1. Image selection

Image selection is one of the most significant artistic features of Eliot’s poetry. In terms of image selection, Eliot showed great differences from traditional poets. He often introduced into his poems those images that were considered unrefined, ugly, boring, and trivial in the past. For example, we can see this from the first three lines of his early work "The Love Song Of Alfred Prufrock".

Let us go then, you and I

When the evening is spr ead out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table; (l. 1～3) Then let’s go, you and me, the dusk is slowly spreading toward the sky like a patient under anesthesia on the operating table; [3]

Dusk itself is just a natural phenomenon that people take for granted , but after being incorporated into poetry as an image, it can often produce certain artistic effects due to its special metaphorical and associative functions. In traditional British and American literature, dusk is often used as a more beautiful image. For example, the American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963)'s short poem "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Night" Received date: 2000-10-14

About the author: Jin Ming (1961- ), male, from Changshu, Jiangsu Province, associate professor, engaged in translation and research of British and American literature.

(Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening), the first line of the last section is: The woods are lovely, dark, and deep (The woods are dark, deep, and lovely). There is a lot of room for interpretation of the image of "dusk" here, and it may have multiple interpretations, but no matter how it is interpreted, it is undoubtedly beautiful as an image. However, in Eliot's modernist poem "Prufrock's Love Song", the situation is quite different. Dusk is likened to "like a patient lying on the operating table under anesthesia." The reader's expectations are broken. The dusk is associated with the patient lying on the operating table under anesthesia, which makes people feel sick. The reader seems to smell the smell of anesthesia and blood in the hospital. This may be Eliot's choice. The purpose of these images is that modern people's life is ugly, numb, empty and boring. The images subsequently displayed in the poem certainly illustrate this point: "a half-deserted street", "a one-night cheap restaurant", "a sawdust-strewn street" restaurant" (sa wdust restaurant). Through these trivial and banal images, we feel the fragmentation, blindness and lack of real purpose of modern people's lives.

In his masterpiece "The Waste Land", Eliot even used eerie images such as "white bones" and "dead corpses" in his poetry:

That c orpse you planted last year in your garden ,

Has it begun to sprout ? ……(l . 71～72) Last year you planted the corpse in your garden , it has begun to sprout Is it here yet? Will it bloom this year? White bodies naked on the low damp ground But in the cold wind behind me, I heard And bones cast in a little low dr y garr et, The bones were colliding, and the proud laughter came from my ears reached the ears. Rattled by the rat ' s foot only, year to year. (l. 193～195)

A rat crept quietly through the grass and dragged its wet belly across the river bank.

Planting corpses in the garden, letting them sprout and bloom, and hearing the bones collide in the cold wind, is an image that is impossible to see in traditional literature. The flowers in the garden are in full bloom, and the fragrance is pleasant, making people feel relaxed and happy, providing entertainment and rest. This is the expectation of ordinary readers. However, in Eliot's poems, the image of the garden has lost its traditional associative meaning and has been given to modernist poetry. The connotative characteristics of being anti-traditional and anti-rational. Such an image is not so much a portrayal of objective things as it is a projection of the poet's subjective thoughts. The objective reality is distorted through the refraction of the poet's subjective consciousness, shocking or terrifying people or forcing people to reflect on reality.

This may be the intention of modernist writers. The images Eliot chooses here can be said to be in the same vein as many of the images in Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil". From this, we can also see the influence of French symbolist poets such as Baudelaire on the poet Eliot.

In addition, Eliot is also good at juxtaposing images that express decline, decadence, pollution, etc. in modern civilization with images of prosperity and luxury from the heyday of Western civilization to form a Contrast to create a strong artistic effect. For example, in the third part of The Waste Land, "The Fir e Sermon" (The Sermon of Fire), we find two completely different images. One side is the Thames River that has been polluted by modern people, while the other side is the scene of Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester visiting the Thames River.

As a symbol of the evolution of human civilization, rivers carry profound cultural connotations. Like the Yellow River in China, the Nile River in Egypt, and the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia, the Thames River is a symbol of British civilization. The message Eliot conveys to people through the juxtaposition of images can be said to be obvious: rivers are polluting, civilization is declining, and mankind is in danger of self-destruction. Eliot chose such images to express his feelings about the external world, and was obviously influenced by Imagist poets such as T. E. Hume and Ezra Pound. As an artistic technique of modernist poetry, Imagism was a resistance to the unrestrained exaggeration and self-expression of Romanticism. The Imagist poets attempted to unify inner emotions and external objects through “clear, appropriate, solid, and condensed images” and tried to “rely on intuition to capture and create an aesthetic of subjective fit, blending of mind and matter, and the unity of spirit and matter. The image system is used to show the author’s thoughts, feelings and mentality” [4]. Eliot was obviously very successful in choosing appropriate images to achieve subjective agreement and blending of mind and object. Therefore, we believe that image selection is one of the artistic features of Eliot's poetry.

2. Symbolic techniques

The use of symbols is not unique to modernism. As early as in ancient Greek and Roman literature or the Bible, the use of symbolic techniques was common. However, symbolism as a genre of literary creation began in France in the late 19th century. Symbolism emphasizes intuition and inner emotions. In poetry creation, symbolist writers usually use techniques such as suggestion and rendering. “Symbolist poetry is poetry of a roundabout way, in which objects are usually represented by suggestion rather than direct reference, or they serve primarily to evoke a certain emotion. Concepts may be important, but they are always indirect through a series of symbolism. are shown, and rely primarily on intuition and emotion to understand them”.

