Alienation in T. S. Elliot's The Love Song and Preludes

“Alienation is defined as emotional isolation or dissociation from others ... it is the feeling of not belonging” The theme of Alienation is explored in both TS Eliot's, The love song and Preludes and it is explored though many poetic techniques including repetition and animal imagry. In both of these poems the persona is alienated from himself and from society.

One of the ways that the poet explores alienation is though the use of imagry. He compares him to a cat, an insect stuck to the wall and a crab. This in turn is him degrading him to the level of an animal which is seen as inferior to a human being. For example in line 58 he compares himself to an insect stuck on the wall “When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall.”

One of the similarities between the love song and preludes is the theme of the vacant towns. These vacant towns are how the character sees himself with the other people in the world, as if everyone else is socialising while he is stuck in a “vacant lot.”

In the poem the love song it deals with the personas alienation from women but in Preludes it deals with Alienation from society in general. “One thinks of all the hands that are raising dingy shades in a thousand furnished rooms.” This quote shows the uniformaty of society which alienates everyone in the city because of the lack of individuality.

Both of the poems also deal with repetition to increase the sense of alienation. In the poem the love song the character delays his meeting and this is shown by the poet though repetition of “And indeed there will be time.” The repetition in Preludes is that the ending is the night time like the beginning. This repetition shows the reader the lonliness of the characters and the repetitive life with no sense of change.

Repetition is also used in this poem to convey that the alienation is casued by the persona and not the people around him. “In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo”. This is used twice in this poem to highlight his insecurity.

In both these poems the poet various techniques are used to convey the theme of alienation.