From the word picture to the secret plan, any writer who genuinely wishes to do an impact on the lives of his readers must hone about every component of authorship. Some writers strive to carry through a end far greater than being memorable ; nevertheless, they strive to be ill-famed. In fact, a controversial novel frequently creates a far more memorable or important experience than one, which is widely read and accepted even if that meant the genuineness of the stuff is compromised.

In English literature, Dante ‘s canonical work, the Divine Comedy, epitomizes his effort at accomplishing a memorable experience. The underlying paradigm of life and agony in Dante ‘s plants exist even beyond the boundaries of literature, as it had obvious impacts on the multitudes and political relations. But, possibly no other poesy shows a wider and deeper influence of Dante than in British poesy from the twentieth century. In F.W Bateson ‘s essay, “ T. S. Eliot: The Poetry of Pseudo-Learning ” , Bateson notes that Eliot one time admitted in The Sacred Wood: “ Immature poets imitate ; mature poets steal ; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. ” ( Eliot ) Whether this means that the work was borrowed in a spiritual context or as a standard, the stance is that English poets are no more than, set finely, plagiarists. This is by far an hyperbole and generalisation of all English poets garnered from the repute of the English for utilizing Enlightenment thoughts after a resurgence.

The clear defect in this position is that T.S Eliot ne’er used the canon as a mention to plagiarise off for the subject of his most acclaimed verse form “ The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. ” A paradigm displacement from the Romantic positions of his predecessors to his modernist position would non happen until the bend of the twentieth century. His verse form is a response to the canon and a review on the orthodoxy of Romantic ideals. What happens if we can demo that Eliot displays a modernist response to the canon and even a review on the orthodoxy of his predecessors? Critics such as F.W Bateson would hold to allow that Eliot was non indistinguishable to his predecessors and that his plants, notwithstanding the obvious influence, interpreted the canon in a different attack.

II. The Devout Eliot

Among all the English poets, possibly none shows a wider and deeper influence of Dante than in Thomas Stearn Eliot. His familiarity with the great Italian arguably begins with the twelvemonth of 1910 when Eliot begun his verse form, “ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Prior to Eliot, there have been to lesser extents more or less obvious adoptions from the Divine Comedy as seen in Shelley, Longfellow, Lowell and even Chaucer. What distinguishes Eliot from his predecessors was his recognition of the kernel of “ poesy ” that can be extrapolated from the Divine Comedy. Amongst Eliot ‘s essays, he attributes a great trade of poetic inspiration and esteem for the manner and linguistic communication of The Divine Comedy and even goes to state in one article, “ It is a ocular imaginativeness in a different sense from that of a modern painter of still life: it is ocular in the sense that he lived in an age in which work forces still saw visions. ” ( Eliot ) His realisation was that there was a modern impression of poesy for locking itself within certain clip constructs-something that The Divine Comedy had finally overcome. It is of no surprise so that prior to Eliot, Shelley declared that the Titian ‘s Assumption “ and the ‘Paradiso ‘ of Dante as a commentary, is the empyreal accomplishment of Catholicism. ” ( Shelley ) In kernel, Eliot ‘s stance differed in the position that he viewed the canon as an ageless criterion transcending clip, which unlike Shelley viewed the canon as a mere stylistic and societal criterion. As can be seen, on the most cardinal positions of the canon, clearly Eliot deviates from the norm of sentiments that great British poets maintained on the canon ‘s nature. Ergo, the statement that Eliot was the same as any other English borrower of Dante ‘s plant is incorrect. In visible radiation of this fact, the norm of sentiments that great British poets maintained were garnered in an age of Romanticism.

III. Romanticism and Pre-Eliot Dante in England

Yet, Pre-Eliot Dante in England was based on a cardinal subject that was conceived by readers and poets likewise. These readers typically conceived an enthusiasm for a Dante of somberness and macabre, based entirely on a few famed transitions in the Inferno – notably the episode of Ugolino, a figure whose demonic hates are fueled by the indignity of political expatriate and the thirst for Revenge against Florence. A ground for this enthusiasm may be due to the distinction of Romanticism in Europe at that clip. Emphasis on the activity of the imaginativeness was accompanied by a focal point on the importance of intuition, inherent aptitudes, and feelings, and Romantics by and large put attending to the emotions as a necessary addendum to pure unreason in the Age of Enlightenment. When this accent was applied to the creative activity of poesy, a really of import displacement of focal point occurred. Wordsworth ‘s definition of all good poesy as “ the self-generated flood of powerful feelings ” marks a turning point in literary history ( Wordsworth ) . By turn uping the ultimate beginning of poesy in the single creative person, the tradition, stretching back to the ancients, of valuing art chiefly for its ability to copy human life ( that is, for its mimetic qualities ) was reversed. Such logical thinking or imaginativeness gave drift for poets of the 2nd Romantic Motion in Great Britain such as Percy Bysshe Shelley to make picturesque representations of the canon that are left to be contemplated by human perceptual experience. While there are some elusive differences in each poet, possibly due to the societal motions that occurred within these poets ‘ life periods, there is an inevitable consolidative nexus between all of them ; that is that these poets consciously or unconsciously borrowed from Dante in a Romantic context.

