The Impact of the Old on the New

While I was reading this poem for the first time, in all honesty I didn't get any farther than the first line: “April is the cruelest month” (pg 5). In fact I didn't even fully understand what this meant at all, as in I could not understand why Eliot considered April to be the “cruelest month.” After our first class discussions I went back to re-read the poem and still could not follow at all. It was only after Tuesday’s class that I think I finally just barely grasped this poem. I must be honest that poetry is not my strong point. I don’t really like having to guess what the author is trying to say when he uses fancy literate language instead of more direct down to earth words.

            Interestingly enough, this preference of mine is actually what caused me to enjoy this poem more (of course only once I began to grasp what the poem was about), as I could go through the poem and see how Eliot contrasts different types/styles of words and sounds. On the one hand he uses really creative wording such as in line 76 (II- A Game of Chess) when Eliot writes, “The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne…;” while on the other hand, he then digresses to using more conversational, blunt lines, such as at the end of this section, in line 172, when he says, “Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night….” As Professor Miller explained, this appears to be Eliot’s method for expressing how culture has degraded so much. What was once elegant, beautiful, and upstanding, has become indecent, corrupt, and ugly. Eliot was especially disillusioned by the corruptness of politics overtaking Washington.

            Perhaps Eliot’s extensive use of myths—especially Egyptian myth—can help to add some proof for Eliot’s deep devotion to tradition and older culture. Maybe Eliot was even intending for some sarcastic humor, as his use of Egyptian myth could be him saying, “People may think I am ancient because I do not like the corruptness and loosening of morals that seem to be overtaking our ‘modern-day society,’ so fine, I will provide some truly ancient sources.” Eliot was, as we say in my house, “spiting his nose to spite his face.” In other words, he was saying what he did, in malice of his audience, as if to say, “You think I am old fashioned? Fine, I will give you old!” Simultaneously, I don’t think this was Eliot’s only intent, but rather he was also trying to submit a message to modern day society that the “old” still affects the new—as we said in class that the new cannot be reborn if the old does not die first. The old has direct implications on the new and thus the old should be affecting the new, which, according to Eliot, it is not—the new is completely lacking in morals and ethics, in old times these were held sacred; these traits had not been passed on. Additionally, Eliot includes other, still older, yet more traditional lines, such as in line 426 when he says, “London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down.” This is a very classic children’s nursery rhyme, and one that may represent, for Eliot, traditional old school times. 

            I’d like to share my view upon the ending of this book and how Eliot thinks this juxtaposition between the old/beautiful and the new/corruptness will end. Eliot finishes his poem with a Hindi prayer. This can either be interpreted as mockery, or as hope. It may just be because I really dislike books/movies that do not have happy endings, but I would like to believe that Eliot was ending with the prayer to show there is still hope for mankind and we can still purge ourselves of the corruption that was so widespread. Eliot is ending off stating that there is still the ability for humans to bring back the old righteousness and piety while burying the corrupt culture that seems to be infiltrating ‘modern culture.’