A Critical Interpretation of T.S. Eliot and the Art of Allusion

T. S. Eliot, on commenting upon the skill of the poet, stated that "immature poets imitate; mature poets steal" (qtd. in Ricks xxiii).[i] The use of allusion, an indirect reference or references to another work, appear throughout all sects of poetry, from traditional to abstract, and from old to new. The poet's use of allusion appears frequently in the works of modernist and post-modernist writers. With a large pool of great literature from the past and an increasingly avid interest in the poetry of other cultures, the modernists (hence Eliot's designated period) find that they can inspire their readers to expand their horizons by alluding to obscure sources. An alternative theory regarding the use of obscure allusions concerns the inadequacy of the poet; a poet who cannot write his/her own words may dare to use the time-proven words of other poets. Eliot may or may not be a poet of this faith. Briefly in this essay I will explore the validity of Eliot's statement: is Eliot a mature poet who "steals," or is he an immature poet that "imitates" what he cannot do himself? Two of his most respected works will be utilized to test this theorem: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1917) and

The Waste Land (1922). Written when Eliot was 22 and 33 years of age, respectively, these two works will show not only the physical maturity of Eliot, but also the poetic maturity.[ii]

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"[iii] begins with a epigraph from Canto XXVII of the

Inferno from Dante's

The Divine Comedy. The presence of these two tercets both sets the mood and compliments the developed character of J. Alfred Prufrock, who throughout the poem admits that he less than a human being. Dante's lines:

If I believed that my reply were made

to one who could ever climb to the world again,

this flame would shake no more. But since no shade

ever returned-if what I am told is true-

from this blind world into the living light,

without fear of dishonor I answer you. (58-63)[iv]

This passage reflects the nature of Prufrock's love song, it is told on the condition that it would never be revealed. More allusions do not take place until later in Eliot's poem, but what occurs between is a revealing of the thoughts and feelings of Prufrock.

With the stanza starting at line 72, Prufrock debates whether or not he should pronounce his love, or possibly display his true feelings to the one he desires. Prufrock wonders if he has the strength "to force the moment to its crisis" (77). The allusion then follows to John the Baptist, feared to be a prophet by Herod, whose head was wanted by Herodias' daughter to be brought to her on a platter.[v] Prufrock feels that his head, which he notes has "grown slightly bald" was brought in upon a platter before his eyes, but he is no prophet (79-81). His moment of greatness past, he has not completed what he wanted to do, he allowed fear to chide him.

The next allusion is also a biblical one, of Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha, whom Jesus brought back from the dead.[vi] Prufrock wants to tell everyone of what he has discovered, of both himself and of greater things: "'I am Lazarus, come from the dead, / Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all'" (92-3). Eliot's use of Lazarus, who has seen both human life and that thereafter, would be able to profess the glories of his discoveries. Prufrock wants to obtain the same sense of awe that someone returned from the dead would receive-he needs to be set apart from the rest of humanity in some way.

The final important allusion is from the frequently quoted

Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Prufrock asserts that "I am no Prince Hamlet" (109) but that he is only an attendant lord whose use is only to start a scene, progress the plot, or advise the prince. He compares this role to his life, where he is of no importance other than small cog in a large machine. He even goes so far as to say that his part sometimes falls into the realm of the fool (110-17). These allusions used by Eliot in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," are not mere imitations of verse, but taken, or borrowed, from the original source and reconfigured to a relevance for Prufrock. Each line acquires a new meaning, justifying to the reader what he is feeling at that particular moment. The allusions to familiar works bonds the audience to the character because often the same feelings are experienced.

At the apex of Eliot's career is

The Waste Land, a conglomeration of images, scenes, and allusions amassed into a large epic work. The reverberations of this poem are still felt today; as it spoke to a lost generation then, it speaks to a lost generation now.[vii] The current generation is not stripped of its personality and human qualities by war as Eliot's generation had been, but by the great desensitizer-Television. The current generations are not lost in body, but are lost in mind-brainwashed by direct images of violence, depression, and hatred.

