T. S. Eliot's Ariel Poems: a selection

T. S. Eliot was born in St Louis, MO; but decided to become a British subject. His poetry, drama, criticism and poetics are informed by the love of tradition, in which he found the roots of humanity and the solution to the devastation of the modern world. (This devastation is clearly seen in The Waste Land, especially in the last section: the image of the falling towers, for example, is particularly significant to readers who witnessed WWI, but it also speaks to 21st-century readers who recall contemporary wars or terrorist attacks).

When Eliot speaks of tradition, he refers to literary tradition, but also to the arts in general, to languages, religions, history... All these elements can be found in his poetry. He creates a new work of art with materials derived from a pre-existing tradition, which is resignified from the perspective of the modern world. This is clearly seen in his Ariel Poems, from which we have selected the first two.

(Benozzo Gozzoli's "Journey of the Magi", 15th century)


In class we read and analyzed "Journey of the Magi", in which one of the Three Wise Men recalls the hardships of the journey to find the baby Jesus. Both the popular story's and the biblical account's details are the point of departure for a text which is, in fact, a reflecion on the disappointment of modern man. If you click on the link under "Watch, listen, read and enjoy", you'll be able to listen to Eliot himself reading his poem. It's worth it!

In "A Song for Simeon" we hear another biblical character speak: Simeon was an old man who had been promised that he would not die until he saw the savior. So, when he witnessed Jesus' presentation at the temple, and after telling Mary that a sword would pierce her heart (a direct reference to the crucifixion), he let God know that now he could die, after all, since he had seen Salvation. (Just as the Magi, he had an epiphany, and was able to realize that the baby Jesus was the Saviour). Eliot, once more, recreates the hopeful account of the Bible and transforms it into a disillusioned discourse, the words of an old man who sees not salvation, but a painful future for his descendants. The peace that he asks God is not the biblical Peace, but the peace of death, where he wishes to find forgetfulness (in a way, the last line of "Journey of the Magi", which goes "I should be glad of another death", has an echo in Simeon's poem). And just like in the previous poem, here Simeon, who sees the baby Jesus, has visions of the future (the scourges, lamentations, the time of sorrow...). The "birth season of decease" recalls the similar paradox in "Journey of the Magi". Both speakers are old, tired, disillusioned, and even if their promises have been fulfilled, the results are not what they expected.

(An Armenian icon depicting the meeting of Simeon and the Holy Family in the temple)


That is why we may say these two poems can be read as companions: we may compare the poetic personae, the setting, the allusions, the tone, and several other elements. In both poems, you may see the exotic, Oriental presence (the girls bringing sherbet, or the hyacinths), the desacaralized biblical allusions, which are given a new meaning that speaks of the modern world and its disillusioned inhabitants, and the "small biography" of each poetic persona who speaks about his past, present and future.


Activity:
Write a 1-page essay in which you analyze one of the following topics on BOTH "Journey of the Magi" and "A Song for Simeon":

a. Eliot's use of biblical allusions.

b. The poems' re-writing of biblical stories from a modern perspective.

c. The tone of the poems.

d. The 2 poetic personae's "small biographies" in their dramatic monologues.

Due next Wednesday, May 23rd

“Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
..he suddenly realized the meaning of the word “dissipate” – to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing g out of something.
Being he himself an active participant in the “dissipation” that took place in the US in the 1920’s, F. Scott Fitzgerald perfectly depicts the high society antics at those times. With his short story “Babylon Revisited” he shows how Americans wasted their time and money and spoiled their families and even their own lives. He narrates how youth closed “the door of the world”, missing every possibility of plans and futures. He denounces the eternal debt, impossible to be paid, left by a whole generation of squanderers.
Waiting for a door to be opened, the writer revisits his Babylonian past only to realize the irreversible damage of his dissipation.
Activity: Write one paragraph explain the title “Babylon Revisited “ in relation to the story. Take into account the biblical allusion to “Babylon”. ( This activity is due on May 25th, and late papers will not be accepted.)

e.e.cummings

Many see e.e.cummings as opposed to Frost. Frost would represent the more traditional tendency of American poetry in the first half of the 20th century, while cummnigs would stay at the other end, the radical experimentalist. Yet, as our guest speaker Prof. Victoria Muñoz showed us yesterday, there is a traditional vein in cummings, too. As well as there is an innovation, within tradition, in Frost's poetry. If you click on the link "Poetry in film", you'll be able to listen and watch to one of the ways in which a poem by e.e.cummnigs became popular through the movies!

