T.S. Eliot: Poems Literary Elements

Most of the poems are written in third person and some of them are in first person.

Being modern poems, they have no particular form and meter.

"The army of unalterable law" (Metaphor)
"Sway in the wind like a field of ripe corn" (Simile)

"with which we explain", ""With your air indifferent and imperious."

"Miss Nancy Ellicott smoked
And danced all the modern dances;
And her aunts were not quite sure how they felt about it,
But they knew that it was modern."
In this way the poet ironically satirizes the trend of modern day world in "Cousin Nancy".

Modern Poetry

20th century English society

Ironical, Satirical, Stern, Sceptical

In "Cousin Nancy", miss Nancy Ellicott is the protagonist. Antagonist N/A.

In "Honeymoon" the poet reflects on the drooping condition of the modern day world. He mocks the natural setting of the places mentioned in the poem to assert that the world war has demolished the beauty of nature.

In "Aunt Helen", it is seen at the end of the poem that the footman is holding aunt Helen's second housemaid on his knees. This scene refers that Helen's death is not natural. There is some kind of plotting behind her death.

The line, "He was aware that this sort of thing had occurred before", foreshadows the reason behind aunt Helen's death at the end of the poem.

In "Honeymoon", Eliot understates the natural setting of the places to emphasize on the hollowness of the modern day society.

In "Cousin Nancy", Eliot alludes to the works of Matthew Arnold and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Matthew and Waldo guardians of the faith" (Metonymy)
"In its rotting stones precise Byzantine form." (Synecdoche)

"When evening quickens faintly in the street", here evening is personified.

"You, madam, are rhe eternal humorist
The eternal enemy of the absolute." (Conversation Galante)

"I mount the steps and ring the bell", in this line the sound of the bell is referred and it is an use of onomatopoeia.