Preludes

T.S. Eliot makes distinctive use of personification. For instance, he writes that the morning “comes to consciousness,” and describes a blackened city street as “impatient to assume the world.” What do these figures of speech help to emphasize about the city? What other figures of speech does Eliot use to bring the city alive? Choose two figures of speech from the poem, and write a brief essay analyzing their impact. How would you describe the city in the poem? Explain how the figures of speech affect your ideas about the city.