Rhapsody On A Windy Night

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1915

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Streetlamps

The lamps appear in all but one stanza. They illuminate and suggest a foreboding sense of destiny, as each one “[b]eats like a fatalistic drum” (Line 9). This is an auditory rather than visual image. It’s as if the lamps are pounding out a rhythm of life that cannot be altered, contributing to the poem’s evocation of futility and repetitive meaninglessness. The lamps are personified and speak. However, their speech is not clear and bright; rather, the lamps “sputtered” (Lines 14, 47) and “muttered” (Lines 15, 48); one of them “hummed” (Line 49).

They illuminate the streetscape while unlocking corners of the speaker’s mind, bringing forth old memories and images. However, the memories provide little clarity about the speaker’s life. Instead, they expose fragmented bits and pieces that do not contribute to a meaningful whole.

The Moon

In the first stanza, the moon is indirectly invoked as an important actor in the street scenes and memories about to unfold. It brings things together in an unusual synthesis and utters “lunar incantations” (Line 4) that draw out images from the speaker’s memory. The moon is considered in detail in its personification as a woman. Eliot’s depiction deviates from typical portrayals of the moon as a beautiful celestial body in the night sky. Rather, it is associated with weakness, sickness, and futility, as if she no longer knows who she is: “The moon has lost her memory” (Line 55).

The moon embodies staleness with its “old nocturnal smells” (Line 60). The “paper rose” (Line 57) she holds “smells of dust and eau de Cologne” (Line 58)—a mixture of a desirable perfume with an image that suggests decay. It is as if the moon is caught in two different worlds. It symbolizes the unsavory reality of human life as experienced or remembered by the speaker.

Flowers

Flowers often symbolize the blooming life of nature, but in this poem, they symbolize the opposite, much like the moon symbolizes the opposite of its usual meaning. The geraniums are part of a nightmarish image: “[a]s a madman shakes a dead geranium” (Lines 11-12). Geraniums appear again in the memory of “sunless dry geraniums” (Line 63). Geraniums require several hours of sunlight and a moist soil to flourish; these are geraniums deprived of what will give them life. The rose too, is a negative symbol. It is a “paper rose” (Line 57) that the moon holds in her hand, a mere imitation of the real thing. The flowers reflect the speaker’s interiority, which seems devoid of joy, meaning, and vitality.