T.S. Eliot: Rhapsody on a Windy Night

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to its meaning. “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” is written in free verse, with no rhyme scheme, no rhythm, and no regular length for lines and stanzas (Chakraborty 4). This structure creates a frenzied feeling, adding to the despair that this poem perpetuates (Chakraborty 4). The poem is similar to the writing of French symbolists, specifically Jules Laforgue (“Rhapsody” n.p.). Laforgue wrote about broken images, images that reflect real life in the city, and used a similar lack of structure (“Rhapsody” n.p.). Eliot’s poem repeats several words throughout, such as “twisted”, “memory”, “street lamp”, and others that all create a picture of the nighttime stroll (Chakraborty 5). Many other literary devices are used to show the loss and horror present in the poem. The lines “see the corner of her eye / Twists like a crooked pin” show the brokenness of the woman in the second stanza (Chakraborty 5). Eliot uses alliteration in the line “cross and cross across her brain”, which adds to the distorted logic of the narrator late at night and the slowness and repetitiveness of the moon (Lin n.p.).

The tone of this poem is harsh and nightmarish. This tone is created through the lack of structure as discussed in the last paragraph, and by the blunt descriptions of the horrible things in the city; a prostitute in the doorway with a torn and stained dress, a cat in the gutter eating rancid butter, and a broken spring in a factory yard and the “rust that clings to the form that the strength has left / Hard and curled and ready to snap” (Eliot 1-2). All these words show that the world is decaying and falling apart; everything is dull, old, and dusty (Parsons n.p.). Eliot does not romanticize anything in the city, he tells it like it is; cold and harsh and unforgiving. The theme of this poem is isolation. There is a significant lack of communication present in “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” (Parsons n.p.). The prostitute is the only other person in the poem, and yet the narrator doesn’t talk to her (Parsons n.p.). The fourth stanza mentions the eyes of a child, which are usually innocent and bright, and here are blank; “I could see nothing behind that child’s eye” (Parsons n.p.). In this society, even children cannot communicate (Parsons n.p.). The toothbrush hanging on the wall in the last stanza shows that the narrator lives alone; his loneliness causes him to walk for four hours in the middle of the night, because there is nothing left for him in life (Parsons n.p.). Overall, this poem holds significance because it presents the depressing truth of society in a way that cannot be ignored; by harshly but honestly describing what goes on at night and what the narrator goes through to try to escape his meaningless life for even a small amount of time. The subjects in this poem cross centuries, because they are always relatable; we as a people have always feared losing the ability to communicate and the ability to find joy in everyday life. T. S. Eliot was not the first poet to write a piece on this subject, and he won’t be the last. It is perhaps even more proof that what he says about society is true by the fact that every generation in history has complained of how dull life is and how broken society is, but it never seems to get any better.

Works Cited

Chakraborty, D. “Alienation, Isolation, and the Loss of Identity: Examining the Works of T. S. Eliot and Samuel Beckett.” academia.edu. Vol. IV Issue II. Academia. 23 Jan. 2015. <academia.edu>

Eliot, T. S. “Rhapsody on a Windy Night.” poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Web. 16 Jan. 2015. <www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/rhapsody-windy-night>

Lin, Yuxi. “The Unity of Postmodern and Ancient Ideas in T. S. Eliot’s ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’.” Common Places. Vol. 1/Fall 2010. Davidson College. 16 Jan. 2015. <sites.davidson.edu>

Parsons, James. “T.S. Eliot Poem – Rhapsody on a Windy Night.” Suite. suite.io. Web. 26 Jan. 2015. <suite.io>

“Rhapsody on a Windy Night: Thomas Sterne Eliot – Summary and Critical Analysis.” Bachelor and Master. Web. 26 Jan. 2015. <bachelorandmaster.com>

Williamson, George. A Reader’s Guide to T. S. Eliot: A Poem-by-Poem Analysis. Syracruse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998. Web. <books.google.com>