An allusion is a reference to something outside the direct scope of the poem. For example, a poet might allude to a person, event, period, creative work, religion, or anything else, without naming that subject. Allusions to religion and a poet’s contemporary moment in poetry are incredibly common.
Poems with allusions are found in all poetic periods and movements, ranging in style, subject matter, and intention. For example, contemporary authors may reference images and symbols from Greek or Norse mythology, bringing the past into the present. It requires readers with prior knowledge of these mythological elements to immediately understand the allusions.
Allusions are often challenging parts of individual poems. Interpreting allusions often takes extra time and research without prior knowledge of what the poet is referring to. This makes poems densely packed with allusions, as many are, incredibly challenging, particularly if they were written in a place and time far outside the reader’s realm of experience.
‘The Victor Dog’ by James Merrill humorously explores the listener’s perspective, imagining them as the attentive dog on the Victor label.
'The Victor Dog' is one of the best examples of allusion. There is a new allusion in almost every line, forcing the listener to be active, inquisitive, and non-judgmental, just like the Victor dog, who sits in the center of the record, ever listening to his master's voice. However, this perspective rases questions about the role of obedience and non-conformity in art.
‘The Waste Land,’ epitomizing literary modernism, is one of the most important poems of the 20th century, portraying its despondent mood.
‘The Waste Land’ alludes to various literary, cultural, and historical texts to the extent that almost every line of 'The Waste Land' can be considered an allusion to something. The allusions were so complex that Eliot provided some end notes to the poem. Some of the major allusions include Fisher King (Arthurian Legend), Tristan and Isolde (Celtic Legend), Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', 'Antony and Cleopatra', and 'Hamlet', Thomas Kyd's 'The Spanish Tragedy', Hindu scriptures, Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' (Book 6), Dante's 'Divine Comedy', Biblical myths, Charles Baudelaire's 'The Flowers of Evil', Andrew Marvel's 'To his Coy mistress,' and Petronius's 'The Satyricon', Jessie Weston's 'From Ritual to Romance' (1925), James George Frazer's 'The Golden Bough' (1890), etc.
‘The Hollow Men’ presents the hollow, degenerated, and disillusioned people dealing with their meaningless existence amidst the ruins of the postwar world.
Like other poems of Eliot, 'The Hollow Men' is highly allusive, almost to the point of obscurity. The major sources the poem refers to include the historical Gunpowder Plot against King James 1 (17th Century), Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar', the three books of Dante's 'Divine Comedy' (Divina Commedia), James George Frazer's 'The Golden Bough', Jessie Weston's 'From Ritual to Romance' (1925), Lord's Prayer, and Rudyard Kipling's poem 'Danny Deever,' etc.
Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market,’ narrates the fantastical tale of Laura and Lizzie, delving into sin, redemption, and sisterhood.
This poem alludes to multiple religious, literary, and societal tales, ideas, beliefs, tropes, and stereotypes, allowing disparate interpretations. It alludes to the biblical story of the original sin and the Last Supper while hinting at the Christian ideas of sacrifice, suffering, sin, redemption, resurrection, kindness, care, etc. It also alludes to literary works like Pope's 'The Rape of the Lock,' Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poem 'Jenny,' Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shalott,' other works having 'fallen woman' trope, and fairy-tale tropes of the hero and damsel in distress. Additionally, it alludes to the suppressed female sexuality, prescribed morality, state of 'fallen women' or prostitutes, Anglican efforts for their rehabilitation, and organized sisterhoods of the 19th-century Victorian era.
Once considered as a preface to the major poem ‘The Waste Land’ by T.S. Eliot, ‘Gerontion’ effectively deals with the huge psychological, spiritual, and physical destruction caused by the great war.
Eliot employs his classic allusive method in 'Gerontion,' referring to a range of sources, which include literary, cultural, historical, philosophical, religious, and mythological allusions. Eliot's lifelong influences, including Dante's 'Divine Comedy' and biblical myths, are alluded to in the poem. Other sources include Arthurian legends, Greek mythology, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Gerard Manley Hopkins' poems, Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', a historical landmark - Prince's Landing Stage in Liverpool, Hegel's philosophical ideas, and existentialist philosophy.
Breaking away from Victorian diction, T.S. Eliot presents the distinct realities of his time in the stream of consciousness by experimenting with poetic form.
T.S. Eliot's poems are known for their complex allusions to cultural, historical, and literary references. 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' is also greatly allusive with the sources Eliot consistently uses in his poems. Some of the important sources Eliot used in this poem include Dante's 'Divine Comedy', some works of French symbolist poet Laforgue, Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', Bergson’s ideas on time, Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress', Biblical myths, John Bunyan's 'The Pilgrim's Progress', Hesiod's 'Works and Days', Kipling's "The Love Song of Har Dyal" etc
Tennyson’s ‘The Lady of Shalott’ narrates the tale of the cursed Lady entrapped in a tower on the island of Shalott, who meets a tragic end.
