ÒPreludesÓ                                                                                  Name ___________________Date _________

T.S. Eliot                                                                                                           


I

The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways.

Six oÕclock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps                  5

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat

On broken blinds and chimney pots,           10                         

And at the corner of the street

A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.

And then the lighting of the lamps.

 

II

The morning comes to consciousness

Of faint stale smells of beer                        15

From the sawdust-trampled street

With all its muddy feet that press

To early coffee stands.

With the other masquerades

That time resumes,                                  20

One thinks of all the hands

That are raising dingy shades

In a thousand furnished rooms.

 

III

You tossed a blanket from the bed,

You lay upon your back, and waited;          25

You dozed, and watched the night revealing

The thousand sordid images

Of which your soul was constituted;

They flickered against the ceiling.

And when all the world came back             30

And the light crept up between the shutters

And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,

You had such a vision of the street

As the street hardly understands;

Sitting along the bedÕs edge, where                        35

You curled the papers from your hair,

Or clasped the yellow soles of feet

In the palms of both soiled hands.

 

IV

His soul stretched tight across the skies

That fade behind a city block,                    40

Or trampled by insistent feet

At four and five and six oÕclock;

And short square fingers stuffing pipes,

And evening newspapers, and eyes

Assured of certain certainties,                     45

The conscience of a blackened street

Impatient to assume the world.

 

    I am moved by fancies that are curled

Around these images, and cling:

The notion of some infinitely gentle            50

Infinitely suffering thing.

 

   Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;

The worlds revolve like ancient women

Gathering fuel in vacant lots.

  

Questions

1.     What do you think is the Òinfinitely gentle infinitely suffering thingÓ the speaker mentions in lines 50-51?  Explain.

2.     In Prelude I what is the (a) the time of year? 

        (b) the time of day?

3.     In Prelude II what is taking place Òin a thousand furnished roomsÓ?

4.     What did ÒyouÓ hear in Prelude III Òwhen all the world came backÓ?

5.     What are the Òancient womenÓ in the simile doing in Prelude IV?

6.     (a) To what social class do the people in ÒPreludesÓ belong to?  (b) How can you tell?

7.     The symbol of cycles, or cyclic progression says one critic, Òis almost Mr. EliotÕs trademark.Ó  What cycle do you find in ÒPreludesÓ?

8.     A musical prelude can introduce a longer work or can stand alone.  Each of EliotÕs four preludes stand alone, but they all project a similar mood.  How would you describe that mood?

9.     Describe the images found in the poem.  How do these images express the poetÕs attitude toward modern life?  In discussing this attitude, consider especially lines 33-34.

10.   In lines 39, who does ÒHisÓ refer to?  How is this line related to lines 50-51?  How is the simile in the last two lines related to lines 48-51?