Gerontion

In the reading the short poem by T. S. Eliot called "Gerontion", it is very clear from the beginning that this is not going to be one of those poems that tells you everything is alright and will continue to alright. Instead this poem takes down the exact opposite route, telling readers how everything is in this man’s life is being destroyed and nothing is going his way anymore. This poem has many modernism characteristics to it, such as focusing on loss instead of gain, questioning religion and what it stands for, and also being a first person narrative (Byrne). This poem was published about a year after WWI whenever Eliot moved from America to Europe, so what the destroyed Europe looked like as well, as his discontent both play a factor into his negative feelings in this poem. "Gerontion" is said to be to prelude to some of Eliot’s later and also dark poems such as "Waste Land", and this dark theme can to seen throughout his poem of "Gerontion" (Murphy). This poem focuses on the negative things that this old man has in the poem and refuses to see any brightness still included in the man’s life, which may have come from all the negative things that were surrounding Eliot when he composed this poem.

Being that this poem is one of the earliest works to be considered truly a modernism work, it is very easy to see modernism characteristics come out is this poem, and why it is considered to be a modernism work. One of the most evident features of this poem is that the speaker focuses on the negative things in his life and also the destruction of his life (Eliot). Two very clear characteristics that are found in this poem are sexuality and loss and this section includes them both:
“I have lost my passion: why should I need to keep it
Since what is kept must be adulterated?
I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch:
How should I use them for your closer contact?” (Eliot)
Not only does this section deal loss of the all the man’s senses but, also deals...