Gerontion

In Gerontion by T.S. Eliot, I was most struck by the stanza on history. He describes history as “someone” with all of these things to hide from us, like a house with secret passageways. Furthermore, he also talks about how we as people are unable to learn when history has a lesson to teach us. According to the poem, History only gives us knowledge when we aren’t able to pay attention to it, or when it is too late for us to do anything about it. Eliot also claims that history confuses us more than it gives us clarity sometimes.

I think that Eliot makes a fair point in this portion of the poem. We always talk a lot about learning from history, using history to our advantage to make the world a better place in the future. However, history does repeat itself, despite the warnings that Eliot describes in the poem. I disagree with Eliot in that he blames History for humankind not being able to learn from it though. Instead, I think it is our own fault that we forget what happened, or that we cannot see a piece of information if it is given to us too soon.

Gerontion

In T.S. Eliot’s poem, Gerontion, the man narrating is stuck in the middle—arguing with himself. When he says, “Thou hast not youth nor age…Dreaming of both” he is saying that he’s stuck in the middle years—he isn’t young anymore but he isn’t yet old. The beginning of the poem is also full of comparisons. For example, “dry month” vs. “waiting for rain” compares dry and rain. Also “neither at the hot gates nor fought in the warm rain nor deep in the salt marsh, heaving a cutlass…” These comparisons are metaphorical of the end of WWI. Europe isn’t in war yet but aren’t over it—they’re still recovering from the destruction it caused. The narrator also questions God in the poem. Near the beginning he says, “Came Christ the tiger” hinting that it was Christ who saved them. However, later in the poem, he says ‘The tiger springs in the new year. Us he devours.” It seems like the narrator is praising God for rescuing them, but also questioning why he started the war in the first place and caused so much destruction. The poem is full of comparisons and questions as the narrator is stuck in confusion about the war ending and what to do now as the world is left in turmoil.

Turning Point

Throughout this poem, the speaker talks about a time when he/she is neither young or old.  The last stanza stands out a lot due to its blend of science and fantasy.  Eliot uses images such as membrane and operations and atoms.  This part of the poem creates the feeling of a hospital room.  By using these words that suggest a natural change there is the belief that something that the speaker wants to change can be changed.  At a time where someone is in the middle of his/her life there is a question of who a person will turn out to be and how he/she will change over time.  There is also quite a bit of onomatopoeia in this poem.  The images in this poem make it a very visual poem.  The image of a tiger springing and devouring a person in the New Year shows a time of change.  The tiger devours the chance to start over because these people have not yet come to the chance to change because they have not yet completed the part of their journey that they need to be at.  Instead the speaker is at a turning point.  Being in a grey area is not necessarily comfortable, but it is exciting because there are different directions to go in.  This speaker is not stuck in a house and is not stuck in a dry time in life.  Instead being in between two stages of life carries the responsibility of finishing the journey but the option of having different paths.  

Description of Age

With the knowledge that T.S. Eliot wrote this poem at a relatively young age, I found it really interesting that he took such a pessimistic view on the effects the lapsing of time takes on a man. In the beginning of the poem he is not shy about making the narrator seem as though he had lost some of his wits with the lapsing of time. He writes about this delirium saying, "I am an old man, a dull head among windy spaces." Along with intelligence, he also concludes that old age causes a loss of basic senses. He writes, "I  have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch." He also implies that there is a certain degree of unhappiness correlated with old age. The entire poem is marred with a sad and gloomy tone, as the man reflects on a life full of conflict.  The man seems to lead a lonely existence. I found the lines, "I have no ghosts, An old man in a droughty house under a windy knob" to be particularly discouraging. He also writes about a loss of passion in regard to his wife, but concludes, "why should I need to keep it?" Overall, I found the poem to be a sad reflection on a life past.

