This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper.
Arguably, the most famous lines that T.S. Eliot ever wrote were, somewhat ironically, a repetition. That the man whom many esteem as the greatest—or at least the most influential—poet of the 20th century and whose fame derives considerably from power of allusion and wordplay is most often quoted (unwittingly, usually) for lines that almost sound like a tagline for action movie is deeply and profoundly ironic. Scholars have long argued over the exact intent of the repetition of “This is the way the world ends” though most agree that the fact it ends quietly rather than loudly is a testament to the hollow quality of men. It is a cry of despair more than a prediction; an appeal for modern man to care enough to stop the clamor of the coming of apocalypse rather than just by impotently and wait.
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
If the above excerpt from “The Hollow Men” is the most often quoted line that Eliot ever wrote (again, quoted most often by those who are not aware of its author), this line from one of his most famous poems is likely one of the most studied. Prufrock is one of the iconic figures of 20th century alienation. He is neither hero nor villain. As the star of a “love song” he is far more ironic than Byronic; the guy’s a loser. He rejects the idea of himself as a latter-day Lazarus or a modern Hamlet, but instead affirms that what he should be: a harmless little crab hidden deep beneath the waves.
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Another Eliot poem, another famous line that people say all the time without knowing where it came from. But then again, even scholars disagree on the origin of Eliot’s contention that April is the cruelest month. For decades, the conventional wisdom was that Eliot’s opening line to the poem that perhaps more than any other established his reputation is an intentional allusion to these lines by Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales:
"When April with his showers sweet
The drought of March had pierced to the root,
And bathed every vine in such liquid
Of which virtue engendered is the flower;"
As academic study of Eliot evolved, however, the conventional wisdom shifted. Research discovered that Eliot often made claims to intended allusions that were not actually intended. T.S. Eliot, it turned out, enjoyed messing with the minds of those who studied his verse and purposely sent them down intricate rabbit holes in search of meaning which wasn’t there. Such is now is the conventional wisdom regarding April being so cruel. The general consensus has moved from this quite having anything to do with Chaucer to being probably nothing to do with Chaucer and instead being Eliot’s metaphor for the spring-like awakening of all things—memory and desire, beautiful lilacs and dying roots—whether they desire to be awakened or not.
How unpleasant to meet Mr. Eliot!
With his features of clerical cut,
And his brow so grim
And his mouth so prim
Eliot is, of course, a titan of 20th century literature precisely because he took it so seriously and in that serious attention he was instrumental in dragging poetry out of the Romantic age and into the Modernist era. But among all the classical allusions and wordplay his propensity for humor in the form of red herrings after which to purposely send academics scrambling is notable. Hardly a humorless man, he himself recognized the reputation. And addressed it in a poem which is also notable for its rather strange language in the title. One wonders what rabbit holes scholars might have chased into after meaning before learning that Cuscuscaraway and Mirza Murad Ali Beg were nothing more abstrusely mysterious than the names of his dog and cat.
…you are the music
While the music lasts.
Eliot’s more experimental poetry can be difficult to understand. Entire books of scholarship have been devoted to just single poems. Even his more accessible poems can present difficulty if one fails to grasp the implication of allusions, references and wordplay. As has been proven by the way in which so Eliot’s poetry has made it into the pop culture discourse (even if without attribution), Eliot’s fame rests not just upon his work being worth the effort of academic study, but also upon the fact that he is simply a master of the short, pithy image. Eliot could probably have been quite successful in the advertising business, especially 21st century advertising and its movement from selling to branding. “You are the music while the music lasts” can be found in one of Eliot’s most difficult works; a long-form collection of poems that has inspired a great many books of analysis. And yet this line could just as easily find itself coming out of the mouth of the hero of Hollywood romantic comedy as the line that finally wins the heart of the girl.
