Raquel Jordα Bresσ                                                    23 – III – 06

 

WHISPERS OF IMMORTALITY

01 WEBSTER was much possessed by death

     And saw the skull beneath the skin;

     And breastless creatures under ground

     Leaned backward with a lipless grin

 

05 Daffodil bulbs instead of balls

     Stared from the sockets of the eyes!

     He knew that thought clings round dead limbs

     Tightening its lusts and luxuries

 

     Donne, I suppose, was such another

10 Who found no substitute for sense,

     To seize and clutch and penetrate;

     Expert beyond experience,

 

     He knew the anguish of the marrow

     The ague of the skeleton;

15 No contact possible to flesh

     Allayed the fever of the bone.

             .    .    .    .    .

     Grishkin is nice: her Russian eye

     Is underline for emphasis;

     Uncorseted, her friendly bust

20 Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.

 

     The couched Brazilian jaguar

     Compels the scampering marmoset

     With subtle effluence of cat;

     Grishkin has a maisonette;

 

25 The sleek Brazilian jaguar

     Does not in its arboreal gloom

     Distil so rank a feline smell

     As Grishkin in a drawing-room

 

     And even the Abstract Entities

30 Circumambulate her charm;

     But our lot crawls between dry ribs

     To keep our metaphysics warm.

 

Eliot, T.S. “Whispers of Immortality.” Poems 1920. (Bartleby)

 

 

 

ANALYSIS

 

Title ΰ Whispers of Immortality aims at those moments, things or people in life that are      flashes of eternal time.

 

            The poem talks about three different characters T. S. Eliot considered as immortal and he explains the way all they reached death.

 

            The poem is divided into eight different stanzas, each one being a quatrain, in which only the par lines rhyme, and do so in assonance – L2 ‘skin’ with L4 ‘grin’; L6 ‘eyes’ with L8 ‘luxuries’; L10 ‘sense’ with L12 ‘experience’; L14 ‘skeleton’ with L16 ‘bone’ and so and so fourth.

In order to achieve rhythm, the author has used the iambic structure in each line.

 

            The two first stanzas of the poem talk about a so called ‘Webster’ (L1); someone ‘much possessed by death’ (L1) and who seemed to see ‘breastless creatures’ (L3) from the underworld, with ‘daffodils bulbs’ (L5) instead of eyes and a grotesque ‘lipless grin’ (L4). Here T.S Eliot is describing an evil scene more than an idyllic, eternal place, which would be the perfect settlement for immortal life.

And, moreover, Webster appears to be aware that ‘thought clings round dead limbs’ (L7), taking away ‘its lusts and luxuries’ (L8) and even in this situation in which ‘he’ (L7) confronts death, the poet considers him as a reflection of immortality.

            Mr. Webster, who some critics hint to be John Webster (1580? – 1625?), an outstanding play writer and poet in his time (Lancashire), is rescued by the author to take part of this immortal picture that the poem forms.

 

            The third and the fourth stanza introduce the second character: Mr. Donne – and not Mrs because of the use of ‘he’ in line 13.

This second man is more or less like the first one, as the poet states that ‘was such another’ (L9) rationalist who did not find anything else but ‘sense’ (L10) ‘to seize and clutch and penetrate’ (L11) – this last word penetrate maybe meaning he did not have any lover nor sexual experience at all.

            But T.S. Eliot considers him an ‘expert beyond experience’ (L12) in the issue of immortality – from my point of view – since Donne was aware of the ‘anguish of the marrow’ (L14) and knew the sufferings of the body, of the ‘skeleton’ (L14). But he never found a female touch to his ‘flesh’ (15), a contact that ‘allayed the fever of the bone’ (L16). And was forever tied up to illness.

            In these two last stanzas T. S. Eliot is again making come alive another poet, Mr. John Donne (1572 – 1631), as some critics explain (Lancashire).

