Poetry Summary

• The first prelude depicts a rundown and deteriorating cityscape through an omniscient perspective. It provides the impression of a desolate and exhausted society to where the presence of people is implied but never stated – generating a mood of alienation with the consequences of modernity. However, the final stanza provides the feeling of hope in the wait of anticipation for the following prelude.
• The second prelude exonerates this anticipation, marking merely the shift in time to the morning with the lack of change in scenery. The descriptions of the same unattractive environment shift into a more personable and abstract tone, initiating the beginning thoughts of an objective speaker. The third prelude immediately engages the reader through the sudden shift to second person, emanating the possibility of a female perspective.
• The sordid imagery positions the individuals discovery of life as meaningless – constituting her own inner gloom founded in an epiphany to become ruminated to the outside world. The fourth stanza finally reveals individuals alienation in a world of disconnection. The futile imagery propagated in this stanza unveils the evolution of the world as a meaningless routine.
• Within the Preludes, Eliot utilizes a stream of consciousness style to evoke the thoughts of an average city dweller. The four components (preludes) represent four distinctive periods of the day. The first prelude (I) sparks the scenery of nighttime, to which the poet visually alludes to the disheveled and untidy streetscape in being neglected. The prelude ends by making the reader feel suspicious towards the visitor. The second prelude (II) suggests the atmosphere of an early morning, evoking feelings of meaninglessness and disgust associated with a hangover. In this prelude, the poet’s use of “masquerades” provokes one of the major theme of disguise and deception.

Form

• “Preludes” is a lyric poem in free verse and divided into four numbered sections. Evidently the poem is composed as an irregular to portray succinctly the stream of consciousness style.
• The initial objective description of the cityscape and environmental surroundings shifts into an emotional first-person account of these descriptions.
• The poem evokes a literal and impressionistic writing style, emanating a strong criticism of the individuals development of solitary existence in response to the complications of modernity.