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Grouping the Poems – Key Features
There are a number of recurring motifs and poetic techniques within Eliot’s poems. The following is a brief roundup of the salient features which link the poems discussed above:
- Mallarme on symbolism:
Earlier poems are “deficient in mystery: they deprive the mind of the delicious joy of believing that it is creating. To name an object is to do away with ¾ of the enjoyment of the poem, which is derived from the satisfaction of guessing little by little: to suggest it, to evoke it – that is what charms the imagination.?
- Dramatic qualities – The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock and Portrait of a Lady. Creation of voices – dramatic monologue, or “dialogue? in Portrait of a Lady with voice of woman alternating with thoughts of man. Sparing use of well-chosen detail to suggest location, class etc.
- Choice of imagery to…
