Metaphysical Elements in T.S. Eliot’s Gerontion, The Hollow Men and Ash Wednesday

This article attempts to find out whether T.S. Eliot employs in three of his selected poems, “Gerontion,” “The Hollow Men” and “Ash Wednesday” poetic devices that were employed by the metaphysical poets of the 17th century. Poetic devices such as conceits, metaphors, similes, paradoxes, unified sensibility, concentration, erudition, obscurity, compression, allusions, etc., have indeed been detected in the poems. With the help of these metaphysical poetic devices Eliot has been able to effectively portray in his poems the modern civilization marked by industrialization, urbanization, fragmentation, and moral degeneration. Eliot juxtaposes and amalgamates complex and disparate elements and brings out complex but meaningful wholes.