IV. Shelley, Conformer of Dante ‘s signifier

The aforesaid Shelley was one of the most of import advocates to the Romantic Movement. Despite his delegating as a Romantic poet, Shelley appeared to represent features that were untypical of the line of great Romantic poets. In the short essay of “ A Defense of Poetry ” Shelley efforts to clear up that, “ the maps of the poetical module are twofold: by one it creates new stuffs of cognition, and power, and pleasance ; by the other it engenders in the head a desire to reproduce and set up them harmonizing to a certain beat and order which may be called the beautiful and the good. ” Shelley is citing to the color of the poetical module as a tools for worlds to rearrange cognition. He purposefully insinuates that all poesy imparts the reader with the desire to reproduce and set up cognition, power and pleasance into rime. He besides realized that the canon was more of an aesthetic influence on the Romantic authors ; that Romantic authors valued the canon for its graphic imagination. However clarified Shelley ‘s reading of Dante ‘s poesy may hold been there is no all right line and rigorous context to turn out that Shelley is a individual faceted sentimentalist. It is notable, that Shelley had already abandoned the Orthodox position that Dante was a austere moral justice and didactic Christian poet, portraying him as a airy dreamer and precursor of Renaissance enlightenment – ‘Dante was the first awakener of entranced Europe ‘ ( Shelley ) . Critics realize the ambiguity in Shelley ‘s conformation to Dante ‘s positions – harmonizing to Richard Lansing, writer of the Dante Encyclopedia, Shelley “ while rejecting Dante ‘s political relations and divinity Drew on his imagination for a figure of plants, including Prometheus Unbound, The Triumph of Life, and the Epipsychidion. ” Obviously, while exposing a gamut of sentiments that conflicted with Dante ‘s positions on political relations and society, Shelley admired Dante ‘s imagination and poetic concepts. Shelley is the exclusive exclusion in the line of great poets to hold borrowed from Dante in a romantic sense. In all verisimilitude, Shelley wrote this as a testimonial to Dante and hence ascribed every line ‘s significance with Dante ‘s graphic imagination.

Possibly the most limpid representation of Dante ‘s imagination can be found in Shelley ‘s unfinished verse form, “ The Triumph of Life ” . ‘The Triumph of Life ” is uncomplete interrupting in mid-sentence with the inquiry: ‘Then, what is life? ‘ To the terminal, Shelley was seeking for apprehension of the human status with the Romantic elements reflected in his work. “ The Triumph of Life ” is pessimistic in the sense that it underlines the semblance of human life. “ The Triumph of Life ” is a black airy verse form, the storyteller in Dante mode has an brush with the figure of Rousseau who guides him through the vision of snake pit. Rousseau is non free from the beastly vision of which he provides commentary. Harmonizing to Bruce Woodcock from the University of Hull, “ He is every bit much a victim of the macabre dance of life as the mad delighting crowd of deluded psyches who flock self-destructively into the aftermath of life ‘s chariot as it drives in victory through and over them. ” ( Woodcock ) Rousseau is portrayed in the signifier of a tree stump: an ironical metaphor showing the unease and futility of life. As such, “ The Triumph of Life ” is an ironical verse form with the victory being a barbarous averment of Life ‘s laterality over single existences. In Rousseau, Shelley sees himself, Rousseau ‘s point is that he was seduced by life itself which turned his head to ‘sand ‘ . The most notable constituent of “ The Triumph of Life ” lies within its alone construction. We have already established the apprehension that Romantics found value in the aesthetic signifier of the canon. Following that line of logical thinking, Shelley evidently found the stylistic influences instead appealing, as can be seen from the terza rima rhyme strategy. The text proclaims itself by Dante ‘s terza rima and round rime proposing the circles of snake pit. For case, see this transition:

With the exhausted vision of the times that were

And scarce have ceased to be.-‘Dost 1000 behold, ‘

Said my usher, ‘those spoilers spoiled, Voltaire,

‘Frederick, and Paul, Catherine, and Leopold,

And grey anarchs, rabble-rousers, and sage-

names which the universe thinks ever old,

‘For in the conflict Life and they did pay,

She remained vanquisher. I was overcome

By my ain bosom entirely, which neither age,

‘Nor cryings, nor infamy, nor now the grave

Could anneal to its object. ‘-‘Let them base on balls, ‘

I cried, ‘the universe and its cryptic day of reckoning

‘Is non so much more glorious than it was,

That I desire to idolize those who drew

New figures on its false and delicate glass. ( Shelley )

