Saito Junichi

齋藤 純一

English

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Saito, Junichi

齋藤, 純一

KANAGAWA University Repository

Articles What Paris means to T. S. Eliot during 1910-1911 lunichi Saito When we discuss Eliot' s cultural identity as a poet， we often refer to his American heritage as well as his British one. Eliot in his later years made it clear that some of his poetic sources come from his childhood memory in St. Louis where he was raised as a Unitarian. Many studies have focused on Eliot' s ambiguous religious identity before his conversion into Anglo-Catholicism in 1927. However， few studies have dealt with Eliot's cultural identity during his Parisian year between 1910 and 1911 when the poet lived in the middle of the Latin Quarter of Paris. Nancy Duvall Hargrove depicts Eliot's determination to study French literature and language against his strict mother' s persuasion not to study abroad. It reads: In March 1910， Eliot informed his parents of his desire to spend the following academic year in Paris. In a leter dated April 3， 1910， his mother made clear her disapproval of such a venture and tried to dissuade or at least to discourage him from various tactics: “1 have rather hoped you would not specialize later on French literature. . . . 1 cannot bear to think of your being alone in Paris， the very words give me a chil. English speaking countries seem so different from foreign. 1 do not admire the French nation， and have les confidence in individuals of that race than in English" (Letters 13). . . . His desire to live in Paris was so strong that he somehow prevailed over this formidable force， who no doubt spoke for his father as well， and even secured their financial backing. (1) As for his daring determination to study in Paris， we know that Eliot as a young student at Harvard was very influenced by Arthur Symons' The砂mbolistMoνement in Literature (1899)， which kindled his enthusiasm for the Symbolist poems. (2) Those poems depicting the metropolitan spiri旬allandscape in both Laforgue and Baudelaire inspired Eliot veηmuch to compose his early poems. (3) The opening scene in “Preludes" reminds readers of the co町uptand decadent atmosphere on the streets in Paris those days. It reads: The winter evening setles down With smell of steaks in passageways. Six 0' clock. The bumt国outends of smoky days. And now a gusty shower wraps The grimy scraps What Paris means to T. S. Eliot during 1910・1911 139 Of withered 1eaves about your feet And newspapers from vacant 10ts . . . (4)One might say that Eliot composed his early poems greatly inf1uenced by the French symbolist poets at that time. It was rea11y challenging for a young American poet to write a free verse in a co11oquia1 sty1e. Eliot' s poetic experimentation with a free verse can be found in every poem in Prψock(l917). The readers find an eccentric image of the moon in “Rhapsody on a Windy Night. Twe1ve 0' clock. A10ng the reaches of the street He1d in a 1unar synthesis， Whispering 1unar incantations Disso1ve the f100rs of memory And al its clear re1ations， Its divisions and precisions. The 1amp hummed: ‘Regard the moon， La 1une ne garde aucune rancune， She wink:s a feeb1e eyes， She smi1es into comers. . . . (5) The deliberate readers might know that few poets cou1d dea1 with the moon as poetic materia1 to depict such a disma1 and somber scene in the past. In an interview in New Y ork， Eliot exp1ained why he chose the form of free verse in his early poems: My ear1y vers libre， of course， was started under the endeavor to practice the same form as Laforgue. This meant mere1y rhyming lines of irregu1ar 1ength， with the rhymes coming in so libre as much vers， especially the sort which Ezra called “Amygism." Then， of course， there were things in the next phase which were freer， like “Rhapsody on a Windy Night." 1 don't know whether 1 had any sort of mode1 or practice in mind when 1 did th抗. It just came that way. (6) The readers might have the impression that Eliot did not have any specific form in mind to write poems. However， the young poet unconscious1y tried to create a企eeverse in English. The course of such a story is discussed in Hargrove' s previous1y mentioned book. She exp1ains that Eliot wrote poems imitating the poetic sty1e of Laforgue. The “白1extent of Eliot' s debt to Laforgue is a1most impossib1e to exaggerate" (46)， as Erik Svamy suggests. . . . Whi1e Laforgue was the most inf1uentia1 of the Symbolist poets that he discovered through Symons， Eliot often acknow1edged how power白1ythe group as a who1e affected and inspired him. He said， for examp1e， 140 国際経営論集 No.45 20日that they evoked in him “wholly new feelings" with the force of “a revelation" (“The Perfect Critic" 5) that influenced the direction of his life. . . The most immediate effect was to convince him that he must go to their homeland to seek his own poetic voice. In “What Dante Means to Me，" Eliot states that Laforgue taught him how to develop that voice:“Of Jules Laforgue， for instance， 1 can say that he was the first to teach me how to speak， toteach me the poetic possibilities of my own idiom of speech." (7) Eliot seems to have been listening to the sounds， intonations， rhythms and poetic expressions of the language in a French-speaking country. (8) The following passage in 'The Love Song of J. Al企edPru企ock"might be one fruit of his continuous effort to articulate what he really wanted to say in his own words. Shall 1 say， 1 have gone at dusk through narrow streets And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves， leaning out of windows ? 