Preludes Analysis

Preludes are musical interludes, so someone reading the title might expect the poem to sound like a song. Here Eliot doesn't disappoint, though the poem isn't exactly "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."...

Who guides us through these dirty streets and dingy apartments? The speaker in the poem stays detached from the images for most of the poem, serving as a narrator to the reader, whom he (or she) ad...

Ah, the city. Don't you love the smell of greasy food, the garbage everywhere, the dingy apartment windows? Yeah, maybe not so much…We begin the poem by wandering through the streets in the rain....

With a musical title like "Preludes," we just know there's gotta be some music here somewhere. Well, it's definitely got a particular sound, though (in true Eliot style) a consistent beat is nowher...

A "prelude" is similar to a prologue; preludes are short pieces that introduce something larger.Here, Eliot is introducing us to the themes of his later, larger works, like "The Waste Land" and "Th...

Eliot, a despite being a modernist (part of the literary movement to make things "new") had some pretty strong opinions about modern life and its effects on our humanity. You could even say it's hi...

Though it's a cacophony of images, style, and gloom, Preludes is free of the tricky allusions that pepper most of Eliot's other works. Proceed with confidence; once you get used to the rhythms of t...

Eliot is responsible for the musical Cats, which is based on "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats." (Source.)Eliot wasn't just a poet and playwright; he also was a teacher and a banker. Hey, you go...

It's definitely a dirty poem… in a streets-full-of-garbage-way. There's no need to avert your eyes (but you might want to plug your nose).