere of dirty secret lives.
Rhyme There is a lot of end rhyme in the poem although it doesn’t follow a strict pattern throughout. Note the irregular sequence of fifteen end sounds for ‘Prelude III’: ‘ed’, ‘ed’, ‘ing’, ‘ages’, ‘ed’, ‘ing’, ‘ack’, ‘ers’, ‘ers’, ‘eet’, ‘ands’, ‘ere’, ‘air’, ‘eet’, ‘ands’. There is rhyme but an unclear pattern. This musically represents the confusion of life. There are also some word repetitions between lines. Take for example ‘street’ between lines 33 and 34. All the sound repetitions create verbal or word music, which is very suitable for a group of poems called ‘Preludes’.
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