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** ||> =Biography =  Thomas Stearns Eliot was born September 26, 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri where he lived until he was eighteen. In college,
 * **T.S. Eliot

at Harvard University. He was the youngest of seven children. His mother had congenital double hernia. His paternal

grandfather was William Greenleaf Eliot, was the dean of the American Unitarianism. He (the grandfather) graduated from

Harvard divinity school. His family built a house in the northwest shore in 1896, as a boy Eliot foraged for crabs and

became an accomplished sailor. During the warm months he would sail in the rocky shoals of Cape Ann, and the rest of the

year would sail in the Mississippi River. Later he said he gave up a feeling of belonging for both sides of the coast, that he

felt like a New Englander in the Southwest and a Southwesterner in New England. Eliot attended Harvard university,

during his freshman year he lived in a private dormitory in a neighborhood around Mt. Auburn street also known as the

"Golden Coast." He also studied at The Sorbonne and Oxford. In 1914 he established residence in London and in 1927

became a British subject. After working as a bank clerk he began his publishing career, he was the assistant editor of the

Egoist. In 1925, he was employed by the publishing house of Faber and Faber, eventually becoming one of its directors. His first

marriage, to Vivienne Haigh-Wood in 1915, was troubled, and ended with their divorce in 1933. His second marriage

to Valerie Fletcher in 1957 was a bit more successful.

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Portrait of a Lady," "La Figlia Che Piange," "Preludes," and "Rhapsody on a Windy

Night" are some of the poems that made T.S. Eliot so renown. He won the 1948 Nobel Prize in literature. He died on

January 4 1965. ||

Poetry links
[|Info on T.S. Eliot] [|More Info] [|Rhapsody on a Windy Night] [|Preludes] [|La Figlia Che Piange] [|Portrait of a Lady]  [|The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock] [|Pictures]
 * [[image:http://www.4starbiz.com/missdeal/poetry/elliot.gif]] ||> [[image:http://seoblackhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/ts-eliot-black-hat.jpg]] ||

Explication
Explication of "Rhapsody on a Windy Night"



The poem " Rhapsody on a Windy Night " is one of Eliot's most famous poems not so much because of his idea of the poem but because of the language he uses.

[|Rhapsody on a Windy Night] States that the world is a painful and unkind place.

In the last two lines where Eliot states " Put your shoes at the door, sleep, prepare for life. The last twist of the knife." Shows that in this poem

Eliot discusses the problems of life and that life is just our way of suffering.

Eliot uses a variety of transcendence in this poem. Transcendence are an example of putting humankind in a lower position. In the fourth stanza of

the poem Eliot describes a cat and a little kid equally. When they both took things from the alley way that wasn't theirs.

Another thing that the poem is mainly about is that its about an old woman who is living in a materialistic world. The author also uses clever ways to

ask big questions in ways that society would not get offended by the poem.

in this poem it disscusses about something he is trying to remember and the clock counting down the time. As he is walking down the street the clock points out things to him

like a mad man shaking a dead geranium or says things like " Regard that woman who hesitates toward you in the light which opens on her like a grin."

Another thing that Eliot trys to mention in his poem is that he is trying to say that the world is giving up on its self.

"A twisted branch upon the beach eaten smooth, and polished as if the world gave up."

This type of literature Eliot uses gets the reader to think about the earths problems such as pollution.

Also that the world might not be able to handle everything we are doin to it so it is just giving up and just like Eliot said at the end of the poem

That the world is just waiting to die. This is the point Eliot is trying to prove through his poem.

He is trying to explian that maybe living life is just a way for us to cope with the real truth, that we are really just trying to pass time and are just everyday suffering and

waiting for death. That Earth is not a great place to be that maybe it is hell for us.

This poem was written and published in 1917 and can be found in T.S. Eliot's Volume titled "Prufrock" and other observations.



Sources
Colombia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition. "Eliot, T.S." __www.bartleby.com__ (2001). 5 December 2008 http://www.bartleby.com/65/el/Eliot-Th.html

Bush, Ronald. "T.S. Eliot." __www.english.uiuc.edu__ (1999). 5 December 2008 http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/life.htm

Walther, Russell B. "T.S. Eliot." __www.Poets.org__. (20 Jan.2003). 5 December 2008 .