Major Poet Essay

Robert Jackson
Major Poet Essay
Advanced Composition
19 March 2008

Bibliography

Quite possibly one of the best poets of all time, T. S. Eliot lived and died as a great poet. T. S. Eliot was an American by birth, being born on September 26, 1888 in the city of St. Louis Missouri. Though he did not immediately begin writing poetry in his early life, he was an exceptional poet when he started writing poetry in 1915, at the age of 76.

T. S. Eliot had an interesting writing style that would influence generations to come. T. S. Eliot often uses repetition in his works. This repetion adds to the tempo and makes it more uniform while it also adds to the importance of the word of phrase that is being repeated. The most famous of these repetitions would be "This is the way that the world ends" in his poem "The Hallow Men." His unique views in an interesting time era also gave him some captivating, new if not radical ideas like writing a play to a jazz tempo.

T.S. Eliot was not just a poetry writer but also a dramatist, or a playwright, which is a person who writes plays, as well as a literary critic of the arts. He only wrote one book, Old Possums, which was a children’s book published in his later years. T. S. Eliot died on January 4, 1965 at the age of 83, having lived a full life and leaving a legacy for others to follow, from which they could also learn.



Analysis of One Poem

The poem title “The Hollow Men” by T. S. Eliot would suggest that the poem is going to be about people who have little feeling on the inside, perhaps hollow feelings. The poem begins with, “We are the hollow men/We are the stuffed men/Leaning together” (I 1-3). According to J. Hillis Miller the hollow men that T. S. Eliot refers to are corpses that are separated form one another, unable to speak or communicate, quiet without meaning (par 1).

“The Hollow Men” is written in first person. This is quite peculiar because by using “we” instead of “they” the narrator takes the poem from a third person omniscient to a first person stance. This is a peculiar form of writing because T. S. Eliot writes about the hollow men in a way that suggests that he is an omniscient being who understands what is happening with the hollow men.

J. Miller’s continues to point out that the description that T.S. Elliot uses in “The Hollow Men” is about hollow men who have a void in their lives. These men are stuck in a realm, a huge valley. Eliot writes, “In this hollow valley/ . . . /We grope together/And avoid speech” (IV 4, 7, 8).

The hollow men live in a mortal state where death is all around them. Eliot continues, “In this valley of dying stars/ . . . /Of death’s twilight kingdom” (IV 3, 14). A new dark and shadowy figure is introduced appropriately named the “Shadow”:


. . . Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
. . . Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
. . . Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom. (8, 9, 14)


A shallow evaluation of this text would lead one to believe that the Shadow is death. In Section IV of his poem, T. S. Eliot writes, “Falls the Shadow/For Thine is the Kingdom” (V 9, 10), “In death’s other kingdom” (III 8), “Of death’s twilight kingdom” (Section IV, Line 14). What assumption is reached due to the fact that there is talk about a death’s kingdom in one part and in the next there is talk about a “Shadow” and his kingdom. The allusion to “For Thine is the Kingdom” is believed by most to be a biblical reference to the “Lord’s Prayer,” which reads, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever” (Mathew 6:13).

There is an obvious correlation between T. S. Eliot’s hollow men and people that work themselves to death in the world today. They work six to eight hour days, six days a week breaking off relations from friends and family. As T. S. Eliot puts it, “We grope together/And avoid speech/” (IV 7, 8). The timid river in “The Hollow Men” that all of the hollow men are on the bank of, could be time itself.

Overview of Three Poems

Some of T. S. Eliot’s other poetry includes “The Waste land,” “Ash Wednesday,” and “Four Quartets.” In these poems there is the common theme of the suffering of mankind, in one form or another. In most of these there are also allusions to hidden spiritual meanings.

In a way this technique is a form of modern mythology. Mythology is, “the collection of myths of a people, concerning their origin, history, deities, ancestors and heroes” (Wiktionary). This coincides with the reoccurring themes of T. S. Eliot’s poetry. In his poetry there is a common theme of a certain group of people and their deities or lack thereof.

Evaluation of Poet and His Poetry

T. S. Eliot is an excellent poet who enjoyed writing poetry. His unique writing styles will be used by poets, dramatists, and other forms of literary arts for generations to come. Even though T. S. Eliot passed away, he continues to live on in his works and has influence in other authors’ works.

Works Cited:

“T. S. Eliot.” Wikipedia. 10 February 2008. 12 February 2008.
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“Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” Wikipedia. 25 January 2008. 12 February 2008.
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Miller, J. Hillis. “On ‘The Hollow Men’.” Modern American Poetry. 1987. 12 February
2008. .

Eliot, T. S. “The Hollow Men”. PoetryX. 1998-2008. 12 February 2008.
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Eliot, T. S. “The Waste Land,” “The Four Quarters.” Bartleby.com. 2008. 12 February
2008. .

“Mythology.” Wiktionary. 30 December 2007. 12 February 2008.
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