Editing Gerontion

{{Short description|Poem by T S Eliot}}
{{For|the Homeland episode|Gerontion (Homeland)}}
{{Italic title}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
"'''Gerontion'''" is a poem by [[T. S. Eliot]] that was first published in 1920 in ''Ara Vos Prec'' (his volume of collected poems published in London) and ''Poems'' (an almost identical collection published simultaneously in New York).<ref name=Gallup>Gallup, Donald ''T.S. Eliot: A Bibliography''.  Harcourt, Brace & World, (1969)</ref> The title is Greek for "little old man," and the poem is a [[dramatic monologue]] relating the opinions and impressions of an elderly man, which describes Europe after [[World War I]] through the eyes of a man who has lived most of his life in the 19th century.<ref name=Long>[http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/a_f/eliot/gerontion.htm Longenbach, James. "On Gerontion"]</ref> Two years after it was published, Eliot considered including the poem as a [[preface]] to ''[[The Waste Land]]'', but was talked out of this by [[Ezra Pound]].<ref name=Eliot/> Along with "[[The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock]]" and ''The Waste Land'', and other works published by Eliot in the early part of his career, '"Gerontion" discusses themes of religion, [[Human sexuality|sexuality]], and other general topics of [[modernist poetry]].<ref name=Childs>Childs, Donald J. ''T. S. Eliot: Mystic, Son, and Lover''.Continuum International Publishing Group (1997) p. 93</ref>

==History==
"Gerontion" is one of the handful of poems that Eliot composed between the end of World War I in 1918 and his work on The Waste Land in 1921. During that time, Eliot was working at [[Lloyds Bank (historic)|Lloyds Bank]] and editing ''[[The Egoist (periodical)|The Egoist]]'', devoting most of his literary energy to writing review articles for periodicals. When he published the two collections in February, 1920 ''Ara Vos Prec'', "Gerontion" was almost the only poem he had never offered to the public before and was placed first in both volumes.<ref>Kirk 53</ref>

Two earlier versions of the poem can be found, the original typescript of the poem as well as that version with comments by [[Ezra Pound]]. In the typescript, the name of the poem is "[[Gerousia]]", referring to the name of the Council of the Elders at [[Sparta]].<ref name=Miller>Miller, James Edwin. ''T. S. Eliot''. Penn State Press (2005), p. 351</ref> Pound, who was living in London in 1919, was helping Eliot revise the poem (encouraging him to delete roughly one third of the text). When Eliot proposed publishing ''Gerontion'' as the opening part of ''The Waste Land'', Pound discouraged him:  "I do not advise printing Gerontion as preface. One don't miss it at all as the thing now stands. To be more lucid still, let me say that I advise you NOT to print Gerontion as prelude."<ref name=Eliot>T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound. ''The Waste Land: The Original Facsimile of the Original Drafts Including Annotations of Ezra Pound '' Ed. Valerie Eliot. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (1974) p. 127</ref> The lines were never added to the text and remained an individual poem.<ref name="Miller"/>

==The poem==
"Gerontion" opens with an epigraph (from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Measure for Measure]]'') which states:
:Thou hast nor youth nor age
:But as it were an after dinner sleep
:Dreaming of both.<ref name=Gelpi>[[T.S. Eliot]]. Poems, Alfred Knopf (1920) p. 1</ref>

The poem itself is a [[dramatic monologue]] by an elderly character. The use of pronouns such as "us" and "I"  regarding the speaker and a member of the opposite sex as well as the general discourse in lines 53–58, in the opinion of Anthony David Moody, presents the same sexual themes that face Prufrock, only this time they meet with the body of an older man.<ref name=Gelpi/><ref name=Moody>Moody, Anthony David. ''The Cambridge companion to T. S. Eliot''. Cambridge University Press (1994) p. 113</ref> The poem is a monologue in [[free verse]] describing his household (a boy reading to him, a woman tending to the kitchen, and the Jewish landlord), and mentioning four others (three with European names and one Japanese) who seem to inhabit the same boarding house.  The poem then moves to a more abstract meditation on a kind of spiritual malaise.  It concludes with the lines,
:Tenants of the house
:Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season.
which describes the monologue as the production of the "dry brain" of the narrator in the "dry season" of his age.<ref name=Bedient>Bedient, Calvin. "Yeats, Lawrence, and Eliot" in ''The Columbia History of British poetry''. Eds Carl Woodring, James S. Shapiro. pp. 570–571</ref> [[Hugh Kenner]] suggests that these "tenants" are the voices of ''The Waste Land'' and that Eliot is describing the method of the poem's narrative by saying that the speaker uses several different voices to express the impressions of Gerontion.<ref name=Kenner>Kenner, Hugh. ''A Starchamber Quiry: a James Joyce Centennial Volume, 1882–1982.'' Routledge (1982) pp. 7–8</ref> Kenner also suggests that the poem resembles a portion of a [[Literature in English#Jacobean literature|Jacobean]] play as it relates its story in fragmented form and lack of a formal plot.<ref name=Kenner2>Kenner, Hugh ''The Counterfeiters: An Historical Comedy''. Dalkey Archive Press (2005) p. 163</ref>

