T S Eliot Revision Activities

Transcription

1 Lesson 1 On your own, read through the following 16 quotes taken from Prufrock and Other Observations and Gerontion. Write the name of the poem the quote is taken from alongside each quote. Read again the 16 quotes. For each one identify the literary technique employed by Eliot. Remember you must use technical terms in your exam essay! 1. Let us go then, you and I 2. Every street-lamp that I pass Beats like a fatalistic drum 3. The street-lamp sputtered, The street-lamp muttered 4. My house is a decayed house 5. You have the scene arrange itself as it will seem to do With I have saved this afternoon for you 6. I grow old I grow old I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. 7. We have been, let us say, to hear the latest Pole Transmit the Preludes, through his hair and finger-tips. 8. Tenants of the house, Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season. 9. His soul stretched tight across the skies 10. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. 11. The burnt-out ends of smoky days. 12. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes 13. Inside my brain a dull tom-tom begins 14. The showers beat On broken blinds and chimney-pots, And at the corner of the street A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps. 15. My self-possession gutters; we are really in the dark. 16. Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? doc Page 1 of 5

2 Lesson 1 Teacher s Answers On your own, read through the following 16 quotes taken from Prufrock and Other Observations and Gerontion. Write the name of the poem the quote is taken from alongside each quote. Read again the 16 quotes. For each one identify the literary technique employed by Eliot. Remember you must use technical terms in your exam essay! 1. Let us go then, you and I Prufrock direct address and ambiguity could also be Prufrock s thinking self addressing his public self 2. Every street-lamp that I pass Beats like a fatalistic drum Rhapsody simile 3. The street-lamp sputtered, The street-lamp muttered Rhapsody personification and repetition 4. My house is a decayed house Gerontion metaphor 5. You have the scene arrange itself as it will seem to do With I have saved this afternoon for you Portrait parenthesis and satire 6. I grow old I grow old I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Prufrock ellipsis and repetition rhyming couplet pathos 7. We have been, let us say, to hear the latest Pole Transmit the Preludes, through his hair and finger-tips. Portrait pun and satire 8. Tenants of the house, Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season. Gerontion repetiton of adjective 9. His soul stretched tight across the skies Preludes metaphor 10. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. Prufrock repeated refrain and rhyming couplet 11. The burnt-out ends of smoky days. Preludes another cigarette image metaphor doc Page 2 of 5

3 12. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes Portrait metaphor and repetition 13. Inside my brain a dull tom-tom begins Portrait metaphor 14. The showers beat On broken blinds and chimney-pots, And at the corner of the street A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps. Preludes alliteration and pathetic fallacy 15. My self-possession gutters; we are really in the dark. Portrait extended metaphor 16. Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? Prufrock another cigarette image metaphor doc Page 3 of 5

4 Lesson 2 On your own, read through the following short quotes taken from The Waste Land. Write the name of the part of the poem the quote is taken from alongside each quote. Choose three of the quotes below. Each quote must be from a different part of the poem. Annotate each as thoroughly as possible and be ready to report back to the group. 1. The river s tent is broken 2. After the torchlight red on sweaty faces 3. A current under sea Picked his bones in whispers. 4. April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land 5. The chair she sat in, like a burnished throne, Glowed on the marble 6. The nymphs are departed. 7. It s them pills I took, to bring it off, she said. 8. Then spoke the thunder. DA Datta: what have we given? 9. O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter And on her daughter They wash their feet in soda water 10. To Carthage then I came 11. Shantih shantih shantih 12. Yet when we came back, late, from the hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed 13. Unreal city Under the brown fog of a winter noon Mr Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants 15. HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME The Waste Land copyright T S Eliot doc Page 4 of 5

5 16. Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you. 17. In vials of ivory and coloured glass Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes 18. My nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. Stay with me. Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak. 19. I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring. Thank you. 20. Unreal city, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many. 21. Ta ta. 22. Old man with wrinkled female breasts 23. My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart Under my feet. The Waste Land copyright T S Eliot doc Page 5 of 5