Comparing the Symbology and Imagery in T. S. Eliot’s Poetry Essay

In the poems â€Å"The Love Song by J. Alfred Prufrock,† written in 1910, published in 1915, and â€Å"Rhapsody on a Windy Night,† written in 1917, both of which were written by poet and literary-critic T. S. Eliot, the symbolism and imagery of the women represented in mythological means, the locations and landscapes that both protagonists wander through or plan on going to, and the nature that is used in both poems are very similar, yet uniquely different. â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† is about a man with low self-confidence worrying about going to a party in the evening where he is sure that the women there with reject and ridicule him; â€Å"Rhapsody on a Windy Night† is about a man wandering his way back in the early hours of the morning to the place where he is staying. In â€Å"Rhapsody†¦,† the moon is featured as a forgiving woman, one who will not hold a grudge and gentles and watches over everything. She appears as a lonely woman, almost as one whose lover has left her holding and twisting a â€Å"paper rose that smells of dust and eau de Cologne† (Eliot 31). At the end of â€Å"The Love Song†¦,† the women are represented as mermaids, sea-girls. They put the men under a spell, for lack of a better word, â€Å"We have lingered in the chambers of the sea/ By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown/ Till human voices wake us, and we drown.† The last line makes them seem like Sirens. In both poems the women are featured in strong mythological terms. Mythology, legends, etc. have always appealed to the senses. They are timeless, and involve adventure, romance, magic, loyalty, betrayal, wars, and mystery, all of which are qualities that strongly appeal to our senses, while also being riddled with symbol s and hidden meanings (Melinda-Landa... ...Works Cited Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Avon , 1972. Print. Daly, Kathleen N., and Marian Rengel. "A-to-Z Entries." Greek and Roman Mythology A to Z. New York: Facts On File, 2004. Print Eliot, T. S., and Peter Washington. â€Å"Prufrock and Other Observations.† Eliot: Poems and Prose. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1998. 13-19, 29-32. Print. Hanegraaff, Wouter J. "The Nature of Reality." New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1998. 154. Print. Hard, Robin, and H. J. Rose. "The Younger Olympian Gods and Goddesses." The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology" London: Routledge, 2004. 187. Print Homer. "Book Twelve." The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Eagles. London: Penguin Group, 1996. Print.