Eliot collected all these feelings from his time and transferred them into his critically acclaimed poem. Full of allusions to both well known works and obscure works alike, Eliot makes it all his own, twisting the meaning to fulfill the destiny of

The Waste Land. The poem is separated into five sections, each containing scenes yielding to the whole a piece of the puzzle. The allusions are numerous and cannot all be covered here, but some of those that appear in the "Notes on

The Waste Land" will be presented as evidence.[viii]

Under the first section "The Burial of the Dead," Herert Knust notes that line 8-18 allude to an autobiography entitled

My Past by a Countess Marie Larisch, daughter of Duke Ludwig of Bavaria. He observes certain scenes from

My Past that appear in

The Waste Land:

her home on the Starnbergersee; her cousins, the archdukes; her going south in the winter; her observation that only in the mountains did she feel free; deaths by fire and water, especially the drowning of the "mad" Bavarian King Ludwig in the Starnbergersee. (3)

These allusions do not find their way into the "Notes," but seem to be very important knowledge to have. Although Eliot "borrowed" these lines from Marie, he made them his own, revealing a story that tells of its own waste land. In lines 19-26 Eliot fuses biblical allusions to Ezekiel and Ecclesiasstes to juxtapose the different religious views that are furnished in the poem. Lines that would be familiar to his audience of that time would be absorbed and reflected upon, possibly giving a false sense of safety in religion. Soon after the reader is fronted with Madame Sosotris and her tarot cards (43-59). Eliot admits in the "Notes" that he is not sure of the true constitution of the tarot deck, but applies the cards to his needs. Here Eliot does not imitate a Tarot deck, but steals the idea and makes it better. Along this line of thought is Eliot's enlisting of Dante's works once again. He lifts a direct line from Dante: "I had not thought death had undone so many" (63), as it appears in Canto III lines 55-57.[ix] Also, Eliot calls forth the "Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled" (64) from Canto IV lines 25-27.[x] Eliot makes these lines his own by affixing a new meaning where the narrator is observing the dead marching over London Bridge.

To further draw his readers in, Eliot interjects a moment of pop culture:

O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag--

It's so elegant

So intelligent (128-130)

This song was a rather popular rag tune in Eliot's time. It is presented in a sad, decrepit way, as it would sound on a bad gramophone. Eliot makes another allusion to Shakespeare, though this is a genuine one. In lines 172-73 of

The Waste Land, Eliot calls forth, once again,

Hamlet: "Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, / good night." These lines are uttered by Ophelia in a fit of madness (Act 4, scene 5 lines 69-70). The reader, without careful reading or an acute knowledge of

Hamlet would not know that these lines were that of any other person. Eliot keenly applied other verse to that of his own, "stealing" the works of other authors and making it work for him.

Due to the restraints of this essay, no more can be discussed of

The Waste Land, though an entire volume committed to the explication of the work could not do it justice. But loose ends must be tied up: T. S. Eliot "stole" the works of other authors, but made them better. He applied what he wanted and knew to each line, morphing it into his work, indistinguishable at times, from his own conceived lines. Some may see this as a mark of a fallible poet, inadequate in style and language. But history has proven that Eliot was strong of style and adequate in language. He is a mature poet, whose maturity is shown from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" to

The Waste Land.

[i] Christopher Ricks goes on to quote an entire passage from

Philip Massinger (1920):

One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.

This passage reflects Eliot's own "borrowings," which he employs endlessly in his works. Whether the poet's use of allusion is a true test of his/her ability or merely justification for Eliot remains to be seen.

[ii] "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is reported to be conceived and written between 1910 and 1911 (Ricks 176).

The Waste Land was most likely written in 1921, therefore Eliot's age at the time would have been 33 (V. Eliot xxi).

[iii] All line references will be drawn from the poem as it appears in Eliot's

Selected Works.

[iv] Although Eliot cites the lines 61-66 of the original text, John Ciardi's translation places this passage at lines 58-63.

[v] Matthew 14: 1-12

[vi] John 11: 1-44

[vii] The Lost Generation appeared after World War I where so many people died that the generation was coined lost.

[viii] All line references will be drawn from the poem as it appears in Eliot's

Selected Works.

[ix] Ciardi, line 53.

[x] Ciardi, same.

Works Cited

Alighieri, Dante.

The Divine Comedy. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: Norton, 1970.

Eliot, T. S.

Inventions of the March Hare. Ed. Christopher Ricks. New York: Harvest, 1996.

Eliot, T. S.

Selected Poems. New York: Harvest, 1964.

Eliot, T. S.

The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound. Ed. Valerie Eliot. New York: Harvest, 1971.

Knust, Herbert.

Wagner, the king, and The waste land [

sic]. University Park: Penn State, 1967.

Shakespeare, William.

Hamlet.

The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, et al. New York: Norton, 1997.