Unit IX
1. Read the text and do the assignments following it.
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965)
An American by birth and early training, T.S. Eliot settled in England in 1914 and became a British citizen in 1927. Since he published his first volume of poems ("Prufrock,"1 1917) T.S. Eliot had gradually overcome the incomprehension of critics and has won an authority such as no other poet in English has ever enjoyed an authority as a poet seconded by his prestige as a critic, publicist and playwright. His poetry and criticism embraced a tradition from Homer to Dante and Shakespeare and included a special preference for the 17th century English metaphysical poets and the French symbolists. His technique was formed out of learned reference and echoes from Ecclesiastes, Shakespeare, Dante, Homer and classical myths mingling strangely with slang, scraps of popular music, poetry and scenes from high and low life in contemporary London.
"The Waste Land"2 (1922), the masterpiece of his earlier manner, expresses powerfully, through the use of ancient myths translated into contemporary social life, man's need for Salvation. The poem was generally read as giving voice to the disillusionment of the post-war world.
With years Eliot became aescetic and contemplative and developed a more composed lyrical style to suit his new meditative manner ("Ash Wednesday,"3 1930)».
His mature masterpiece "Four Quartets"4 (1943) is based on the poet's memories of certain locales in America and England which became the starting points for his probings into the mysteries of time, history, eternity, and the meaning of life.
From 1935 he experimented with the verse drama ("Murder in the Cathedral," "Family Reunion," "The Cocktail Party").
Eliot received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948, with a citation recognizing his innovations in modern poetry. The poems of T.S. Eliot together with his critical essays are now regarded as among the most influential literary documents of the twentieth century. As a critic puts it, "we owe an immense debt to Eliot for extending the range of English poetry. But it is a chilling reflection of the poet and on his age that so distinguished a writer should have spent so much of his energy in negation."
Notes:
1. "Prufrock" – сборник стихов «Пруфрок»
2. "The Waste Land" – поэма «Бесплодная земля»
3. "Ash Wednesday" – поэма «Пепельная среда»
4. "Four Quartets" – «Четыре квартета»
II. Translate into Russian the following phrases and use them in your own sentences:
the first volume of poems; to win an authority as; one's prestige as a critic, publicist and playwright; scenes from high and low life; aescetic; contemplative; to develop a more composed lyrical style; a mature masterpiece; the starting point for one's probing into; to receive the Nobel Prize; innovations in modern poetry; the most influential literary documents; for extending the range of English poetry.
III. Speak on the creative work of T.S. Eliot, the leading poet of the English-speaking nations. Use some additional material.
IV. Learn the poems. Try to translate them into Russian.
1.
Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still.
(From "Collected Poems")
2.
An every phrase
And sentence that is right
(where every word is at home),
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together
Every phrase and every sentence is
an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph.
(From "Four Quartets")
V. Render the texts in English using the following key words and word combinations:
1. to win a worldwide fame, to award the Nobel Prize, to exceed one's own literary heritage, unremitting interest to, renovator, stylistic overturn, to play the leading part.
Слава Т.С. Элиота давно перешагнула границы англоязычного мира. В 1948 году ему была присуждена Нобелевская премия. Сочинение критических статей о нем, по верному определению А. Мортона, стало крупной отраслью литературной индустрии Запада: написанное об Элиоте в сотни раз превосходит его собственное литературное наследие. Причины огромного и до сих пор не ослабевающего интереса к Элиоту разнообразны. Главная в том, что он оказался великим обновителем английской поэзии. Семидесятилетний Йетс, не будучи поклонником музы Элиота, признал его наиболее революционным поэтом своего времени, имея в виду стилистический переворот, который произошел в английской поэзии в 10–20-е годы и в котором Элиоту принадлежала ведущая роль.
2. modernism, phenomenon, to break away from, established literary traditions, extravagance of forms, approach, to assert, associativeness, prefer to, rational meaning.
Модернизм (от лат. modernus – новый, современный) – общее обозначение явлений искусства и литературы XX века, порывающих с традициями и утверждающих новый подход к изображению жизни. Основная черта модернизма – метафорическое построение образа по принципу ассоциативности. Модернисты предпочитали рациональной мысли экстравагантность формы.
VI. Choose the right word (criticism, worship, unfounded, universal, influence, delivered) and insert it in the the text.
Thomas Stearns Eliot
"The Use of Poetry"
For the first time in Russia, a collection of critical articles by the great British poet, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate has appeared. One of the major spiritual teachers of contemporary times, Eliot had an enormous (___) on modern poetry and literary (_____), talk of his intellectual diktat, which was popular in the middle of the century, was obviously not (___). Despite this, Eliot's ideas (denial of freedom of choice, avoidance of emotion, (___ ) of tradition, etc.) look fairly debatable and largerly conditional on his personal experience. However, there is no doubt that it was Eliot who, like no one else, was able to return a (____) scale to poetry and cross the border into a new epoch in poetry. The book includes a series of lectures "The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism," (___) at Harvard University from November, 1932, through March, 1933, as well as articles from various years devoted to the subtleties of poetic mastery or to different poets (Dante, Byron, Keats).
VII. Answer the following questions:
1. What writers were preoccupied with experiments in form and structure?
2. What common features were typical of modernists?
3. Why do you think modernism deserves the attention of the reader?
4. What is it preoccupied with?
5. Have you read any books by Lawrence or Joyce?
VIII. Comment on the quotations:
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
(F. Bacon)
2. What is vice today may be virtue tomorrow.
(H.Fielding)
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