‘All’ implies there is a list. Cousin Nancy - Miss Nancy Ellicott. University of Chicago Press edition 1991 "Cousin Kate" is specifically addressed to the speaker's cousin, who marries the lord despite his mistreatment of the speaker. But they knew that it was modern. ‘Nothing in his prose work,’ he remarked, ‘will stand very close analysis.’ He was speaking for many of his fellow modernists here: when Arnold does turn up in modernist writing, he tends to be doing weird things like mowing the lawn (as he is in James Joyce’s Ulysses). Instead, they are either baffled by it (Cousin Nancy’s aunts don’t know how to feel about Nancy’s behaviour, but they can identify it as ‘modern’) or merely keeping watch from the mantelpiece – in the form of busts, photographs, or copies of their books – as dead men from the previous century, whose ideas are now being superseded by newer fashions and attitudes. Required fields are marked *. The army of unalterable law are rational, artistic forces, combating with reason a relatively ancient social tradition. Volume 2 ‘Matthew’ is Matthew Arnold (1822-88), the Victorian poet and critic whose writings on religion, culture, and education were hugely influential in the nineteenth century, but who had come to be viewed as outdated by the early twentieth century. but they knew that it was modern”. Modernisation is most clearly apparent in the mannerisms of self-conscious, fashionable city life, which then spills out into the wider social landscape. Strode across the hills and broke them, Rode across the hills and broke them — The barren New England hills — Riding to hounds . Although he seems less outdated a figure than Arnold in some respects – championing self-reliance as he did as part of the New England Transcendentalists – there is a sense that, when placed next to Arnold on the shelf, he is being offered, in Russell E. Murphy’s phrase from his Critical Companion to T. S. Eliot: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work (Critical Companion Series), as ‘a bulwark against the catastrophe that Nancy’s aimless energy betokens’. All rights reserved. Matthew and Waldo in Eliot’s poem are Matthew Arnold and Ralph Waldo Emerson, seen as tutelary busts on cousin Nancy’s shelves, and (so I read ) representing with gentle mockery the forces of rational anti-Christianity. Riding to hounds Published by arrangement with Oxford University Press, Inc. The poem focuses on the grand and trivial movements of Cousin Nancy, as she changes and redefines the shape and trends of ‘New England’. Now his huge bulk o’er Afric’s sands careened, Your email address will not be published. In this context, the ‘modern’ woman is dependent on what she dances and what she does. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Publishing Information Her aunts, emblems of previous-generation establishment, are not sure what they feel about it, but they know that it is modern. © 2020 American Poems - Analysis, Themes, Meaning and Literary Devices. If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. 09 08 07 From the very first verse, these two aspects are juxtaposed and intermingled. However, the ambiguous nature of the ‘modern’ is played up by the irony that this new imposition is on the basis of that which ‘New’ England was founded – the English hunt and pastoral traditions. FILM And now upon his western wing he leaned, The author of this article, Dr Oliver Tearle, is a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University. Here, in a changing world, a growing empire, Virgil discussed the value of the simple way of life, the pastoral organic existence in contrast to the brutal, aggressive imperatives of empire forming.) He is the author of, among others, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History and The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem. Above the rolling ball in cloud part screened, (Just as every point in time and space is unique. Rode across the hills and broke them” Preschool T. S. Eliot’s poem “Cousin Nancy” broke barriers during its time with its writing about the modern woman. Like many of the other poems included in Rossetti's first and most famous book of poetry, Goblin Market and Other Poems , "Cousin Kate" explores the hypocrisy of gender roles and the dangers of temptation. “ And danced all the modern dances”. All Rights Reserved. Visual and Performing Arts If the first verse uses wide-open landscape imagery to express a holistic, almost ‘spiritual’ modernising movement of liberation and breaking forth, the reference to society functions (the hunt) and the vulnerability of the rural (pastoral intonations of the cow-pasture) leads us seamlessly to the more artificial, deliberate manifestations of modernity, inevitably to be found in the city. California A new set of laws. Around the ancient track marched, rank on rank, The ‘hills’ are described as ‘barren’ which suggests that this area shows no sign of growth or development. The only sense in which it is ‘modern’ is by the name attached to it. Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk. Over the cow-pasture. working in cooperation with Laura Bridges and Desiree, Analysis Of The Poem ' Cousin Nancy ' And Morning At The Window ' Poem Analysis And Exploration, “Cousin Nancy” and “Morning at the Window” Poem Analysis and Exploration, William Shakespeare 's ' Three Sets ' Nature And The Romantics Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin, Environmental And Environmental Disaster Of The United Church Of Christ Commission On Racial Justice, Literacy Is A Fundamental Basis Of A Student 's Academic Success, Park Avenue : Money, Power, And The American Dream. But somehow we assume she is a young lady, and that the poem is describing her rebellion against the stuffy and slightly puritanical society in which she has grown up, probably in Boston. The final line of ‘Cousin Nancy’ is taken from another Victorian figure, this time the novelist and poet George Meredith, and his poem ‘Lucifer in Starlight’: On a starred night Prince Lucifer uprose. ‘Cousin Nancy’ appeared in T. S. Eliot’s first volume of poems, Prufrock and Other Observations, in 1917. “…Strode across the hills and broke them- Find and share the perfect poems. English translation. Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those. …. (One wonders, too, whether there’s a little bit of self-reference going on here: Cousin Nancy’s surname, Ellicott, is rather close to ‘Eliot’, and Eliot was very pointedly setting out, with these early poems, to do something new and modern which departed from mainstream conceptions of ‘poetry’ and the ‘poetic’. © 1974 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Or is it the fact that her aunts are mentioned, thus making her seem younger? Static busts ebodying the perpetual flow of time and change – the Unalterable Law. This short poem encompasses the duality, and the uncertainty that accompanies modernity. Volume 2 And her aunts were not quite sure how they felt about it, Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. (Indeed, one of the original and most controversial expounders of the ‘Pastoral phenomenon’ was the Roman Virgil in his “Georgics” and “Eclogues”. That image along should be enough to send anyone off to read Ulysses. Conjures up a Blakean image of “England’s Green and Pleasant Land” with all the legend and tradition that accompanies the dark satanic mills, being shattered and dominated by the independent, invasive, uncompromising first line “Miss Nancy Ellicott”; the definite imposition of the New. A reading of a short Eliot poem by Dr Oliver Tearle. Learning ” And her aunts were not quite sure what they felt about it” (One wonders, too, whether there’s a little bit of self-reference going on here: Cousin Nancy’s surname, Ellicott, is rather close to ‘Eliot’, and Eliot was very pointedly setting out, with … Matthew and Waldo, guardians of the faith, Well, she is ‘Miss Nancy Ellicott’, but middle-aged and elderly women can be unmarried, too. These acts subscribe to an unwritten behaviour prescription. A combination of these things, it would seem. Learning With memory of the old revolt from Awe, There we come to our first problem. The opening lines Tired of his dark dominion swung the fiend Modernisation is nothing new; the ‘progress process’ is static in its constant motion. To break this law would be to stop time. ‘Waldo’ refers to Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), the American poet and essayist whose thinking was particularly influential in New England, the stomping-ground of cousin Nancy in Eliot’s poem. FILM LANGUAGE If you enjoyed this analysis of ‘Cousin Nancy’, you can discover more about Eliot’s poetry with our discussion of ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, our thoughts on his ‘The Hollow Men’, and our detailed commentary on The Waste Land. But the uniqueness of EVERY single point in time and space almost ‘cancels out’ the singularity of each individual point.). A critic would take Eliot to task over ‘plagiarising’ Meredith’s line, but Eliot defended himself by making a crucial distinction. In the first verse, the apparent ‘liberation’ of the ‘Modern’ is merely the evolution of times, based on nostalgia; in the second are the prescriptions that provide a new face to an old habitude, and in the last, the dead and fossilised emblems of change; The army of unalterable law. The University of Chicago Press The tone shifts dramatically to a stuffy study, and fossilised icons of change and revolution. The army of unalterable law. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination. The barren New England hills- Poems. Preschool If each chapter is just another chapter in the great book of time, it is also absolutely unique in it’s (albeit) temporary novelty- the fact that it has not existed before, and cannot exist in the same way ever again. Dancing and smoking are particularly time-trapped, flimsy things. By taking Meredith’s line and altering its meaning – suggesting that nineteenth-century culture and ideas are now being overtaken by more ‘modern’ fashions – Eliot renders the reference to ‘unalterable law’ ironic. In the second verse, Miss Nancy Ellicott’s independence has been sacrificed to the defining verb ‘smoked’. Repetition of this word emphasises its role as ‘label’. “Cousin Nancy” may only be three stanzas, but Eliot’s writing broke down barriers about the stereotypical ideas of a … What she does is part of who she is. He reached a middle height, and at the stars, Which are the brain of heaven, he looked, and sank. MISS NANCY ELLICOTT Soaring through wider zones that pricked his scars However, the third line redefines our expectations as it is made clear that these are not the hills of an land inhabited of old, but The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 And danced all the modern dances; Christian Metz ‘Cousin Nancy’ describes the young woman of the title. What Eliot is doing is taking somebody else’s words but relying on the reader to spot the theft, and note the difference between Meredith’s use in the original poem and Eliot’s recycling of it in ‘Cousin Nancy’. The tone shifts dramatically to a stuffy study, and fossilised icons of change and revolution. Over the cow-pasture. The army of unalterable law. CALIFORNIA DEPAR TMENT OF EDUCATION • SACRAMENTO, 2010 Originally published 1974 The army of unalterable law are rational, artistic forces, combating with reason a relatively ancient social tradition. Foundations Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Translated by Michael Taylor Foundations LANGUAGE He understood the religiously inspired starchiness and primness of that part of the US at this time. On the one hand, there is no such thing as ‘modern’. Strode across the hills and broke them, Modern here seems to be a descriptive term – as one might describe the colour of a car. This ‘unalterable’ law is not opposed to the ‘new’ laws of modernisation, it encompasses it. But note that Eliot’s poem does not show the older generation criticising the new. Printed in the United States of America Image: T. S. Eliot by Simon Fieldhouse, Wikimedia Commons. Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by T.S.

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