==Themes==
Many of the themes within "Gerontion" are present throughout Eliot's later works, especially within ''The Waste Land''. This is especially true of the internal struggle within the poem and the narrator's "waiting for rain". Time is also altered by allowing past and present to be superimposed, and a series of places and characters connected to various cultures are introduced.<ref>Bergonzi 54–55</ref>

===Religion===
To Donald J. Childs, the poem attempts to present the theme of Christianity from the viewpoint of the modernist individual with various references to the Incarnation and salvation. Childs believes that the poem moves from Christmas Day in line 19 ("in the Juvescence of the year") to the [[Crucifixion]] in line 21 as it speaks of "depraved May" and "flowering Judas". He argues that Gerontion contemplates the "paradoxical recovery of freedom through slavery and grace through sin".<ref name="Childs"/> In line 20, the narrator refers to [[Jesus Christ|Jesus]] as "Christ the tiger", which emphasizes judgment rather than compassion, according to Jewel Spears Brooker in ''Mystery and Escape: T. S. Eliot and the Dialectic of Modernism''.<ref name=Brooker>Brooker, Jewel Spears. ''Mystery and Escape: T. S. Eliot and the Dialectic of Modernism''. Univ of Massachusetts Press (1996) p. 99</ref>

Peter Sharpe states that "Gerontion" is the poem that shows Eliot "taking on the mantle of his [[New England]] [[Puritan]] forebears" as Gerontion views his life as the product of sin. Sharpe suggests that [[Jesus Christ|Christ]] appears to Gerontion as a scourge because he understands that he must reject the "dead world" to obtain the salvation offered by Christianity.<ref name=Sharpe>Sharpe, Petter. ''The Ground of our Beseeching'' p. 95</ref> However, other critics disagree; Russell Kirk believes that the poem is "a description of life devoid of faith, drearily parched, it is cautionary".<ref name="Kirk p. 54">Kirk 54</ref> Marion Montgomery writes that Gerontion's "problem is that he can discover no vital presence in the sinful shell of his body".<ref>Montgomery 76</ref>

In ''The American T. S. Eliot'', Eric Whitman Sigg describes the poem as "a portrait of religious disillusion and despair", and suggests that the poem, like "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", explores the relationship between action and inaction and their consequences.<ref name=Sigg>Sigg, Eric Whitman. ''The American T. S. Eliot''Cambridge University Press (1989) p. 171</ref> To this, [[Alfred Kazin]] adds that Eliot, especially in "Gerontion" shows that "it is easier for God to devour us than for us to partake of Him in a seemly spirit."<ref name=Kazin>Kazin, Alfred. ''An American Procession'' Harvard University Press (1996) p. 19</ref> To Kazin, it is religion, not faith that Eliot describes through the narrative of "Gerontion", and that religion is important not because of its spirituality but because of "the 'culture' it leaves". Kazin suggests that in lines 33–36 the poem attempts to show how Eliot tells his generation that history is "nothing but human depravity":
:After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now	
:History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors	
:And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,
:Guides us by vanities.<ref name=Kazin/>
Nasreen Ayaz argues that in the fourth movement of the poem, Gerontion shows that his loss of faith in Christianity has resulted in an emotional sterility to go along with the physical. In that stanza he remembers a former mistress and regrets that he no longer has the ability to interact with her on a physical level. The "closer contact" sought by the narrator represents both the physical longing of intimacy as well as the emotional connection he previously had with the woman described in the poem.<ref name=Ayaz>Ayaz, Nasreen. ''Anti-T. S. Eliot Stance in Recent Criticism''. Sarup & Sons (2004) p. 17</ref>

