gerontion by t.s. eliot
This poem’s title, Gerontion, is Greek for “little old man”. This title ties in with the poem’s theme of an old man pondering about life and death. Eliot continues his use of dryness; in this poem he uses it to represent hopelessness and purposelessness. However, the pervading theme of this poem is death, afterlife, and Christianity.
Lines that particularly reflect these themes are lines 17-20, “Signs are taken for wonders. ‘We would see a sign!’/The word within a word, unable to speak a word, /Swaddled with darkness. In the juvescence of the year/Came Christ the tiger”, lines 27-33, “By Madame de Tornquist, in the dark room /Shifting the candles; Fräulein von Kulp /Who turned in the hall, one hand on the door./Vacant shuttles /Weave the wind. I have no ghosts,/An old man in a draughty house Under a windy knob” , and line 51 “These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree”.
Line 17 is a quote from the Bible (Matthew 12:38-39) in which the Pharisees called upon Christ to demonstrate his divinity by performing a miracle. He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here. “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other
Lines that particularly reflect these themes are lines 17-20, “Signs are taken for wonders. ‘We would see a sign!’/The word within a word, unable to speak a word, /Swaddled with darkness. In the juvescence of the year/Came Christ the tiger”, lines 27-33, “By Madame de Tornquist, in the dark room /Shifting the candles; Fräulein von Kulp /Who turned in the hall, one hand on the door./Vacant shuttles /Weave the wind. I have no ghosts,/An old man in a draughty house Under a windy knob” , and line 51 “These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree”.
Line 17 is a quote from the Bible (Matthew 12:38-39) in which the Pharisees called upon Christ to demonstrate his divinity by performing a miracle. He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here. “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other