Preludes

"Wipe your hands across your mouth, and laugh:The worlds revolve like ancient womenGathering fuel in vacant lots.""Preludes" is a poem by T. S. Eliot, composed between 1910 and 1911.This short poem, both literal and impressionistic, explores the dark and isolated existences of the spiritually, in contrast with the ruthless structure and oppressive atmosphere of modern urban life.Structured as four poems, it condemns modernity, and specifically of urban life. It highlights a few facets of life, such as boredom, or grimy scenes to further enhance the disorienting nature of the world in such a time. Finally, it closes off with a final allusion to prostitutes. as a near-permanent fixture of civilization, hidden among its darker territories. T.S. Elliot was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Born in 1888 in St. Louis (MO, USA), he is considered one of the 20th century's major poets, and a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry."In ten years' time," wrote Edmund Wilson in Axel's Castle (1931), "Elliot has left upon English poetry a mark more unmistakable than that of any other poet writing in English." In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Price "for his work as a trail-blazing pioneer of modern poetry."