Preludes

Part I makes extensive use of end rhyme but in an irregular pattern, although often alternate lines rhyme. Thus “passageways” (Line 2) rhymes with “days” (Line 4); “wraps” (Line 5) rhymes with “scraps” (Line 6); “feet” (Line 7) rhymes with “beat” (Line 9) and “street” (Line 11); “lots” (Line 8) rhymes with “chimney-pots” (Line 10); and “stamps” (Line 12) rhymes with “lamps” (Line 13). Only Lines 1 and 3 are without end rhymes. The rhyme scheme can be represented as follows: ABCBDDEFEFEGG.

In the first stanza of Part II, “consciousness” (Line 14) rhymes with “press” (Line 17). Similarly, the first and fourth lines of this stanza rhyme, as do “resumes” (Line 20) and “rooms” (Line 23). This leaves “hands” (Line 21) unrhymed in that stanza, but it rhymes with “coffee-stands” (Line 18) from the previous stanza.

In Part III, all but three lines rhyme. The rhymes include “shutters” and “gutters” (Lines 31, 32), which is a feminine rhyme. A feminine rhyme consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, both of which rhyme.

In the first stanza of Part IV, all but two lines are rhymed. One of these is a partial rhyme (also known as half-rhyme or slant rhyme): “[E]yes” and “certainties” (Lines 44, 45). The final three-line stanza, in keeping with the more irregular meter, is unrhymed. This suits the meaning too, since the speaker takes a step back from the scenes he has been describing.

One rhyme—feet and street—is repeated in all four parts. In Parts I, III, and IV, these are end rhymes, but in Part II, the two words form an internal rhyme: “From the sawdust-trampled street / With all its muddy feet that press” (Lines 16-17).

Alliteration is a common poetic device. It consists of the repetition of the initial consonant sounds in nearby words. Eliot employs it quite frequently in this poem: “broken blinds” (Line 10), “steams and stamps” (Line 12), “lighting of the lamps” (Line 13), “stale smells” (Line 15) “soul stretched” (Line 39), and “short square” (Line 43).

Anaphora is a literary device in which a word or a phrase at the beginning of a line is repeated in subsequent lines. Anaphora is present in the first three lines of Part III, which all begin with the word “[y]ou” (Lines 24, 25, 26). The effect is to bring the focus fully on the woman who lies on bed. Two more lines in this section also begin with the word “[y]ou” (Lines 33, 36). Another example is the repetition of “[a]nd” at the beginning of Lines 30, 31, and 32, which enables these lines to pile up descriptive passages in preparation for the announcement of the woman’s vision.

Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an abstraction or a nonhuman entity is presented as if it possesses human qualities or feelings. “The winter evening settles down” (Line 1) is a personification of an abstract noun (evening). In Part II, the phrase “morning comes to consciousness” (Line 14) is another personification of an abstract noun. Also in Part II, time, another abstract concept, acts out “masquerades” (Line 19). In the context of this poem, the effect is to suggest that abstract concepts have agency—the ability to exert power and control—while the human beings function merely in an unconscious, repetitive way.