In lines 17–19, Gerontion alludes to the Pharisees' statement to Christ in [[Book of Matthew|Matthew]] 12:38 when they say "Master, we would see a sign from thee."<ref name=kjv>''King James Bible''. Matthew 12:38</ref> The narrator of the poem uses these words in a different manner:

:Signs are taken for wonders. "We would see a sign!"
:The word within a word, unable to speak a word,
:Swaddled with darkness.
James Longenbach argues that these lines show that Gerontion is unable to extract the spiritual meaning of the Biblical text because he is unable to understand words in a spiritual sense: "Gerontion's words have no metaphysical buttressing, and his language is studded with puns, words within words. The passage on history is a series of metaphors that dissolve into incomprehensibility".<ref name=Longenbach>Longenbach, James. ''Modernist Poetics of History: Pound, Eliot, and the Sense of the Past''. Princeton: Princeton UP (1987)</ref>

===Sexuality===
The narrator of the poem discusses sexuality throughout the text, spending several lines, including lines 57–58 where he says:
:I have lost my passion: why should I need to keep it
:Since what is kept must be adulterated?
Ian Duncan MacKillop in ''F. R. Leavis'' argues that [[impotence]] is a pretext of the poem the same way that embarrassment is the pretext of "[[Portrait of a Lady (poem)|Portrait of a Lady]]". He argues that the narrator writes each line of the poem with an understanding that he is unable to fulfill any of his sexual desires.<ref name=MacKillop>MacKillop, Duncan. ''F. R. Leavis''. Palgrave Macmillan (1997) p. 136</ref> Gelpi, in ''A Coherent Splendor: An American Poetic Renaissance'' also states that the poem is centred upon the theme of impotence, arguing that old age brings the poet "not wisdom but confirmed decrepitude and impotence." He also argues that this theme continues into Eliot's later works ''[[Ash Wednesday (poem)|Ash Wednesday]]'' and ''[[Four Quartets]]''.<ref name=Gilpi>p. 124</ref> To Sharpe, the inability of the narrator to fulfill his sexual desires leads him to "humiliated arrogance" and the "apprehension of Judgement without the knowledge of God's mercy.<ref name="Sharpe"/>

In lines 59–60, the speaker explains that he has lost his physical senses due to his age:
:I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch:	
:How should I use them for your closer contact?
Marion Montgomery, writing in ''T. S. Eliot: an Essay on the American Magus'', equates the loss of these senses with the mindset that controls the narrative of the poem. Gerontion has lost the ability to partake in the same sexual endeavours that face [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s hero in "[[Young Goodman Brown]]", yet Montgomery believes he has "turned from innocent hope to pursue significance in the dark forces of the blood". Gerontion's exploration of sinful pleasures takes place in his mind, according to Montgomery, as he can "discover no vital presence in the sinful shell of his body".<ref name=Montgomery>Montgomery, Marion. ''T. S. Eliot: an Essay on the American Magus''.University of Georgia Press (1970) pp. 74–76</ref>

== Other prominent lines ==
The phrase "wilderness of mirrors" from the poem has been alluded to by many other writers and artists. It has been used as the titles of plays by [[Van Badham]] and [[Charles Evered]], of novels by [[Max Frisch]], and of albums by bands such as [[Waysted]]. Rock singer [[Fish (singer)|Fish]] entitled his first solo album ''[[Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors]]''.

Some commentators believe that [[James Jesus Angleton]] took the phrase from this poem when he described the confusion and [[strange loop]]s of espionage and counter-intelligence, such as the [[Double-Cross System]], as a "wilderness of mirrors".<ref>{{cite web|author=Jet Heer|title=School for spies|url=http://www.jeetheer.com/politics/cia.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060507104258/http://www.jeetheer.com/politics/cia.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=7 May 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=How Chalabi Played the Press |author=Douglas McCollam |work=Columbia Journalism Review |date=July–August 2004 |url=https://www.cjr.org/issues/2004/4/mccollam-list.asp |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20040703025203/https://www.cjr.org/issues/2004/4/mccollam-list.asp |archivedate=3 July 2004 |df=dmy }}</ref> It thence entered and has since become commonplace in the vocabulary of writers of spy novels or of popular historical writing about espionage. It was the title of [[List of JAG episodes|an episode of the television series ''JAG'']] where the protagonist is subjected to [[disinformation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.onscreen-credits.com/JAG/19990504g.html |title=JAG: "Wilderness of Mirrors" |work=JAG Credits |author=Peter C. Jones |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728161833/http://www.onscreen-credits.com/JAG/19990504g.html |archivedate=28 July 2011 |df=dmy }}</ref>

Another prominent line in the poem, "In depraved May, dogwood and chestnut, flowering judas/To be eaten, to be divided, to be drunk", is the origin of the title of [[Katherine Anne Porter]]'s first collection of short stories, ''Flowering Judas and Other Stories'' (1930).

