A critical assessment of TS Eliots poem, Rhapsody on a...

Rhapsody on a windy night was written directly after Preludes and echoes many of its themes. Rhapsody... charts the night-time journey of a man through the streets of a city. Held in a trance by the moonlight, he is shown various sights by the street lamps he passes, and these sights evoke images, feelings and recollections. From the sights revealed by the lamps, and the responses they induce, a portrait of the city life is painted. The poem begins by establishing the scene. A man is wandering Along the reaches of the street / held in a lunar synthesis. Although the street is reaching, as if to entrap the man, it is held in stasis by the moon. This idea of the moon having power to release the wandering man from his everyday pattern of†¦show more content†¦The cat slipping out its tongue reminds the narrator of a child whose hand ...automatic / Slipped out and pocketed a toy. This memory reinforces the idea that the people of the city act mechanically, and without thought, or purpose (I could see nothing behind that childs eye). The memory immediately following, however, suggests that there is a strong desire among the people to escape from this state of automation: indeed the narrator has seen eyes...trying to peer through lighted shutters. This image suggests yearning, as does the crab, which gripped the end of a stick, desperately trying to escape its prison-like pool. At last, the street lamp turns the wanderers attention to the moon itself, saying La lune ne garde aucune rancune: the moon harbours no ill feeling. In other words, the moon does not judge, does not play any part in the day-to-day affairs of the people, and does not feel those worries or concerns that constitute the mechanical and empty lives of the people. Indeed, the moon has lost her memory, it is permanently in the state of lunar synthesis. However, one gets the impression that a constant existence in this state has taken its toll on the moon. Her face is worn