There is nil in peculiar about this transition that reveals construction that is needfully different from the canon: Shelley still abides by the narrative signifier, the rime strategy and the allusions in the canon. Furthermore, Shelley puts peculiar accent on the accomplishments of great intellectuals. The likes of Voltaire, Catherine the Great, and Leopold conjure an irregular image of world and that is that human nature is progressive, dynamic. Therefore, worlds are destined to open up new motions – this differentiation that Shelley makes from his work opposes Dante ‘s theological commentary. To that terminal, Shelley ‘s plants were non by-products of Dante ‘s content, but instead sums of Dante ‘s signifier and Shelley ‘s humanitarianism.

V. Eliot and Dante ‘s Roles as Social Critics

With the reaching of Eliot and his verse form “ The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock ” , the idealistic positions of 19th century Romanticism were shattered and there was a paradigm displacement into more modernist positions of the canon. So what precisely was the modernist response of the canon in The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock? It was really a apogee of Dante ‘s influence on Eliot, in which he materialized into a verse form incorporating immense philosophical enquiries different from the Romantic poets. Refering the nature of Eliot ‘s adoption from Dante, “ The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock ” does uncover a close connexion between the two, but there is grounds to propose otherwise. Evidence would do it look as if Eliot had intended to do his work a representation of Dante ‘s Inferno through Prufrock. To show the close connexion between the Inferno and Prufrock, take the epigraph for illustration:

“ If I thought my answer were to one who could of all time return to the universe, this fire would agitate no more ; but since, if what I hear is true, none of all time did return alive from this deepness, I answer you without fright of opprobrium. ”

A A A A A A A – Dante, Inferno

The epigraph to this verse form, from Dante ‘s Inferno, describes Prufrock ‘s ideal hearer: 1 who is every bit lost as the talker and will ne’er uncover to the universe the feelings within Prufrock ‘s present confessions. Despite his desires for such a hearer, it is apparent that no such figure exists, and due to the forced fortunes, be content with eternal contemplation. However, to propose that Eliot was an inheritor to Shelley, presuming there is any affinity at all, is an uncorroborated position that few readers will of all time earnestly see. Indeed, in Eliot ‘s earlier essays contain comments so forthright that it would look absurd to compare the two. Shelley ‘s thoughts were seen as “ the thoughts of adolescence, ” “ repellent, ” thoughts “ bolted whole and ne’er assimilated, ” and the adult male himself as “ humourless, academic, egoistic, and sometimes about a cad. ” The formal qualities of his poesy are scorned as good. “ What complicates the job still further, ” Eliot claims “ is that in poesy [ as ] fluent as Shelley ‘s there is a good trade which is merely bad jingling. ” ( Eliot ) With these comments at manus, Eliot non merely seems to be less than probably to hold been influenced by Shelley, but in fact, a predecessor to Shelley ‘s modern twenty-four hours negative critics. In visible radiation of this fact, Eliot has distanced himself from the Romantic poet.

This distancing between Eliot and Shelley is besides apparent in their poetic constructions. Take for case this extract from “ The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock ” :

Streets that follow like a boring statement

Of insidious purpose

To take you to an overpowering inquiry… .

Oh, do non inquire, “ What is it? ”

Let us travel and do our visit.

Although “ The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock ” most closely conforms to a rhyme strategy as can be seen by the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th poetries, this excerpt exhibits a divergence from the standard rime strategy into free poetry where rime is non apparent. Shelley on the other manus employed a rigorous constructionist attack in making poetic signifier for “ The Triumph of Life ” . The terza rima that was demonstrated throughout his poetries shows, as antecedently stated, a adoption of aesthetic qualities from Dante ‘s work while clearly Eliot found small involvement in borrowing Dante ‘s rhyme strategy.

It is funny so to analyze what Eliot borrowed from Dante. In stead of signifier, Eliot borrowed to a great extent in content, and it is non so hard to see the similarity in the two. The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock is a representation of the defeat and unease in the day-to-day life of a modern adult male. The epigraph itself was intended to demo Eliot ‘s return on the modern adult male. Because the verse form is concerned largely with the fickle and to some extent pathetic pondering of the storyteller, the most important issue lies over what Prufrock is trying to carry through. Many believe that Prufrock is trying to squeal to an unknown romantic involvement as he alludes to the assorted physical features in adult females: hair, vesture, and the organic structure. Prufrock ‘s romantic involvement is besides apparent when he states, “ I have heard the mermaids vocalizing, each to each. I do non believe that they will sing to me. I have seen them siting seaward on the waves/ Combing the white hair of the moving ridges blown back/ When the air current blows the H2O white and black ” ( Perrine ) . Still there is the alternate position that Prufrock is supplying a deeper philosophical penetration to the society. Harmonizing to Mc Coy and Harlan ‘s, writers of English Literature from 1785, “ For many readers in the 1920s, Prufrock seemed to typify the defeat and powerlessness of the modern person. He seemed to stand for defeated desires and modern disenchantment. Such phrases as ‘I have measured out my life in java spoons ‘ ( line 51 ) gaining control the sense of the unheroic nature of life in the 20th century. Prufrock ‘s failings could be mocked, but he is a hapless figure, non expansive plenty to be tragic. ” ( McCoy ) In that sense, Eliot was concerned more with the person and its intent in life which demonstrated an accent on reason in specifying an person ‘s being.