This poem is rich with allusions, drawing from various literary and mythological sources. It is primarily inspired by the Italian novelette 'Donna di Scalotta' (1321) and Malory's 'Morte d'Arthur.' It also references Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,' Shelley's 'Witch of Atlas,' and Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale,' particularly in Lancelot's 'Tirra lirra' song. Additionally, it is influenced by G.S. Faber's religious mythologizing, T.C. Croker's 'Fairy Legends' (1825-8), which is an anthology of tales collected during field trips, and Thomas Keightley's 'Fairy Mythology' (1828), later reprinted as 'The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People.'
‘Burnt Norton’ explores the philosophical concepts of time, spirituality, and transcendence, focusing on the human quest for higher meaning.
Featuring Eliot's characteristic allusive method, 'Burnt Norton' is highly complex and allusive while emphasizing unity, unlike Eliot's earlier poems. It contains numerous literary, cultural, historical, mythological, philosophical, and religious allusions, including Eliot's 'Murder in the Cathedral', biblical and Greek myths, Dante's Divine Comedy, Buddhist philosophy, Hegel's philosophy, Shakespeare's plays, historical figures like Anne Boleyn, Thomas Beckett, etc.
‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night,’ with its spooky mood and setting, captures the tortured and fragmented human psyche amidst a destructed world.
Eliot uses multiple literary, cultural, mythological, and philosophical allusions in 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night.' Some of the significant references include biblical myths, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Baudelaire's 'Les Fleurs du Mal,' Eliot's own 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,' Ibsen's Ghosts, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," Bergson's Matter and Memory, etc. Eliot is known for his allusive method, which makes his poetry quite complex.
‘Sweeney Among the Nightingales’ reflects the modern world’s degraded state through its layered allusions, symbolism, and imagery.
'Sweeney Among the Nightingales' is greatly allusive, referring to literary and cultural sources. The poem alludes to sources consistently found in Eliot's poetry, including James George Frazer's 'The Golden Bough', Christopher Marlowe's plays, and biblical myths. Other major sources include Greek mythology, Aeschylus' play 'Agamemnon', Milton's Sonnet 1, John Keats' poem 'Ode to a Nightingale,' Elizabeth Barret Browning's 'Bianca Among the Nightingales,' J.F. Whittier's poem 'Ichabod' etc.
The poem ‘Lepidoptera’ is a metaphorical representation of a mentally ill mind, likened to a broken butterfly wing. The poet is imploring society to support those with mental illness.
This poem makes use of allusion through its title which refers to the scientific order of insects that includes butterflies and moths. This allusion emphasizes the importance of the butterfly as a symbol throughout the poem and also creates a metaphor for the fragile and fleeting nature of the human mind. Additionally, the allusion to the scientific name of the butterfly/moth order adds an additional layer of meaning to the poem, highlighting the complex interplay between science and art in the exploration of the human condition.
On broken butterfly wing,
your crippled mind fluttered into my schoolroom. Failed. And died.
‘An Ancient Gesture’ explores timeless sorrow through parallels between modern tears and those of mythic figures Penelope and Ulysses.
The poem explores the topic of allusion through its references to classical mythology, specifically the story of Penelope and Ulysses from Greek literature. These allusions enrich the poem's meaning by drawing on the timeless themes of love, longing, and endurance found in ancient mythology, adding depth and resonance to the contemporary narrative of waiting and sorrow.
I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron:
Penelope did this too.
And more than once: you can't keep weaving all day
Larry Levis’s ‘Childhood Ideogram’ unravels the intricacies of identity, memory, and the transience of time through the speaker’s nostalgia.
In this poem, the topic of allusion is addressed through references to various elements that carry symbolic significance. 'Childhood Ideogram' alludes to the Chinese language and culture through the mention of ideograms and Gracie Chin, inviting connections to a broader cultural context. Additionally, allusions to historical places like Lithuania, Prussia, and Bessarabia, as well as the numbers four and seven, create layers of meaning that deepen the thematic exploration of memory, identity, and the transient nature of existence.
This section of ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ by Geoffrey Chaucer revisits the counsel of January’s friends and introduces his new wife.
This section of 'The Merchant's Tale' heavily features allusion throughout. Chaucer uses this device to incorporate the presence of numerous historical, mythological, and religious figures into the wedding ceremony. Each figure's inclusion provides the audience with important context as well as creates a greater humorous and dramatic impact when appropriate. Chaucer draws on his wealth of knowledge to foreshadow the result of January and May's marriage without explicitly stating it.
‘Sweeney Erect’ presents the complex and ambiguous state of Sweeney, in turn questioning civilization’s state in the modern world.
'Sweeney Erect' is rich with literary, cultural, historical, and philosophical allusions. The poem is an excellent example of Eliot's allusive method at work. Some of the significant allusions referred to in the poem include 'The Maid's Tragedy' by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Shakespeare's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor', Homer's Odyssey, Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue', Ralph Waldo Emerson's 'Self-Reliance,' several Greek mythological figures, Greek islands in the Aegean Sea - Cyclades, and The River Plate - an estuary in South America, etc.
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