Analysis Of T.S. Eliot's Rhapsody On A Windy Night

2 Pages 470 Words

Analyzation of T.S. Eliot’s Rhapsody on a Windy Night


This poem seemed to have no purpose but to tell a story at first, but after rereading it, I
found many interesting things that point to something bigger, however, I am not sure what. I
particularly liked how Eliot announced the time at the beginning of each descriptive section. The
poem starts with the words “Twelve o’clock.” This sets sets the scene and shows the main
character’s obsessive nature. The diction in this poem is greatly descriptive and allows the reader
to really see things through the narrator’s eyes. The first stanza illustrates to the reader the man’s
surroundings and the sounds that he hears in the darkness. The second stanza starts with “Half-
past one,” and once again, uses a very short, simple sentence to have a profound effect on the
reader. He then begins talking about the street-lamp. “The street-lamp sputtered, The street-lamp
muttered, The street-lamp said...” This makes it seem as if the street-lamp is instructing the
narrator to do things. The street-lamp tells him to regard a woman with a torn and stained dress
and an eye that “twists like a crooked pin.” He then goes into “a crowd of twisted things” from
his memory. He remembers a twisted branch upon the beach and a broken spring in a factory
yard that is “hard and curled and ready to snap.” I do believe that this represents something far
greater than a bed spring, however, I cannot determine what it might be. After that flashback type
stanza, he begins again with “Half-past two.” The street-lamp comes into play and commands
him to remark a cat, which he compares to a child. The author then speaks of the child’s eyes and
the things he has seen in the street. He just leads one thing into another, as if writing everything
that occurs in his mind when he sees something. The next stanza begins again with the words
“Half-p...