This coincides with Prufrock, who, like Ugolino in the canon, is a topic to be ridiculed at. They are topics who are non to be emulated due to their prolongation of discourtesies. Refering Prufrock ‘s “ wickedness ” as Dante would hold called it, it is really elusive and can easy be dismissed as the contemplation of a mentally instable adult male. Yet, Prufrock introduces a leery symbol around the 15th line. Initially, the reader can presume the fog as a rolling cat on the back streets and streets, yet the fog can besides be interpreted as slightly an mystery that symbolizes the elusive nature of love. Although Prufrock is a fearful, lame and scared adult male who does non make bold to talk to an audience, presumptively his love involvement, he frequently contemplates on making so. He frequently wonders, “ how [ he ] should get down ” and “ how [ he ] should assume ” with the “ butt terminal ways of his yearss. ” In many ways, he confines his ain desires so that any traces of lecherousness or action are diminished into a inactive province. Consequently, elusive qualities of the fog insinuate Prufrock acknowledgment of love ‘s intangibleness:

For the xanthous fume that slides along the street,

Rubing its dorsum upon the window-panes ;

A A A A A A A A 25

There will be clip, there will be clip

To fix a face to run into the faces that you meet ;

There will be clip to slay and make,

And clip for all the plants and yearss of custodies

That lift and drop a inquiry on your home base ;

A A A A A A A A 30

Time for you and clip for me,

And clip yet for a 100 indecisivenesss,

And for a 100 visions and alterations,

Before the pickings of a toast and tea. ( Eliot )

While it may look admirable that there is a deficiency of passion and lecherousness for love, the canon was in fact concerned with the passiveness of the Christian church which inhibited any spiritual and or societal advancement. Prufrock commits the same wickedness by self bring oning himself into a province of oblivion, where determination is necessarily “ a 100 indecisivenesss ” ( Eliot ) . Likewise, Ugolino fulfills the same intent in underscoring a prolongation of wickedness. As aforesaid, his wickedness is the committedness of lese majesty as a Florentine. Dante ‘s disapprobation of Ugolino is nevertheless much more expressed than Eliot ‘s disapprobation of Prufrock. And so through the disapprobation of Prufrock, Eliot has ridiculed world ‘s disposition to moral decay.

VI. Decision

Sing all of the influences on which Dante has become on Shelley and Eliot, there is an implied sarcasm in the development of British poesy. The radically progressive thoughts of Shelley in “ The Triumph of Life ” are conspicuous indicants of Shelley ‘s divergence from the traditional Romantic. In add-on to suggesting the tenet that emotion is a cardinal addendum to ground, Shelley augments the significance of world as the most of import unit in the existence. As a consequence, for realists such as H.H Price, Shelley ‘s belief turns into an self-evident truth. This may explicate why Shelley admired the canon entirely for its aesthetic qualities and non for the Orthodox content. It is dry though that as a coeval of Shelley, Eliot would return back to Dante ‘s concerns in humanity ‘s moral decay. When juxtaposing these two British poets, it is possible to reason that the consolidative nexus lies within the heterodoxy of their thoughts in the period that they lived in. Shelley was for illustration leaning more towards a humanistic position while Eliot assumed Dante ‘s function as a societal reformist in a modernist surroundings.

Therefore, Dante ‘s presence as a paramount influence in British poesy was such that it would non hold been surprising if Eliot had incorporated Dantesque thoughts into his poesy. Indeed, the epigraph and even the stylistic qualities of the storyteller remind the readers of the canon. Based on Virgil ‘s function as a usher to Dante in the canon, Prufrock bears a dramatic resemblance in his function as a usher to the readers. The function of Dante is filled by the readers therefore using an illusive consequence on the latter. Furthermore, in contrast to romantic verse forms, the verse form in its entireness evoked the image of a non conventional mentality towards world. By hold oning the aforesaid ageless criterion, Eliot augmented the importance of the human race in twentieth century literature, a construct that antecedently did non be.