The Pilgrim's Progress

As one of the most crucial and prominent poets in the first half of last century, T. S. Eliot is always worth reading and appreciating, for he opens up a new area in modern poetry. Besides his most significant and influential poems, he is still gifted and has produced amount of critical writings. Up to the present day, interest in Eliot has remained strong. Literary criticism on Eliot has been made from various angles, while the study from the angle of "city" has been largely ignored. This paper is aimed at analyzing Eliot's poetry from the "city" motif with an attempt to explore his intention to express anxiety and desire of reestablishing a certain order and belief, in the disguise of depression.This paper is designed in five chapters.First of all, the original conception and the reasons why this thesis is feasible are carefully illuminated in Chapter One. It is said that the greatest work of art created by the city is the city itself. Since ancient times, humans have been reading cities in sorts of ways. City prospers, then declines. The history of city marks the footstep of human beings. Nobody could escape the cultural and psychological influences of city. As a city poet, Eliot adopts the city as a source of inspiration and a setting of his poems and plays to suggest his individual vision and mentality.Chapter Two traces the relationship between Eliot and New England tradition and this in-depth analysis makes the present study possible and meaningful. New England is taken as the Promised Land in the history of America. In 1620, to realize their religious ideal, some Puritan pilgrims sailed for New England on the Mayflower and began to look for a "God City". Fundamentally as a descendent of New England tradition, Eliot is essentially molded by his ancestors' cultural codes and the communication with this heritage is inescapable all through his life. With a mission, Eliot takes a prophetic role to continue the holy pilgrimage.Chapter Three and Chapter Four respectively provide the philosophical and paradigmatic evidences to picture a clear profile of the profane city and the sacred city in Eliot's poetry. Those groups of images in Eliot's poems—strong modern man and impotent prophet, shameful prostitute and fair lady, stark street and fruitful rose garden, filthy animal and pleasing plant, automatic tone and euphonious music, form two contrasting states. For Eliot with religious imagination, the opposite world, heaven and hell, or innocence and experience, are distinguished as well as associated. Although profane city is the fallen world of experience, the duality nature of earthly city predestinates the possibility of the holy and sacred city comes out of the profane one. Life will grow out of the power of darkness. Therefore, as a prophetic poet, Eliot sees the vision of a Rose Garden as the sacred city which is pure and holy with God's grace. Chapter Four focuses on analyzing the Rose Garden in Eliot's poetry in order to attain a comprehensive knowledge of the images of the sacred city. And in the final analysis, the three approaches, i.e. fire, humility and prayer, on which the transformation from the profane city into the sacred city mainly depends, have been carefully discussed. These two chapters are the mainstay of the thesis.The last part of this thesis brings out the conclusion that, Eliot's poems not only present city falling; more importantly, they illustrate the hope of city revival, the recreation of order and the reconstruction of civilization. For Eliot, the only way to salvation is through suffering. Atonement and purgation are necessary to survive and regain the lost paradise since man's Fall. It is hoped that this study would offer a new perspective on city, order and civilization in Eliot's poetry.