T.S_Eliot

T.S ELIOT ('Journey of the Magi' and 'The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock') In the 20th century a modernist poet named T.S Eliot wrote the poems 'The Journey of the Magi' and 'The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock'. There are many different ways in which these two poems are similar as there are many language features and techniques used throughout these two poems that elaborate the similarity of the 'The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock' and 'The Journey of the Magi'. Throughout both of these poems there is a sense of misery and a sense of death-in-life. It appears in 'The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock' as if Prufrock sees all women as unattainable because of the ways he pities himself each and every day and in 'The Journey of the Magi', the man feels that he is still part of his old life and feels that he is lost in that past of “silken girls bringing sherbet” and oppressed by a birth of his new life that was “Hard and bitter agony”. These two poems both use symbolism to evoke the environment in the poems so that the reader can imagine and become a part of the world they are living. For example in the second stanza in the forth line that reads the “three trees” in 'The Journey of the Magi' symbolise the crucifixion of Jesus and the two criminals beside him that evoke the willingness of being forgiven and to move on in life even if that means that there will be no life at all. An example in 'The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock' of symbolism emphasising the environment or outdoor imagery are seen as he speaks of fog, smoke and streets. In the third stanza of the first two lines “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes” and “The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes” represent things that Prufrock longs to have but cannot have and especially with the example of smoke, you cannot hold smoke or contain it and smoke can definitely not be captured for ourselves, so smoke can be used as an example of women in Prufrock's world as they are out of his reach. In both poems repetition is present. In Prufrock, Eliot repeats the couplet of “In the room when women come and go, Talking of Michaelangelo”, these two lines are seen twice throughout the poem and give great significance to Prufrock. Prufrock would like to speak to women but he cannot bring himself to do this because he is so insecure of himself, maybe because of his physical appearance as Eliot references Prufrock's balding head a number of times so this could be unattractive for the women to have a romantic interest in him. Prufrock cannot get his head around the fact that he is just as unattainable to women as they are to him. The repetition in 'The journey of the Magi' is present in the last stanza in lines 2 to 4 where its written “And I would do it again, but set down ` This set down This: were we lead all the way for The effect of repetition in the last stanza emphasises the magi's trying to get into their heads of what they had just done in the journey. It was to find their spirituality and to consider all the different levels of birth and death. There is a use of fragmentation in these two poems. Prufrock and 'The Journey of the Magi' show the fragmentation of how the world is now disorded and chaotic. The rhyming in 'The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock' is constantly changing as the reader progresses in reading the poem, this shows the rhyming is fragmented. Prufrock is described in a realistic scene of drinking cups of tea and eating cakes to where he wants to be for example “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each”, this is what he fantasises of the life he wants to live compared to the reality. The similarity of Prufrock to 'The Journey of the Magi' gives the example of how there journeys are fragmented between being a physical journey and an emotional journey of their spirituality, which is indeed a paradox. The Magi are caught between birth and death and Prufrock is caught between the realism of his life of the same women being around him of drinking cups of tea but never having the courage to interact with them, to the fantasied life of where he wants to be. 'The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock' and 'The Journey of the Magi' are two examples of the most powerful poems written in the Modernistic period. These two poems have in depth language features and techniques used throughout the poem that emphasise the changing nature of society and the inner life of these characters that become exposed of their layers within themselves.