Created on: July 18, 2009

Poetry analysis: Comparison of Rhapsody on a Windy Night and Preludes, by T.S. Eliot Algernon Moncrieff

Eliot's portrayal of urban life in the early 20th Century seems to paint a very bleak picture indeed. In Rhapsody he describes the midnight scene from the perspective of an unknown person, watching from the shadows. Whoever it is does not think much of the scene they see. It is a frightening scene - inanimate objects appear to come to life, in the "lunar synthesis" - the noun "synthesis" suggesting a creation of some sort, but a weird creation, one of the moon. Eliot goes on to describe a "crowd of twisted things" that the watcher's memory creates in the night, again suggesting something very unnatural, and quite frightening. Preludes is less frightening than Rhapsody, Eliot giving a more human feel to its descriptions (perhaps because it is not set at night) but is nevertheless very similar to Rhapsody. It portrays urban life to be something very dirty and miserable - "sawdust-trampled street, With all its muddy feet that press to early morning coffee stands..." The fact that the street in covered in sawdust shows that it is filthy, and the sawdust is there to absorb some of the filth. The people pressing to "early morning coffee stands," gives a feeling of the monotonous nature of life in the city - every morning people press through the dirty streets to get their coffee. Another image of the dirt is Eliot's description of how the prostitute (presumably a prostitute - "You curled the papers from your hair" she is a woman who cares more about her looks than her cleanliness, as if she loathes herself and her life) clasps the "yellow soles of feet, In the palms of soiled hands." Not only are her hands and feet literally soiled, but they are also soiled by the nature of her work. The dirt seems to get everywhere; it is inescapable, and as such becomes a part of the people who work in the city's very life. Rhapsody also gives a feeling of dirtiness, while describing another prostitute - "a washed out smallpox cracks her face" showing that for these people smallpox is a reality, a disease that used to thrive in dirty conditions. It is a very off-putting image - this prostitute does not seem very appealing, especially as she "winks a feeble eye" - she knows she must get work but the horror of it all is too much for her. The adjective "feeble" creates this feeling of hopelessness, a feeling that is a part of the life that is being described. Eliot is trying to say, it would seem, that life in the city in the early 20th Century is a hopeless, and desperate business, a constant struggle against disease and poverty to survive. This feeling of hopelessness is somewhat created in Preludes, but on a slightly less serious scale. Eliot describes peoples' lives as if they have little purpose - "you lay on your back and waited" - waited for what? Perhaps nothing. "A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps," shows how nobody is rich enough to afford a cab-horse, so the fact that it is waiting is pointless - it waits for nobody. And yet, these images are not nearly as serious as those described in Rhapsody, because they don't describe lives that are horrific and pointless, just pointless. And strangely enough, the fact that Preludes is set in daylight makes every problem seem much less grave. Another theme that the two poems share is that of music. They are named after types of music, and contain references to music within them. Rhapsody in particular (despite being named after an uplifting, powerful type of music) uses description such as "beats like a fatalistic drum," which is not a particularly uplifting simile, suggesting that the lives of the people in the poem are set on their path, they cannot break free of their life, and all the while this "fatalistic drum" seems to beat out a funeral march or some other depressing piece of music that echoes their futile existence. Preludes on the other hand has few references to music outside of its title, and yet seems much more pleasant and hopeful, even though it describes a situation that is hardly any less hopeless than that of Rhapsody. Eliot cleverly manages to make two very similar ways of life look very different in the two poems. In Rhapsody the combination of night, and the moon creating an eerie, terrifying scene makes a bad situation seem even worse - a vision of hell, with grinning doors and twisted things that cannot even be identified. In this hell the prostitute cowers, despite the fact that this is effectively her workplace. She is a "lady of the night", and Eliot shows the horrible misunderstanding - she may be said to be "of the night" by people who don't understand her situation and think that the idea of prostitutes in the night is quite romantic, but she is really just scared and scarred by her experiences and the dirt and disease. Preludes seems to show the other side. Although very similar in many ways to Rhapsody (the descriptions of poverty, hopelessness, filth) it has something hopeful about it, that maybe these people will one day break free of their way of life, and for now it is certainly not the end of the world, whereas Rhapsody seems rather close to it. The two poems certainly portray the bleakness of early 20th century city life, but with a major difference. One holds hope, the other does not. And so I feel that Preludes gives a more accurate portrayal of human nature - everything may be going wrong and seem pretty bleak to us, who have near enough everything we want, but actually it will take far more than a bit of misfortune to stop us fighting for something better. Rhapsody in that case I would say shows what happens when you give in to the misfortune and allow it to crush the strength out of you, or at least gives a glimpse of what might happen, which if anything makes you fight harder. The poems are a strong call for people at the time to open their eyes to reality. The critics thought Eliot was making fun of them, but who is laughing now?