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T. S. Eliot

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Do you agree that T. S. Eliot's poetry portrays the modern world as full of despair and isolation?

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I agree that T. S. Eliot's poetry presents a modern world that is full of darkness and despair. Many of his works describe everyday situations through the lens of misery. One example of this is in the first section of "Little Gidding":

It would be the same, when you leave the rough road
And turn behind the pig-sty to the dull facade
And the tombstone. And what you thought you came for
Is only a shell, a husk of meaning . . .

Here, Eliot describes the view along a road during different seasons. The scene in winter is dark and cold, but he makes no distinction between this setting in winter and in spring. The movement from winter to spring is usually portrayed as a joyous time of life and rebirth, but Eliot disregards this and continues to describe a world that is filled with despair.

Another example comes from the poem "Morning at the Window":

And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.

Again, Eliot describes a daily scene from the world around him in a negative manner. Here, Eliot shows the isolation felt in the modern world. The housemaids feel no satisfaction; they simply come and go from their positions because it is what they are supposed to do. Eliot also feels no belonging in this world he sees moving around him; through his poems, he shows his own sense of isolation.

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