Masquerades of Time in Eliot’s “Preludes”

초록

One of T. S. Eliot’s early poems, “Preludes,” illustrates how an urban street is related to masquerades of human’s soul, which is composed of various images. From evening to morning the fragments of thousand images rebuild a desolate urban life; the poem roughly overarches his entire works. In “Preludes,” the poet attempts to break down the boundary between subject and object or demarcation between personal pronouns. Eliot accomplishes such merges between them and shows us that time past and time future can appear in time present; he is deeply indebted to Henri Bergson for his time concept. In the prelude of music, improvisation is performed when a musician tests out the instrument or overcomes technical difficulty; Eliot succeeds in playing poetic improvisation in “Preludes.” The essay explains how masquerades of time produce the impersonalized prelude of poetry.

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