            Furthermore, at this point of the poem, the author has introduced us to two past glories of the English poetry and both lived a close relationship with death, as the poet reveals in the text – ‘was possessed by death’ (L1) and ‘was such another’ (L9). And, although none of them reached a physical immortality, they did it so through their poetry and thus T.S. Eliot considers them as breakers of time and whispers of immortality.

 

            When reaching the second half of the poem – the last four stanzas – the author changes the use of the past tense of verbs – like ‘was’ (L1 and L11), ‘saw’ (L2), ‘leaned’ (L4), ‘stared’ (L6), ‘knew’ (L7 and L13), ‘found’ (L10) and ‘allayed’ (L16) – for the use of the present tense in ‘is (L17 and 18), ‘gives’ (L20), ‘compels’ (L22), ‘has’ (L24), ‘does’ (L26), ‘distil’ (L27, ‘circumambulate’ (L30) and ‘crawls’ (L31).

 

            Now the author introduces us to the last character: Grishkin, a ‘nice’ (L17) woman – see line 17 ‘her’ – with ‘Russian eye’ (L17), which is carefully enhanced with make up ‘for emphasis’ (L18).

She represents a sexual impulse since she wears no corset – line 19 ‘uncorseted’ – in a body which is ‘friendly’ (L19) to the writer and allows to think of a possible ‘pneumatic bliss’ (L20).

Following this sexual impulse that Grishkin represents, the author put in the scene, in the third last stanza, a ‘Brazilian jaguar’ (L21 and L25) which is both ‘couched’ (L21) and ‘sleek’ (L25) and that, from my point of view, is a metaphor of Grishkin. It represents the exotic, feline skills of the woman – the Brazilian jaguar would be Grishkin whereas the ‘scampering marmoset’ (L22) could be any lover she had – even the author himself.

Moreover, this metaphor is encouraged in the seventh stanza where T.S. Eliot compares the ‘feline smell’ (L27) of the jaguar with the smells and perfumes Grishkin distils in the ‘drawing-room’ (L28) at her ‘maisonette’ (L24).

But even for this ‘sleek’ (L25) Brazilian jaguar, for this woman, for this whisper of immortality, there is also a time to die. And it is in the last stanza where the ‘Abstract Entities’ (L29) – a mythic reference to death – surround ‘her charm’ (L30) in order to take her away, too.

            In the very last two lines of the whole poem – line 31 and line 32 - , T.S. Eliot gives what, in my opinion, is the key to understanding why those historical characters are dealt with as whispers of immortality; it is because, although a person tries not to die, tries to life forever, time finally passes away and thus everyone, even poets, will still crawl ‘between dry ribs’ (L31), between past glories  - Webster and Donne – and past muses, such as Grishkin, ‘to keep our metaphysics warm’ (L32), to keep themselves through time as immortal beings.

 

            Finally, looking at the lexical components, we can see that the poet uses many double-sense words, with sexual connotations, such as ‘lusts’ (L8), ‘luxuries’ (L8), ‘penetrate’ (L11), ‘flesh’ (L15) and ‘bliss’ (L20). He also uses archaic words and Latinisms such as ‘creatures’ (L3), ‘ague’ (L14), ‘pneumatic’ (L20), ‘effluence’ (L23), ‘arboreal’ (L26) and ‘circumambulate’ (L30).

 

PERSONAL OPINION

            I found this poem a little strange and difficult in some way but interesting and beautiful in the way the poet describes each of the characters, with their most important features through their own style: Webster was obscure; Donne was very ill and Grishkin won the heart of men through her female and feline skills.

I also think that the obsession T.S. Eliot had with time is obviously patent in the poem since the very beginning of it, in the title and so I consider this text a good representation of Eliot’s poetry.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bartleby.com, Inc. “Whispers of Immortality,”in Poems 1920, by T.S. Eliot. Ed. Steven H. van Leeuwen. 20 – Mar – 2006 < http://www.bartleby.com/199/22.html >

Lancashire, Ian. Comment on T.S.Eliot Whispers of Immortality. RPO University of Toronto. Ed. Ian Lancashire. 20 – Mar – 2006  < http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/791.html >

 

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