Main characteristics and driving forces in the mode of writing:
-extensive use of free verse
- the questioning of the self through "dislocation of the "authorial presence" [through techniques such as: collage, found poetry, visual poetry, the juxtaposition of apparently unconnected materials and combinations of all of these]. These challenge the readers expectations of the poetic experience.
- clear focus on the surface of the poem [focus on the literal meaning of the words on the page rather than any metaphorical or symbolic meanings].
Wiliam Carlos Williams 1944 “A poem is a small (or large) machine made out of words”.
Collage as a literally technique [similar to the cubist practise and other visual artists] was used by Eliot in the Wasteland (with notes by Ezra Pound). This apparently "moved English language modernism towards a poetry of the fragment that rejects the idea that the poet could present a comfortingly coherent view of life".
How the above relate to T.S Eliot's Burnt Norton [which I'm using for a project]
In Burnt Norton Eliot relies on speech –a narrator who speaks to the audience directly. The scene that the narrator recalls provokes a discussion "on time and how the present, not the future or past, really matters to individuals. Memories connect the individual to the past, but the past cannot change. The poem then transitions from memory to how life works and the point of existence. In particular, the universe is described as orderly and that consciousness is not found within time even though humanity is bound by time. The scene of the poem moves from a garden to the London underground where technology dominates. Those who cling to technology and reason are unable to understand the universe or the Logos("the Word", or Christ). The underworld is replaced by a churchyard and a discussion on death. This, in turn, becomes a discussion of timelessness and eternity, which ends the poem.” (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_Norton)
The poems narrations reflects Eliot’s belief that humankind is affected by Original Sin, that there is a choice of following the good or evil path and that one can atone for their sins. One must leave the time-bound world and look inwardly and poets must seek perfections, not bound by time so as to escape the problems of language (Pinion, F. B. A T. S. Eliot Companion. London: MacMillan, 1986. ISBN 0-333-37338-3)
Ackroyd, Peter. T. S. Eliot: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984. ISBN 0-671-60572-0 :
There is an emphasis on the present moment as being the only point in time that really matters (because the past cannot be changed and the future is unknown).
Memory must be abandoned to understand the current world and humans must realize that the universe is based on order. He sees god in that order and humankind by believing in him can be saved from the bounds of the material universe.
The rose-garden is an imaginative space that serves the function of representing potential within human existence. An imagined reality. Words exist in the mind and this allows this imagines reality to be shared between the narrator and the reader. However the narrator then claims that such a place has no purpose.
My thoughts:
This theory of order doesn’t take into account the theory of chaos. Could that lead into a different interpretation?
Personally I do not agree with the "God" conclusion that the narrator offers but I am interested in the journey he takes us through in the poem. Once again the journey is what matters for me and not the destination. I am interested in taking the viewer through this journey in a way that is controlled by both me and the viewer. Could this leave a more open ended conclusion that is not so “godly”? Could it be that there is a different kind of order within chaos?
