Our poem for the Christmas holidays has two lessons for all writers. It comes from T.S. Eliot.

My introduction to TSE came in college, either a survey course in modern poetry or as part of a literature survey. Professor C. Hines Edwards, dry and erudite, was one of two that I admired for his knowledge of poetry classical and structure-less.

He introduced TSE’s “The Wasteland” to us, a long poem known for its allusions. The literary device allusions has its place in writing. In a few brief words, it opens doors to additional meaning … much as Christina Rossetti’s “From Sunrise to Starshine” did, with our realization that she’s a sleeping beauty, briefly awakened, now in her thorn-guarded tower.

The allusion is the first of our two lessons, but it leads into the second, a contradictory lesson and our final one for this series.

In January, The Write Focus starts a new series called Writers on Writing, active writers who share their knowledge of tech tools, productivity, and process, with a few snippets on the craft.

Here’s Eliot’s poem, perfect for the holiday season.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction

01:17 Allusions / Easter Eggs

03:11 First Lesson

04:40 Symbolic Motifs

05:17 Re-Connecting with TSE

07:45 Second Lesson: Two-Sided

10:13 “The Journey of the Magi”

16:40 Closing

Total Run Time = 17:38

#TSEliot #JourneyoftheMagi #Wasteland #HollowMen #allusion #discoverability #symbolicmotifs #motif #writingadvice

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

LINKS

TSEliot bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot

“The Wasteland” https://genius.it/www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

“The Hollow Men” https://poets.org/poem/hollow-men

“Journey of the Magi” https://allpoetry.com/The-Journey-Of-The-Magi

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/12/549-fall-into-poetry-journey-with-ts.html

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