Few men have had as much power through the written word as Thomas Stearns Eliot, more commonly known by his initials, T.S. Eliot. His writing and poetry were powerful examples of his blunt and unique aesthetic as well as his intensely intellectual approach to structure. Throughout all of his work, though it is a relatively small amount for a poet of his literary stature, he displays a keen eye for the condition of man and culture. He looks critically on the world and social institutions, expressing frustration over the failure of the individual. While this focus and strength of his writing does not change during the course of his career, his conclusions and the tone of his poems change. This alteration can be attributed to his conversion and his subsequently modified worldview. It can be seen through both the tenor of his poems as well as in the structure itself.
One early example of Eliot’s pre-conversion writing, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” is an exploration of the mind of a neurotic, indecisive, over thinking individual. From the very beginning, the epigraph establishes a morbid tone, in essence swearing the reader to secrecy. What the speaker is about to reveal through the poem should never be uttered to anyone else. Then, he continues, describing a cityscape, placing emphasis on the “yellow fog” and “yellow smoke” that pervades the streets. He looks at his life as a monotonous cycle, time passing with more to come, and he questions whether he has already experienced everything in life. Filling this time are moments upon moments of indecision, continual doubting resulting in a paralysis of action. Still, the repetition of certain lines, “In the room the women come and go/Talking of Michelangelo.” stresses the continuation of time despite his inaction. The metaphor of the crab, the “ragged claws,” is a perfect parallel for his life; both can only travel sideways, never making forward progress. Stylistically, the fragmentation of the poem serves to re-enforce the incongruity of thought that the words demonstrate. The poem as a whole is a type of dramatic monologue, and the speaker is continually questioning himself. He inquires whether he has the strength to take action, and anticipates his attempts failing to meet his desires. In the end, his conclusion is one of surrender to what he sees as the inevitable. He was not meant for high things, “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, not was meant to be; /Am an attendant lord, one that will do” and because of this he busies himself deciding what sort of insignificance he shall pursue. This pointless endeavor carries him until he is old, but he will still not pursue any more. The only realization that he achieves is that his life is like a sleep that has lasted too long and that he will finally “awake” to death.
“The Hollow Men” is another pre-conversion poem, and an equally good example of Eliot’s pessimism regarding mankind. He uses that poem as cynical and harsh appraisal of empty men. The terms “hollow men” and “stuffed men” with “Headpieces filled with straw.” bluntly revile the subject of the poem. Eliot’s inclusion of a series of paradoxical statements, each of which describe a form without substance, also emphasizes the void nature of the hollow men. This poem also incorporates the religious, by viewing the hollow men from “death’s other Kingdom,” apparently a reference to Heaven. However, the next reference seems to be an anti-Lord’s Prayer, “Let me be no nearer/ In death’s dream kingdom” which seems to blasphemously invert the line, “Thy Kingdom come.” Eliot offers a glimpse of the Christian hope, but in the end he discards the idea as “The hope only/ Of empty men.” and instead offers the inane repetition of an altered nursery rhyme as a parallel to life. Then he uses a trio of illustrations, all of which use couplets of very similar concepts, and places the “Shadow” in between all of them, putting the essence of evil in everything. There are also the three lines aligned with the right margin, again seeming very liturgical, which are truncated to become the second-to-last stanza. Then for a final thrust at the emptiness of these men and of life, Eliot concludes the poem with another nursery rhyme like stanza that pronounces that the end of the life of the hollow men without ado, only with a whimper.
An example of post-conversion writing is the Four Quartets, from which the poem “Little Gidding” is taken. It clearly shows Eliot’s renewal through the optimistic outlook that stretches beyond the physical and visible world as well as through the positive resolution in the last section. The poem is named after an Anglican monastery; the first section offers a description of a trip to the monastery where “prayer has been valid” as well as a depiction of prayer as the fiery language of the realm beyond the living. This acknowledgement of existence and hope after death is a dramatic change in Eliot’s perspective. The actual structure also relates a change; the language used is almost conversational in structure, a striking departure from the fragmented rambling of his pre-conversion writings. In the second section, the speaker encounters a spectral version of himself who informs him that he must suffer the purifying fire if he wants to escape the curses of life. This image of a purifying fire is drawn almost directly from Biblical passages (e.g. 1 Cor. 3:13), another indication of the influence that the Christian belief had on Eliot. The image of fire returns in the fourth section where Eliot presents the difficult position of having to choose between two pyres, one of which represents the fire of hell and the other the purifying fire of love. Continuing, the final section brings a resolution to the poem, speaking of a condition of complete simplicity that costs everything and uniting the images of the fire, representing cleansing, and of the rose, symbolizing mercy. This description is a precise and powerful allegory for the salvation that God offers through faith in His redeeming work.
Both the pre- and post-conversion poems exhibit T.S. Eliot’s tendency toward obscure imagery and severe language. However, the change in his writing approach affected his structural arrangement; instead of the piecewise approach of his earlier work, he began to use composition that is more peaceful. In this way he communicates his shift in perspective from viewing the world as a splintered and anxiety-prone to ordered and designed. His poems also exhibited a stronger, more optimistic sense of resolution. While he still recognized the difficulties of life and the problems with the condition of man, he could now see and propose a solution. The change exemplified by these poems is a powerful testament to both the renewing power of faith in Christ and to the literary skill of T.S. Eliot.
