2. “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” by T.S. Eliot
• One event that happened in the twentieth century, that I believe
influenced T.S. Eliot’s “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” was the Great
Depression.
• Shorty after WWI and the Roaring Twenties ended, the Great Depression
began. Eliot describes the hard times that people are going through
during this time period in his poetry:
– A woman in a torn and dusty dress attempting to solicit men.
– Twisted white branches that are smooth and polished like the world’s
skeleton.
– Broken springs setting outside a rundown factory.
– A cat eating rancid butter because there is no other food.
– Children awake running around the street at two a.m.
– Eliot even describes the moon as feeble, with washed out cracks in her face.
• During the Great Depression there was a severe economic depression
worldwide, along with a greater percentage of unemployed people. The
prices of food and other goods dropped significantly. Factories shut down
as well. I feel like Eliot adequately described a picture of the desperation
many people felt in this time.
3. Images Describing
“Rhapsody on a Windy Night”
These tree branches depict the “broken skeleton of the world” as Eliot described it.
This street lamp describes the street lamp that Eliot kept referencing the time to in
his poem.
4. “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
• One major reason that WWI started was that many
countries had different alliances and treaties with each
other. Some of these alliances were known to other
countries, while others were under the table. There
was a lot of conflict between the nations.
• I believe that WWI was an influence on Frost’s writing.
Frost wrote, “'Good fences make good neighbors‘” in
his poem. The neighbors represent the different
countries, while the fences represent the treaties that
were made.
• Although both neighbors in the poem had the
agreement to clean up the wall once a year, one of the
neighbors didn’t see the point of it.
5. Images Describing “Mending Wall”
The first picture shows two men working together to
rebuild a wall. This represents the two neighbors
building the wall together. The second picture is a
peace treaty between some of the countries in WWI.