1 should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the flows of silent seas. (9) The appearance of an urban walker seems to reflect the influence of the Parisian figure who usually strols around an urban setting. (10) One might say that Eliot as a young poet seemed to have closely observed Parisian bars， cafes， restaurants and nightclubs to use as subject matters later in his poetrう人 (11) Such behavior of the poet can be illustrated by the following passage: He arrived in Paris . . . must have been impressed by its sights: the broad boulevards， the outdoor ca民s，the open-air markets， the glorious parks， the Seine River， and such famous landmarks as the Tour Eiffel， the nearly-completed Basilique du Sacre C∞ur， the Cathるdralede Notre Dame， and the Mus白 duLouvre. The streets were crowded with trams， autobuses， bicycles， and both open and closed cars， some driven by ‘emancipated women in bee-hive veils' . . . (12)One might imagine that Eliot was able to deepen his insights into French culture through the companionship of prestigious writers and artists in such an enlightened city. Hargrove mentions that Eliot could not speak fluent French， however， he polished his French with conversation lessons with his tutor Henri-Alban Foumier. (13) Hargrove explains: His spoken French was apparently not very good when he arrived in Paris， as revealed in a leter of April 26， 1911 to his cousin Eleanor relaying the comment of the femme de chambre [maid] in his pension that a new American boarder “does not speak French very well yet. He speaks as Monsieur [Eliot] spoke in November" (Letters 18). To remedy this deficiency， he acquired as a tutor Henri-Alban Foumier (better known by his pseudonym Alain-Foumier)， a twenty-four-year-old Frenchman What Paris means to T. S. Eliot during 1910-1911 141 who gave him conversation lessons in French and instigated his reading of the works of such writers as Philippe， Claudel， Gide， Peguy， and Dostoevsky (in French translation). (14) It is not hard to visualize that the young poet was trying to cultivate his language skils and deepen his literary knowledge in a circle of intellectual and sophisticated企iendsin Paris. In other words， Eliot could be called a cosmopolitan who could play the role of cul旬ralbridge between Anglophones and Francophones in the heart of one of the illuminating cities of Europe. According to Hargrove， reading Laforgue' s poems gave Eliot an ironic， detached and cosmopolitan voice. (15) She 白rtherexplains the strong influence of the prestigious French writer， Philippe: Philippe' s two novels showed him the Parisian underworld of prostitutes and pimps in grim areas of the city， an innovative subject， as evidenced in Alain-Foumier's and Rivi己re's leters， and inspired him to tηhis hand at creating similar portrayals of urban landscapes in poems such as“Preludes，"“Rhapsody on a Windy Night，"“The Love Song of J. Alf民dPru企ock，"The Waste Land， and Four Quartets. (16) This passage proves that Eliot' s sojoum in Paris during the year of 1910-1911 was quite fruitful in his assimilation of French culture. The following passage indicates how Eliot tried to brush up on his French: Hearing French on a daily basis and absorbing its rhythms， inflections， slang， vulgarities， and idiomatic expressions gave Eliot the ability to echo them authentically in his own poe仕y，to write in a voice similar to what he so admired in Laforgue and yet to give it his own stamp. (17) The readers unanimously can argue with the idea that Eliot' s ski1l with the French language was excellent in reading， writing， and speaking the language. However， Eliot did not want to be a bilingual poet despite his extraordinary level of that language. In an interview， he explained why he wrote several poems in French in Collected Poems.・At that period 1 thought r ddried up completely. 1 hadn't written anything for some time and was rather desperate. 1 started writing a few things in French and found 1 could， atthat period. 1 think it was that when 1 was writing in French 1 didn't take the poems so seriously， and that not taking them seriously， 1 wasn't so worried about not being able to write. 1 did these things as a sort of tour de force to see what 1 could do. That went on for some months. (18) Eliot articulates what he thinks about writing in the French he had acquired with great effort during his sojoum in Paris. 142国際経営論集 NO.45 2013 . 1 had at that time the idea of giving up English and trying to settle down and scrape along in Paris and gradually write French. But it would have been a foolish idea even if r dbeen much more bilingual than 1 ever was， because， for one thing， 1 don' t think that one can be a bilingual poet. 1 don' t know of any case in which a man wrote great or even fine poems equally well in two languages. 