Gerontion

First, I just want to say this poem for the most part was super confusing.  I feel like Eliot dropped a lot of names of people that we as readers are unfamiliar with, as well as lots of names of places.  I think the poem is very complex.  It was quite and interesting poem although hard to understand.  That being said there was one thing that I wanted to talk about, and it is about how at the end we kind of see that the "old man" in the poem is going to continue his work no matter his age.  This tells me that if we assume the narrator to be Eliot (we know him not to be an old man when he wrote it), then he believes that his work is never over.  I really like the line "What will the spider do suspend its operations, will the weevil delay?", because it really shows that he is dedicated to his work, just as a spider is to spinning its web.  These are actions that he portrays as ones that are never-ending.  This makes me feel like he thinks that poetry is never-ending, as well as that it is not always straight forward and uncomplicated.  There are a lot of intricacies in a spiders web, and I think that is something that we see in this poem.  It is very intricate, even the different types of meter employed throughout the poem show that Eliot developed it with careful thought and deliberation and that everything included was deliberate and serves a purpose (even though I cannot speak to exactly what that is!).  I am hoping that through discussion of this poem tomorrow I will have a better grasp of Eliot's intent with the poem, because I have read it several times now and much of it is still confusing for me.

Gerontion and its link to Shakespeare

This poem is particularly interesting because it begins with an epigraph from one of Shakespeare’s plays.  Seeing as this is an intentional use of someone else’s work it must be significant.  I looked up the play to see what general mood it creates, and how it would link it to Gerontion.  The play Is classified as comedy but this is not the general mood according to those who have read or seen it.  I think that in linking these two together Eliot is attempting to create a link with Shakespeare in the same way that the speaker in the poem has trouble with aging.  The play was written and performed in the early 17^th century representing the old man in the poem.  The young boy who is talked about directly following the quote represents the new type of literature that Eliot and his generation embodies.  The message of the poem and this example is creating the mood that aging is relative.  It is notable that Eliot writes this poem when he is about 32 and has put himself in the shoes of an old man to write the poem.  I think that through the timelessness of Shakespeare’s play and how it endured for so many years after Shakespeare was dead is what Eliot is trying to emulate.

Robert Frost - Mending Wall

·      what is the poem literally saying?

o   two neighbors, one of the neighbors says that wall is continually torn down, annually meet and re-build

o   neighbor questions why the wall is there in the first place

o   second neighbor “good fences make good neighbors”

·      how does the wall demonstrate the barrier between the two people

o   neighbor doesn’t have a reason – but all he has ever know, keep things separate

o   narrator questions purpose – wants to challenge the other neighbor

§  third to last line, “he will not go against his fathers saying”

·      used to the wall, tradition

·      why still fix the wall?

o   about inability of people to change ways and break down institutions

§  24 shift from we -> he is all pine, and I am apple orchard

§  in nature people are different and cant really change that although neighbor wants to take wall down neighbor is still going to be who he is

§  more symbolic – taking down divide

§  aren’t bothering one another, no need for divide but it is still there

§  afraid of change

·      afraid of breaking down internal wall, and letting wall decompose

o   good fences make good neighbors

§  keep each other honest, no dispute – literal sense

§  making sure in future generations that there is no land dispute

o   don’t think poem is really about orchards but instead

§  different types of farms, different points of views -> narrator suggest take down the walls and try and talk about things and share points of view with one another

o   narrator apple orchard, whereas neighbor evergreen, doesn’t change with season -> apple change throughout season, change through life and opinions

·      segregation

o   word neighbor

§  struggle between blacks and whites

§  even if not a wall and given full rights still air of segregation

·      throughout the poem, narrator and neighbor don’t talk as friends, no relationship besides they are neighbors

o   wall was divide

·      conflict between two ideologies

o   narrator – open minded and wants to tear down wall

o   neighbor – likes boundaries and personal space

o   questioning of why make boundaries

§  “before I build a wall…”

·      is the neighbor building walls to keep view insulated or to keep worlds view away from him

·      written WWI

o   commentary on communism v. democracy

§   two orchards represent opposing views

§  which side of fence represents democracy and communism?

