Examine the presence of a common theme or attitude to life in the separate sections of the modern

poem The Preludes.

Ans. - The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o clock.
The burnt out ends of smoky days.
A poem is a complete expressive of the mood of the poet, and Thomas Stearns Eliot is of no exception to
it, when he is certainly throughout his poem is deeply in a mood of gloom and despair, as far as society
is concerned. He is considered to be one of the most distinguished poets of the twentieth century who
brought a very modern touch to his poetry with plenty of symbolism and knowledge of the world. His
imagery and metaphors are drawn from classical Greek Literature and even from Upanishads. He
brought a fresh metaphor and depicted dilemmas, the hopelessness and sterility of the modern man
with a fine hand. He is a poet who needs to be studied therefore very deeply, and is still the subject of a
lot of research for scholars. His famous works are The Waste land, The Hollow Men, Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock and many others. One of his poems in Preludes, he is describing of a modern street, a
witness to various sordid images and ugly deeds and the mechanical, hum-drum, meaningless life led by
its inhabitants:
His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fades behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six oclock;
His Preludes is a complete link of poems divided into four sections. It is a poem, as portrait of the
modern man is nothing but mainly of desolation of a mundane life. Eliot, here speaks in his poem of the
alienation of man and about the exploration of the cycle of life. To quote him-
You had such a vision of the street
As the street hardly understands;
The poet leads the reader from evening to night and morning and again from morning to evening-a full
account of a days activities-or lack of them. The winter evening settles down could be any one
evening in winter but winter is usually associated with lack of growth, chill and gloominess. With
smells of steaks in passageways ,where the smell of steaks suggests the cooking of food but the word
passageways conveys an idea of stuffy corridors. The poet gives the time of the evening-it is six
oclock-a time for returning home after a day that is burnt out like cigarette stubs nothing productive
happens:
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
It is raining and the gusty storm that lashes on broken blinds can only blow withered leaves about
your feet or dislodge newspapers from the vacant lots. Vacants lots are probably the empty lands
here and there generally becoming dumping yards. In the street corner the cab-horse that steams and
stamps expresses its loneliness and restlessness. Overall, the first section of the poem has given an
impression that of filth and neglect; the boring routine of mechanical life. The mood of the poem is thus
leading to the point of disillusionment and pessimism. The blinds appear to cover the reality outside,
and even when the day arrives it brings pretence and there is obvious no reality which is covered up in
smoke and grime.
Morning comes...,the second section of the poem brings a glimpse of hope when morning comes to
consciousness but the hope is soon gone as we learn of the faint stale of beer and sawdust-trampled
and muddy feet and the mention of dingy shades. There is nothing but dirt and squalor and even the
people are masquerading to be what they are not. There is no reality anywhere including the furnished
rooms which are looked upon as owned but are rented and do not bear a stamp of any individuality.
These are completely the pointers towards the decay setting in, setting -in the society. There is
pretence, in everything man does!
However, next in the third section we find there is a change in style and tone in the few lines of the
poem....A very clear picture is drawn of the early morning activities. You tossed a blanket-the first line
of this section makes the lines a little more personal and this way if following the lines of the poem the
lines do not exactly sound critical or judgmental. We are taken through the night and early day of a
woman who lazes on her back with intermittent feelings of dozing and gazing-watching the night that
reveals sordid dreams and forces her to search her soul.. even while light creeps in through the
shutters, she knows what lies outside-where the sparrows are heard in the gutters.
Sitting along the beds edge, where

You curled the papers from your hair,
Or clasped the yellow soles of feet
In the palms of both soiled hands.
We come to know, thus that the you mentioned here is a woman when the poet talks about curled
papers from your hair.. While she uncurls the paper curlers and sleepily rubs her yellow soles with
her soiled hands, she reveals her restless state of mind, an image of neglect. The mention of yellow
soles and soiled hands sets a mood of disgust towards the artifice of life.
With the other masquerades
That times resumes,
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms.
In the final section, the poet clearly reveals his own thoughts. From you the mood and tone turns to I.
He is moved by the fancies, the imagination of man. He prays for an infinitely gentle hand to touch and
heal man. He feels for the routine lifestyle of his fellow beings working till four, five or six oclock,
getting back, stuffing pipes and buying evening newspapers. What the poet sees around is a
representation of conscience of a blackened street -a consciousness struck by false values that
cannot discern a masquerade from a reality. This is again unfurls like a series of snapshots of the
ugliness and emptiness of modern life stylesdespite some hopes of a rebirth or a rejuvenation there is
only hopelessness and despair.
[I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.]
According to some, the poet is thinking of Christ who will bring salvation for others the poet refers to
any gentle being, who may have brought hope but the next moment he is pulled back to reality. Perhaps
he is talking to himself since he was mentioning I and says that he should forget about the vision of
that gentle being, wipe the image off and should laugh at the thought. The word ancient used in the
poem for the old women does not only make them look very old but also suggests, that they have been
doing the same thing for years and nothing for years and nothing has or will perhaps change. Life will
continue to be the same.. Thus Preludes-paints a picture of desolation, hopelessness, filth and
pretence of modern society. .The poet expresses his disgust at this bleak world that has hopes but is
caught in the mire of decay. He says-
[Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient woman
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.]
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(References, words, sentences, ideas, setting, orientations, contextualized from revised edition by
Sraboni Ghosh and Ms. Nagpal.)