1 think one language must be the one you express yourself in poetry， and you've got to give up the other for that purpose. And 1 think that the English language really has more resources in some respects than the French. 1 think， in other words， 1've probably done better in English than 1 would ever have in French even if l' d become as proficient in French as the poets you mentioned. (19) Eliot' s emphasis on his native tongue might reflect his insightful observation of French people' s respect for their language and culture. It is not farfetched to say that foreigners in France can not help but to be aware of profundities of French culture and language during their sojoum. Eliot might not have been an isolated case conceming the awareness of such a grand nation. This idea can be explained by the passage below: . he considered the subject of the purity of language has been most consciously cultivated and most jealously guarded in the past." He paid tribute to Valery because he “gave a lifetime to the study， the preservation and the renovation of the language" and asserted that poets have the “responsibility of maintaining the purity of language without which our civilization will surely decline." (20) Can't we state that Eliot was struggling with his own poetic voice to articulate what he really wanted to express in his linguistic environment abroad? As a matter of fact， the young poet cultivated an exquisite sensitivity toward his life and the daily events that took place in his neighborhood. (21) ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was composed during his sojoum in Paris. It might be said that Eliot changed the verse style of Laforgue into his own in the poems. (22) Eliot says The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes， The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes， Licked its tongue into the comers of the evening， Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains. . . (23) The readers might think that Eliot depicted such an urban scene based on his memories in Paris， not in London. As a consequence of such logic， the following passage in The Waste Land might have reflected Eliot' s mental image of Paris using the style of the French Symbolist poets. Unreal City， Under the brown fog of a winter dawn， What Paris means to T. S. Eliot during 1910・1911 143 A crowd flowed over London Bridge， so many， 1 had not thought death had undone so many. Sighs， short and in仕equent，were exhaled， And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. ‘You hypocrite lecteur ! -mon semblable， -mon frere !' (24) It is generally admitted that Eliot composed the poem based on Baudelaire' sFleurs du Aぬl(1857). Hargrove states that Eliot adopted the image of a “stroller" in the Symbolist poems into his own poe仕y. (25) In addition Eliot leamed to articulate what he wanted to describe in his poetry before coming to Paris. It might safely be said that Eliot could obtain significant literary and cultural materials in Paris， which were adopted in his own poetry later. Eliot， in a sense， might have been an English poet who was more at home in a Frenchman' s poetic culture. The poet leamed to express any feelings that were hovering in in his mind as poetic materials. We are appreciative of Eliot' s determination to compose in English， though he attained an extraordinary level in French. Eliot' s remark at the interview in New York that“the English language really has more resources in some respects than the French" must be seriously taken into consideration. Eliot as an Anglophile poet must have been awakened by the sophisticated poetic style of the French poems， though he never tumed into a bilingual poet. His belief in English-speaking culture might have led him to such a persuasive passage in “Little Gidding." A people without history Is not redeemed丘omtime， for history is a pattem Of timeless moments. So， while the light fails On a winter' saftemoon， in a secluded chapel History is now and England. (26) The above-cited passage clearly indicates that Eliot leamed to have no hesitation in making clear his beliefs as an Anglo-Catholic in England. One might say that what Eliot leamed and experienced in Paris made him a great poet in English-speaking countries， which led him to win a Nobel Prize in 1948. Notes (1) Nancy Duvall Hargrove， T.S. Elio(s Parisian Year (Gainesville: The University Press of Florida， 2009)， p.6. (2) Ibid. (3) Ibid.， p.7. (4) T. S. Eliot， Collected Poerns 1909-1962 (London: Faber and Faber limited， 1963)， p.23. (5) Ibid.， p.26. (6) Edited by George Plimpton， Writers at Work (The Viking Press， 1963)， pp.97-98. (7) Hargrove， Ibid.， pp.6・7.(8) Ibid.， p.272. 14 国際経営論集 NO.45 2013 (9) Eliot， Ibid.， p.15. (10) Hargrove， Ibid.， p.50. (11) Ibid.， p.9. (12) Ibid. (13) Ibid. (14) Ibid. (15) Ibid.， p.272. (16) Ibid. (17) Ibid. (18) Plimpton， Ibid.， p.98. (19) Ibid.， p.99. (20) Hargrove， Ibid.， p.269. (21) Ibid.， 271. (22) Ibid. (23) Eliot， Ibid.， p.13. (24) Ibid.， p.65. (25) Hargrove， Ibid.， p.271. (26) Eliot， Ibid.， p.222. What Paris means to T. S. Eliot during 1910・1911 145 

What Paris means to T.S. Eliot during 1910-1911

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What Paris means to T.S. Eliot during 1910-1911

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