·      both sides put walls up, ambiguous

·      why the wall is being destroyed every winter?

o   nature

o   frost is saying unnatural to seclude oneself from people

o   man fighting nature, natural instincts

·      nature/natural cycles/events

o   “spring is the mischievous in me”

§  apple tree goes through seasons -> like adolescence

o   winter breaks wall down, during spring rebuild, naturally walls get torn down, winter represents hardship, in spring have an opportunity to move in a different direction, but continually choose to build wall back up

o   trees -> apple experience seasons, evergreen constant

o   narrator alerts neighbor is time to mend walls

§  does he begin like pine tree man and something happens to him over course of walking wall? doesn’t know himself?

·      knows that it needs to be done, posing question of purpose of mending fence, maybe is simply a question and questioning reasoning

·      wall as a family feud -> over time people compelled to maintain wall but gaps form, synonymous with not knowing why feud started in the first place

·      reason wants to rebuild is because what he knows but while rebuilding it reflects and questions why he does it in the first place

o   mending fences -> fixing a relationship

§  in the poem instead creates a barrier

·      is the poem criticizing isolationism?

o   WWI, US doesn’t enter until late

o   if wall torn down would foster better relationships

·      argument that do need fences

o   cows are an example where need barriers

o   between countries there is a need for a border to keep people confined just as cows need to be confined

·      gaps so wide that two people could walk though  - cattle need for walls

o   narrator not talking about literal walls but instead referring to more of a trade barrier between countries, fostering positive relationships

·      why do they need to rebuild?

o   doesn’t ask neighbor but would rather figure out himself

o   only point where he insists is point that the apple trees will not cross barrier

·      catch phrases

o   “good fences make good neighbors” – grammatically correct sentence

o   “something there is that doesn’t love a wall” – not a real sentence, verb switched

o   gap in communication

§  narrator – poetic and nebulous

§  neighbor – speaking in simple terms apples, trees, fences

o   what happens when these two people walk beside one another?

§  need to learn to communicate first

§  what does the speaker need to learn from the neighbor

·      taunting neighbor

o   game

o   mischief

·      pun on Robert frost name?

o   frost and frozen ground swell breaks up the fence in the first place

o   examine first 11 lines

§  hunters dismantle line to get rabbit, speaker repairs those himself

§  gaps caused by frost take both narrator and neighbor

·      significance?

o   no one wants to take responsibility for it if natural occurrence

o   hunter only touching one side, however frost and ice touch everything

o   such a big job that is a two person job?

§  the strength that ice and frost have can move boulders that one person can’t move themselves

o   hand is mightier than the sword

§  pun in name seems that the effect can have on the wall is more than one hunter can have, he can effect both sides (his poem) but can do more than one

·      two sides of one personality ?

o   frost at war with himself

§  stick by rules? or mischievous?

§  in each of us there are these two sides

§  about the divided self

§  balanced personality is able to bring them both together in mending wall activity

·      allusion to Greek mythology

o   Sisyphus, push a boulder up a hill, once to top boulder would roll back down, repeat process

o   allusion if this happening have a correlation to the mending of the wall

§  repetitive nature of poem

§  ritual

§  futile endeavor

Use of Repetition and Parallel Structure in Eliot's Gerontion

T.S. Eliot’s use of repetition and parallel structure serves to highlight important sections of the poem. In the very first stanza, Eliot uses the repetition of statements starting with “nor”, creating a parallel structure to emphasize the contrast between the “dry month” and the “warm rain” and “salt marshes.” The description of the narrator’s dry surroundings set the tone of despair and longing for the rest of the poem. In the fourth stanza, he repeats the phrase “to be” to draw attention to the actions occurring (“ To be eaten, to be divided, to be drunk”)-attention which would otherwise be focused on the descriptions of the “depraved May.” In the fifth stanza the repetition of “gives” is tongue tying and forces the reader to slow down in order to comprehend what Eliot is trying to say about history and its role in torturing mankind with hindsight(“give too late what’s not believed in, or is still believed”). In the sixth stanza the repetition of “I” narrows the focus of the poem from the other people living in the house and general statements about humanity back to focus on the narrator and his relationship.