Eliot+and+Moore

T.S. Eliot also left America and became an English citizen. He had a forward and backward-looking style to his poetry, just like Pound. Eliot's most complex work is his poem "The Waste Land". In the poem there is a general trend of a scene of a waste land, death, and resurrection. Here, we will look at only a small fraction of the poem, for it requires much explanation.

In "The Waste Land", the first stanza of the poem describes a place that is very much dead. Images such as "Dull roots with spring rain" (line 4) and "A little life with dried tubers" (7) create an image that is depressing and hopeless. The speaker also avoids water, which may be read as a symbol of no life and impurity. In the second stanza the speaker turns to the biblical Ezekiel. The reader can notice that there is also no water in this scene. The scene is extremely dry, which the reader can take to symbolize a sort of death. Towards the end of the first part of the poem, there is a reference to Dante's "Inferno". The line says, "I had not thought death had undone so many" (63). This describes the border between hell and earth. The message may be that a person does not have to will to be evil enough.

=Marianne Moore=

Marianne Moore is not a true poet who really wants change in the American poetic tradition. She was well known throughout the country during her time. In her poem "To a Snail" the reader can see that she is critical of the way poetry is being written. One line mentions "Contractility is a virtue" (line 2). In essence she wants poems to be short and to the point, and doesn't like poems that go overboard. A big point that the speaker comments on is: "but the principle that is hid: / in the absence of feet, "a method of conclusions" (9-10). This may symbolize that principles are learned over time. Using a snail is a very interesting concept because most people don't care about seeing such a creature and even thinking about it.