Preludes - TS EliotRelevant context• Thomas Stearns [TS] Eliot was born into a wealthy family in St Louis, Missouri, America in 1888• He became a British citizen at the age of 39 in 1927. • His father was president of a brick manufacturing company. His mother wrote poetry and was once a teacher and social volunteer. They were determined to educate Thomas well. • TS Eliot's awareness of how differently some people lived inspired many of the descriptions found in the "Preludes". • Through the work of his mother and grandfather, TS Eliot became aware of the poverty and boring reality of people's lives.• In 1917 he published the 'Preludes'. 'Preludes' is composed of four short poems, numbered I, II, III and IV. • Some say that in 'Preludes' Eliot tried to imagine the thoughts and observations of four poor city dwellers. It is possible instead that he observes a prostitute in the first three 'Preludes' and a tramp in the fourth 'Prelude'. This is open to discussion. • In each prelude Eliot reveals a person's thoughts and feelings about an aspect of everyday life in a city. Eliot believed that life for poor city dwellers was monotonous. He felt they suffered from boredom and a poor quality of life. In these "Preludes" Eliot examines human desperation and feelings of rejection and failure. • A prelude is a short piece of music that introduces a longer piece of music. In music the prelude is sometimes called an overture. In writing a short introductory piece it is often called a preface.• Perhaps the overall theme is the misery of poverty.SummaryPrelude I• In this short poem, a hidden observer describes the twilight of a winter evening in a poor part of a city. • The observer is outside, haunted......in the center of the card ......becomes an example of onomatopoeia when he captures the scraping or rasping sound of blown leaves as they scrape the ground. Hissing sounds also more vividly convey the mood of the impatient horse. Sibilance is used throughout the poem: it reinforces the atmosphere of dirty secret lives. • Rhyme There are many end rhymes in the poem, although they do not follow a rigid pattern throughout. Note the irregular sequence of fifteen final sounds of 'Prelude III': 'ed', 'ed', 'ing', 'ages', 'ed', 'ing', 'ack', 'ers', 'ers', 'eet', 'eet', 'ere', 'air', 'eet', 'ands'. There is rhyme but an unclear pattern. This musically represents the confusion of life. There are also some repetitions of words between the lines. Take for example "street" between lines 33 and 34. All the repetitions of sounds create verbal or spoken word music, which is very suitable for a group of poems called "Preludes".'.