Perhaps the only way we can clear a way through the ambiguities of this poem is by proposing that the true meaning of ‘Sweeney Erect’ lies somewhere between these two interpretations: the woman on the bed is an epileptic, but on this occasion, it so happens, she was merely convulsed with laughter. (The lengthened shadow of a man 25 Is history, said Emerson: Who had not seen the silhouette Of Sweeney straddled in the sun). Title: An Analysis of T.S. In 1910 and 1911, while still a college student, he wrote “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and other poems that are landmarks in the history of literature. Beyond this, we might ask: how are we supposed to read the poem’s references, in its early stanzas, to Greek mythology and to Jacobean playwrights Beaumont and Fletcher (whose The Maid’s Tragedy provides the poem’s epigraph)? The epigraph is taken from the Aeschylus play Agamemnon. Eliot’s poetry here. PAINT me a cavernous waste shore Cast in the unstilled Cyclades, Paint me the bold anfractuous rocks The woman appears to be suffering. But in the poem “Sweeney Erect,” Eliot questions the visibility of hysteria, the indifference that it creates, by appealing directly to the reader’s powers of interpretation. Make all a desolation. Enjambment forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. Rises from the sheets in steam. The reference in the third line is to Ariadne, a character from Greek mythology who is connected with the myth of Theseus and the slaying of the minotaur. The emphasis in this poem is on detached observation of a squalid urban scene: the speaker passes no comment on Sweeney’s behaviour. He also pauses until the woman’s shrieking dies down. Eliot: Poems Sweeney Erect. Of Sweeney straddled in the sun.). The first, alliteration, occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same letter. Curves backward, clutching at her sides. (…) (…) Eliot used the character of Sweeney in four poems prior to Sweeney Agonistes: "Sweeney Among the Nightingales" (1918), "Mr. Eliot's Sunday Morning Service" (1918), "Sweeney Erect" (1919) and The Waste Land (1922). He will be “reviewing the insurgent,” or rebellious “gales,” or wind gusts. Line two brings in the concepts of “Polyphème” the cycles blinded by Odysseus in Homer’s epic Odyssey. Indeed, the woman’s seizure on the bed is only half-described, hinted at like an obscene event: “Gesture of orang outang/Rises from the … Eliot uses alliteration in this stanza as well with “shriek subsides” and “Curves” and “clutching”. But, it also connects to “homo Erectus,” suggesting that Sweeney is somehow less than human today. They are suddenly involved in the scene even though they don’t want to be. New Hampshire: Eliot gives the reader a glimpse of the State of New Hampshire in this poem. I think he may have even made it into a draft of "The Waste Land") and seems mainly to be a means of mocking the Irish as grossly physical and brutish. Recent work: Erect 2 attached single family residence as per plans. She brings with her “a glass of brandy neat” and smelling salts. Eliot makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘Sweeney Erect’ these include alliteration, personification, enjambment, and caesura. And the trees about me, Sweeney was a stock figure in several of Eliot's poems ("Sweeney Erect", "Sweeney Agonistes", etc. It appeared in Self-Reliance and was interference to institutions. They bend and then straighten repetitively. Groan with continual surges; and behind me Author: Thomas C. … Finally, Eliot introduces Sweeney into the poem. Swelling to maculate giraffe. It appears he wishes ill on the flourishing trees, to be “dry and leafless”. PAINT me a cavernous waste shore Hasan, Mariwan, Bushra Hsen, and Bushra Jalal. When he laughs, the black and white strips on his jaws are quite visible. English W3220: Modern Poetry—Yeats, Eliot, Auden Edward Mendelson Office: Philosophy 614, Mon 4-6, Wed 11-12 Hamilton 603, MW 9:10-10:25 em36@columbia.edu, x46417 Eliot's "Sweeney Erect." The winter evening settles Winter symbollically is the season of death and decay, prior to the new growth of spring. This Sweeney is radically different from Eliot's early Sweeney in Sweeney Erect, or Sweeney Among the Nightingales, not to mention the Sweeney seen in The Waste Land. Eliot: Poems Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. In England published in an almost identical … Here as he laughs he projects suggestions of his animal relationship. Poems (1920) - Sweeney Erect Analysis. He is the author of, among others, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History and The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem. In ‘Sweeney Erect’ it is used to describe Sweeney, but not pass judgment on him. Also known as slant or partial rhyme, is seen through the repetition of assonance or consonance. Sweeney’s silhouette, despite its strangeness and size, appears powerfully silhouetted in the sun. He’s asking to be placed in amongst the “anfractuous,” or circuitous, “rocks” and face down the “snarl[ing] and “yelping seas”. Look, look, wenches! The fourth line reads: “Make all a desolation. Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. if the woman really is having an epileptic seizure and Sweeney ignores her, is this the modern-day equivalent of Theseus abandoning Ariadne)? Look, look, wenches! Sweeney addressed full length to shave Broadbottomed, pink from nape to base, Knows the female temperament And wipes the suds around his face. The T.S. Sweeney Erect. Eliot later used Sweeney in poems like ‘Sweeney Among the Nightingales’ and ‘Mr. And the trees about me, Let them be dry and leafless; let the rocks Groan with continual surges; and behind me Make all a desolation. Or is he suggesting similarities between past and present (i.e. Eliot: Poems Sweeney Erect. This could help to explain the disregard he has for the woman, although the overall tone of the poem suggests that it wouldn’t matter to Sweeney who the woman was, her suffering is only annoying as it disturbs his peace of mind. There is a great example in stanza one. Sweeney obviously could not care less what’s going on around him and is entirely focused on shaving. (There is also a strong suggestion in the name Sweeney that the character may be of Irish descent.) This means that either a vowel or consonant sound is reused within one line or multiple lines of verse. Eliot’s Sweeney is a primitive version of man, a little apelike in appearance, almost a throwback to an earlier species of man (this is suggested in this poem’s title, a pun on Homo erectus but also on the fact that this poem takes place in a brothel, with ‘erect’ being given a bawdy twist). Analysis of Sweeney Among The Nightingales Stanza One. Studies in Literature and Language 19.2 (2019): 101-107. It’s morning, and someone is waking up. Manganaro, for instance, writes that the Sweeney of “Sweeney Erect” and “Sweeney among the Nightingales” “is a prototype, even a stereotype, of the mind-numbing, instinctual, brutish modern sav- … The ladies of the corridor There are examples throughout the poem, for instance, the transition between lines one, two, and three, in the third stanza. In support of my thesis, I will offer an analysis of "Sweeney Erect," the poem Eliot did not want his mother to see. Is Eliot contrasting past with present here (suggesting that male-female relationships used to be epic and romantic, but in modern times are more likely to be a prostitute and her atavistic client horsing around in a brothel)? (The lengthened shadow of a man Is history, said Emerson Who had not seen the silhouette Of Sweeney straddled in the sun.) Eliot, the 1948 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is one of the giants of modern literature, highly distinguished as a … 'Sweeney Erect' Information and task (consider this poem as drama, along with 'Burbank ..' or 'Sweeney Among the Nightingales'). T.S. It could also be a pun on ‘erection’. (…) Make all a desolation. He later abandoned her and Dionysus made her his wife. These quatrains follow a rhyme scheme of ABCB, changing end sounds as the poet saw fit. Please support this website by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. Eliot's choice of these events and people--Madame Sosostris, the cast of characters in ‘A Game of Chess,’ and the typist--as representative of a particular society is 1 susceptible, of course, to a political analysis, which is to say, their representativeness is not self-evident, though they are presented as if it is. Title: Prufrock Supine and Sweeney Erect Author: keith sagar Created Date: 7/3/2008 12:47:32 PM Please continue to help us support the fight against dementia. Schuchard’s interpretation of the poem is convincing and at the very least highly plausible. Although she is described as the ‘epileptic on the bed’, the critic Ronald Schuchard has argued (in his excellent study of Eliot, Eliot’s Dark Angel: Intersections of Life and Art) that we should read ‘epileptic’ metaphorically. "Mysticism and Sufism in T.S Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’." The mood is consistently foreboding and dreary, with the poet taking a tone of disinterest towards the woman, the same as his main character. "TS Eliot’s ‘Sweeney Erect’Revisited." Eliot: Poems E-Text: Sweeney Erect E-Text T.S. He wrote the poems The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday, and Four Quartets; the plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party; and the essay Tradition and the Individ T.S. Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk. Find books And the trees about me, Let them be dry and leafless; let the rocks. Subscribe to our mailing list to reveal the best-kept secrets behind poetry, We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. "TS Eliot’s ‘Sweeney Erect’Revisited." Tests the razor on his leg Waiting until the shriek subsides. And the trees about me, Let them be dry and leafless; let the rocks. Tests the razor on his leg Waiting until the shriek subsides. The man does not appear to be very attractive, nor does he act kindly towards the woman who is in the same room with him. Literally it means 'before play', but it could here refer to the 'play before' the main event of human life: eternity. Eliot uses the word “wench” to refer to a young girl, or perhaps a serving girl as would make the most sense in the context of the poem. It has been speculated that his name may have been inspired by the demon barber of the nineteenth-century penny dreadful, Sweeney Todd, and since Sweeney appears holding a razor in this poem, this may well have been Eliot’s inspiration for the name. Publication Start Year: 1918. Eliot. Eliot’s ‘Sweeney Erect’ Revisited The main goal in writing this paper is to illustrate and shed light on the four main themes of the poem; myth and misogyny, violence and sexuality, self-importance and carelessness, human desire and animality in the poem and how Eliot describes his own preview on modern man and the condition of life which is full incompleteness by presenting this poem. We haven't found any reviews in the usual places. It has been speculated that his name may have been inspired by the demon barber of the nineteenth-century penny dreadful, Sweeney Todd, and since Sweeney appears holding a razor in this poem, this may well have been Eliot’s inspiration for the name. (The lengthened shadow of a man He describes the scene, or how he wants the scene to be. The sea is “unstilled,” yelping and snarling like a wild animal. It shows how we often let moral degradation creep into society without our even knowing it has done so. Hasan, Mariwan, Bushra Hsen, and Bushra Jalal. Personification occurs when a poet imbues a non-human creature or object with human characteristics. And the trees about me, Let them be dry and leafless; let the rocks Groan with continual surges; and behind me Make all a desolation. In the last stanza another prostitute, Doris, comes in from the bath. Eliot's "Sweeney Erect." Yet at the same time, everything in the poem seems to support a ‘face-value’ reading of the poem as being about a woman being ignored while she has an epileptic seizure. And deprecate the lack of taste. Apeneck Sweeney spread his knees. Thomas C. Casey. He is less empathetic and less morally obliged. And the trees about me, Let them be dry and leafless; let the rocks Groan with continual surges; and behind me Make all a desolation. Eliot himself described ‘Sweeney among the Nightingales’ as a sort of verbal representation of a painting – something also suggested in another of his Sweeney poems, ‘Sweeney Erect’, which even begins with a call for someone to paint the scene the poet is attempting to describe (in that case, an actual brothel). Eliot is a twelve stanza poem that is divided into sets of four lines, known as quatrains. Eliot importantly chides modernist culture within his representation of the recurring character Sweeney, while also adhering to principles that he advances within his critical essays. Thank you! It can be found in Eliot’s 1920 collection, called Ara Vos Prec You can read ‘Sweeney Erect’ here; what follows are some words by way of analysis about this elusive poem. Tests the razor on his leg Waiting until the shriek subsides. Sweeney addressed full length to shave Broadbottomed, pink from nape to base, Knows the female temperament And wipes the suds around his face. Title: An Analysis of T.S. The poem explores themes of desolation and emotional disconnection. Eliot, the 1948 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is one of the giants of modern literature, highly distinguished as a … The imagery in this line is very clear and evocative. This would explain why her ‘hysteria’ can be ‘misunderstood’, and why both Mrs Turner (the brothel-madam) and Doris both leap the conclusion that the woman was suffering a seizure when she wasn’t. Image: ‘Self-Portrait Shaving: Mirror Reflection’ by saintbob (2006), via Wikimedia Commons. ANALYSIS “Sweeney Among the Nightingales” (1918) T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) “In ‘Sweeney Among the Nightingales’—in which Eliot sought to create a sense of foreboding— Sweeney is threatened by death. Long analysis short the narrative is about a bum, whom Elliot compares to the legend of Agamemnon, a Greek king around the war of troy, they are both killed by their lovers and both have Nightingales sing after their death. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. She fled Crete along with Theseus. Observing that hysteria In the first stanza of Eliot’s complex poem ‘Sweeney Erect,’ the speaker begins by bringing the reader immediately into a scene. There is a clear sexual connection in the personification of these rocks, it is paired with “desolation” in the last line. But ‘Sweeney’ makes his debut in ‘Sweeney Erect’, a poem in quatrains which originally appeared in Eliot’s second volume, Poems, in 1919 (reprinted in 1920). Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. Her legs are moving strangely, like “Jackknifes”. From the beginning Sweeney is conceived as the ape man. Join the conversation by. How we analysis and interpret the poem in light of this is open to debate: was Eliot trying to lend his … Collected Poems, 1909-1962 - Poems (1920) - Sweeney Erect Summary & Analysis T. S. Eliot This Study Guide consists of approximately 45 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Collected Poems, 1909-1962. In support of my thesis, I will offer an analysis of "Sweeney Erect," the poem Eliot did not want his mother to see. From the beginning Sweeney is conceived as the ape man. She helped Odysseus when he was shipwrecked. The scene feels disgraceful as if the suffering woman on the bed is doing something very wrong, violating some principle of “taste”. Quick fast explanatory summary. There are also examples of half-rhyme throughout the poem. New Hampshire: Eliot gives the reader a glimpse of the State of New Hampshire in this poem. Paint me a cavernous waste shore Cast in the unstilted Cyclades, Paint me the … Title: Prufrock Supine and Sweeney Erect Author: keith sagar Created Date: 7/3/2008 12:47:32 PM And the trees about me, Let them be dry and leafless; let the rocks Groan with continual surges; and behind me Make all a desolation. And swell with haste the perjured sails. Jackknifes upward at the knees Is the woman epileptic? Note in this connection that the unnamed woman on the bed is ‘clutching at her sides’ – is this a fit of laughter that is being pathologised by Eliot by being likened to an epileptic ‘fit’? Sweeney appears to be in a brothel. There are women out in the “corridor,” other prostitutes or perhaps the madame of the house. I think he may have even made it into a draft of "The Waste Land") and seems mainly to be a means of mocking the Irish as grossly physical and brutish. And the trees about me, Let them be dry and leafless; let the rocks. The speaker draws the reader’s attention to her thighs which move like a “sickle”. Home T.S. But in the poem “Sweeney Erect,” Eliot questions the visibility of hysteria, the indifference that it creates, by appealing directly to the reader’s powers of interpretation. Make all a desolation. inspiration and for analysis in his prose. Sweeney Erect by T.S. One has to move forward in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. Quick fast explanatory summary. The scene in the poem appears to be that when she is sailing away from Crete, the wind tangling in her hair. For example, the rocks in the first stanza and the seas in the second. He is “Broadbottomed” and his skin is pink. PAINT me a cavernous waste shore Cast in the unstilled Cyclades, Paint me the bold anfractuous rocks Emma graduated from East Carolina University with a BA in English, minor in Creative Writing, BFA in Fine Art, and BA in Art Histories. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. A reader should be able to picture Sweeney fairly accurately, along with the woman on the bed. St. John's University, 1972 - 150 pages. The women enter the room and see the “hysteria” playing out before them. ‘Sweeney Erect’ was written and published in 1919 in Eliot’s collection, Poems. It’s clear she has no sympathy for this woman, nor patience. Guillaume: At our last meeting of the College Moot, after a rather lively discussion of Eliot’s “Sweeney Erect,” we decided to spend this evening looking at one of Eliot’s four French poems, “Lune de Miel.” Our purpose was to validate—or invalidate—Eliot’s account of … The woman’s ‘hysteria’ (i.e. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry." Eliot maintained great reverence for myth and the Westernliterary canon, and he packed his work full of allusions,quotations, footnotes, and scholarly exegeses. Eliot | download | Z-Library. Eliot’s Dark Angel: Intersections of Life and Art, short analysis of ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History, The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem. (…) By titling his poem “Sweeney Erect,” Eliot verifies his desire to establish a static mechanism for providing social commentary, as the title itself both posits that Sweeney resembles a primitive human ancestor, and elicits the image of sexuality through the word “erect,” ultimately characterizing his satirical figure before he is even introduced.