An Approach to Poetry

What is Poetry? What is the function of the poet? How does the poet decide to devote his life to writing? Aristotle studies that the poetic art emerges out of two natural gifts: the instinct of imitation and the instinct of harmony. And the pleasure felt in both learning and imitating is UNIVERSAL. However, devoting one’s life to poetry means confronting a solitary and difficult path. Rilke’s Letters to a young poet comments on the crucial decision the artist takes when opting for a poetical career. And Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” gives his view on the hard road chosen by the poet, and how that option makes all the difference.

Activity: Read Rilke’s “Letter One” and Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and explain in one or two paragraphs how both authors see poetry (or the life of the poet). Send your activity to elenitacuervo@hotmail.com. (Due to Friday, 18th . Late activities will not be corrected.)

A Poet's World: Robert Frost

Young Frost

The experienced Frost Still one of the most popular 20th-century poets, Robert Frost's lyrics can be read as metaphors which convey a deep meditation on life and its surroundings. He used "old-fashioned" forms, but in fact he resignified his literary heritage and, using the New England speech he knew, he created a truly American poetic voice. In many of his poems we encounter Nature, isolated individuals, or people who discover either their loneliness is somehow accompanied by invisible presences of other human beings, or their solitude befriended by Nature itself. Activity to hand in in class next Wednesday, May 16th: After you read "The Road Not Taken", "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Ev

ening", and "The tuft of Flowers", write a brief summary in which you comment on Frost's main themes and style.

A new view on women: Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin (1951-1904) was born and raised in St Louis (Missouri), married at 19 and settled in New Orleans, had six children, and after her husband's death, returned to St.Louis and began a literary career. She believed in spontaneity when writing, so many of her stories strike readers as anecdotes. Her best novel, The Awakening, was published in 1899, though it was not well received in its day. Her writing deals with women's situation in the late 19th century, and her style goes beyond the typical local color of Mid-western writrs of the time, to acieve a deep psychological insight of her characters. As you read "A Pair of Silk Stockings", consider how she portrays "Little Mrs Sommers" and her thoughts, desires, and wishes, in contrast to what is expected from her.

Border Theory

When reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn we should pay attention to the context: In the 1840s, Missouri was border land: frontier between the civilized East and the wild west, but also between North and South. Thus, some concepts from Border Theory may help understand aspects of the novel. This theoretical approach has been clearly explained by Professor Gustavo Fares, whose views are expressed in the article “Border Studies' Positionality”. In: Nueva Revista de Lenguas Extranjeras; Facultad de Filosofía y Letras UNCuyo; n 13, 2010: 19-35
* What is a border? “A line that indicates a boundary.”
* Borders can be physical, or imagined (in the sense of being ideas manifested in physical facts as barriers, police patrols, walls, etc.)
* Borders are a nation's territorial limits, while borders are “paradoxically different in location and similar in complexity and diversity, always signaling encounters and interactions between and among the areas they mark.” (21)
* “Border thinking and formations are not in any way the result of 'natural' processes, but of social and political ones and, as such, have histories which are always subject to a variety of interpretations.
* In some of the interpretations, the role of borders is dual and, oftentimes, contradictory: boundaries are there to exclude as well as to allow passing, to segregate, but also to place people beside another.
* Proximity breeds interaction, which in turn produces an hybrid or 'enriched' culture... (21)

In analyzing Huckleberry Finn, we will bear in mind some of the concepts below:
* Border
* Difference
* The Other
* Identity
* Language
* Voice – voiceless –
silence – language –
power
* Interaction
* Colonialism
* Imposed borders