Eliot began to have a keen interest in the poetry of French Symbolist writers as early as when he was a student at Harvard (1906-1910). From these poets, he saw "how an image can not only accurately refer to an objective object, but at the same time, it can obtain infinite hidden meanings through its association with other images" [6]. The refinement, pungency, and symbolic meaning of French poet Jules Laforgue's poetry inspired him a lot. For example, in the first part of "The Waste Land" (The Burial of the Dead), the poet uses a series of images rich in symbolic meaning.

For example, "water" is not only a material form and an objective existence, it also has symbolic meaning. "The drowned Phoenician sailor" and "Beware of dying in the water", the poet literally describes the Phoenician sailor on the card who drowned in the water, through the fortune teller Mrs. Sossostrea He warned others to be careful not to die in the water, but on the other hand, he had a deeper meaning. Looking at the whole poem "The Wasteland", we find that "dry stones cannot make the sound of running water" (original line 25), "there is no water here, only rocks" (line 332), "only dry thunder but no rain" (line 332) line 342). Obviously, the "water" here has transcended its literal meaning and has been given a symbolic meaning: it symbolizes the "purification", "baptism" and "moisturizing" of the soul.

We found that in these dozen lines of poems, the objective objects chosen by Eliot not only express their literal reference relationships, but are often given symbolic meanings. For example, "the rock" (the rock) on the one hand alludes to the "church" (church), and on the other hand means "rocks of dryness" (rocks of dryness). The "wheel" symbolizes the "wheel of fortune". The "hanged man" on the Tarok card symbolizes "self-sacrifice" and "fertility god".

In addition, "The man with three staves" is a symbol of vitality, which Eliot associated with the Fisher King. The "One-eyed merchant" on the card alludes to Mr. Eugenides described in the poem, who is engaged in raisin trafficking. His image symbolizes "evil", "treacherous", or "pirate" behavior.

[6]

But we must also note that because different nations have different historical and cultural traditions, there must be many differences in the use and understanding of symbols. Certain primitive images (archetypical images) have been deeply buried in the deep psychological structures of various nations, and the symbolic meanings expressed by these images can often only be fully understood within their cultural background. Therefore, when we study the symbolic meanings in Eliot's poems, we should place them within the entire Western cultural tradition in order to truly appreciate the profound connotations they express.

At the same time, we also need to note that when dealing with the symbolic meaning in Eliot's poems, we must be particularly careful. The symbolic system he created often has a strong personal subjective color and sometimes does not fully represent True Western historical and cultural tradition. "Because the poet doubts whether he and his public have inherited the same cultural tradition and have the same understanding of past works,

[6] In such a cultural atmosphere, Ai Litter felt that he had to establish his own literary system of reference." In fact, this is also a characteristic shared by modern poets such as W. B. Yeats and Ezra Pound. [5]

3. Language Variation

In poetry creation, poets often break through the conventions of language use for various purposes. This is the so-called variation (devi -

ation ), this variation can be manifold. In terms of pronunciation, sometimes the syllables of certain words are added or omitted for the sake of rhyme or rhythm, such as o, er, 'tis, call éd, wreath éd, etc. Sometimes there are variation methods such as shifting the stress of words or even changing vowels. . In terms of vocabulary, changing the categories of speech, creating new words, and giving new and unique meanings to ordinary words can all be regarded as language variations. In terms of grammar, the reversal of word order, the form of negative sentences, tenses, usage of articles, etc. can all produce variations. The purpose of "prominence" can be achieved through mutation. "Generally speaking, variation is a means, and foregrounding is the purpose." “…variant language phenomena seem to be prominent parts [in paintings]. When readers see some unusual language phenomenon, they are always attracted to it, pay more attention to it, and even go on to speculate and ponder its meaning. Meaning. This shows that variation has a prominent effect."[7]

Language variation is a fundamental feature in poetry creation. However, which parts are mutated and which parts are "highlighted" are different in different eras and different writers. As far as Eliot's poetry is concerned, linguistic variation is often manifested in vocabulary and syntactic structure.

1. Vocabulary variation

In his poetry creation, especially in early works such as "The Waste Land", Eliot used a large number of historical allusions or quoted other important European literary works. . Sometimes, in order to avoid direct quotation, or to slightly distort certain famous quotes to produce some kind of ironic, humorous, grotesque and other dramatic effects, such as "Mada me Sosostris, fa mous clairvoyante" (line 43 of "The Waste Land"); Here Sosostris is a variation of Sesostris. Belladonna (line 49) is composed of belle + Madonna. Madonna can refer to the "Virgin Mary" in Christianity, but when combined with the French word belle (i.e. beautiful in English), it has the associated meaning of "the beautiful lady of the situation". Such variations often appear in Eliot's poetry, and their function is often to highlight the contradiction or incongruity in certain things.

2. Variation in syntactic structure

As a modernist poet, Eliot attempts to show the confusion and chaos in the inner world of modern people. In terms of writing techniques, he sometimes uses the stream of consciousness approach, often making jumps in the time concepts and logical relationships expressed in language, giving people an abrupt feeling. For example, in lines 133 to 142 of "The Waste Land", there are at least three voices, the speech of the two women talking (including the inner monologue of one of them) and the urging voice of the hotel owner. The poems not only jump in grammatical tense, but also have variations in syntax such as omissions.

The hot water at ten . /And if it rains , a closed car at four . /And we shall play a game of chess , Pr essing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door (hot water at ten o'clock. /If It's raining, and we need a covered car at four o'clock. / We will play a game of chess, rubbing our eyes, waiting for the knock on the door. ) These three English sentences not only jump in tense, but also violate normal syntax rules. , missing subject and predicate verb. The poet uses variations in syntactic structure in order to more directly display the activities and changes in the characters' inner world. This technique is also one of the artistic features of Eliot's poetry.