==Sources==
There is a connection between ''Gerontion'' and Eliot's understanding of [[F. H. Bradley]]'s views. In Eliot's doctoral dissertation, later published as ''Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy of F. H. Bradley'', Eliot explores Bradley's philosophy to determine how the mind relates to reality. By relying on Bradley, Eliot is able to formulate his own scepticism and states: "Everything, from one point of view, is subjective; and everything, from another point of view is objective; and there is no ''absolute'' point of view from which a decision may be pronounced."<ref>Bergonzi 24–25</ref> In terms of poetic structure, Eliot was influenced by [[Literature in English#Jacobean literature|Jacobean dramatists]] such as Thomas Middleton that relied on blank verse in their dramatic monologues. Lines within the poems are connected to the works of a wide range of writers, including [[A. C. Benson]], [[Lancelot Andrewes]], and [[Henry Brooks Adams|Henry Adams]]'s ''[[The Education of Henry Adams]]''.<ref>Bergonzi 53–54</ref>

==Critical response==
Eliot scholar Grover Smith said of this poem, "If any notion remained that in the poems of 1919 Eliot was sentimentally contrasting a resplendent past with a dismal present, ''Gerontion'' should have helped to dispel it."<ref>{{cite book|title=T. S. Eliot's Poetry and Plays: A Study in Sources and Meaning|location=Chicago|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1956|author=Grover Smith}}</ref> Bernard Bergonzi writes that "Eliot's most considerable poem of the period between 1915 and 1919 is 'Gerontion'".<ref>Bergonzi 53</ref> Kirk believes that "To me, the blank verse of 'Gerontion' is Eliot's most moving poetry, but he never tried this virile mode later."<ref name="Kirk p. 54"/>

The literary critic [[Anthony Julius]], who has analysed the presence of anti-Semitic rhetoric in Eliot's work,<ref>[[John Gross|Gross, John]]. [https://archive.today/20120731045824/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/was-t-s--eliot-a-scoundrel--8635 ''Was T. S. Eliot a Scoundrel?''], ''[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]]'', November 1996</ref><ref>[[Anthony Julius|Anthony, Julius]]. ''T. S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism, and Literary Form''. Cambridge University Press, 1996 {{ISBN|0-521-58673-9}}</ref> has cited "Gerontion" as an example of a poem by Eliot that contains anti-Semitic sentiments. In the voice of the poem's elderly narrator, the poem contains the line, "And the Jew squats on the window sill, the owner [of my building] / Spawned in some estaminet of Antwerp."<ref>Eliot, T. S. "Gerontion." ''Collected Poems''. Harcourt, 1963.</ref>

== Notes ==
{{reflist|2}}

== References ==
* Bergonzi, Bernard. ''T. S. Eliot''. New York: Macmillan Company, 1972.
* Childs, Donald J. and Eliot, T.S. ''Mystic, Son, and Lover''. Continuum International Publishing Group (1997)
* Kirk, Russell. ''Eliot and His Age''. Wilmington: ISA Books, 2008.
* {{cite book|title=Wilderness of Mirrors: Intrigue, Deception, and the Secrets that Destroyed Two of the Cold War's Most Important Agents|author=David C. Martin|publisher=The Lyons Press|date=1 July 2003|isbn=1-58574-824-2}}
* Montgomery, Marion. ''T. S. Eliot: An Essay on the American Magus''. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1970.

== External links ==
* {{wikisource-inline}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/t-s-eliot/poetry|Display Name=An omnibus collection of T. S. Eliot's poetry|noitalics=true}}
* {{librivox book | title=Gerontion | author=T. S. Eliot}}

{{T. S. Eliot}}

[[Category:1920 poems]]
[[Category:Poetry by T. S. Eliot]]
[[Category:American poems]]
[[Category:Modernist poems]]