Abstract
Although Triumphal March appears in Collected Poems among the “Unfinished Poems,” it was first published as an Ariel Poem, in 1931. What the eye brings, and what the ear likewise contributes, form the ontological surface of the poem. “The natural wakeful life of the Ego is a perceiving,” says the Roman speaker, a thoroughgoing empiricist, observing a parade in honor of a victorious general, whom the crowd awaits, expectantly. Other voices break in, as does another time, and the poem proceeds to juxtapose (the truly triumphal) Christian “dispensation” with the pagan: in the perceived lies hidden the Word. Both/and trumps binary oppositions, opening a way to understand the meaning of Christmas.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
T.S. Eliot, “The Pensées of Pascal,” Selected Essays, 3rd. edn (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), 408.
T.S. Eliot, The Cultivation of Christmas Trees (London: Faber and Faber, 1954).
T.S. Eliot, Triumphal March (London: Faber and Faber, 1931).
Elizabeth Drew, T.S. Eliot: The Design of His Poetry (New York: Scribner’s, 1949), 136–37
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 G. Douglas Atkins
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Atkins, G.D. (2014). Triumphal March: The Problem Lies in Our Perceiving. In: T.S. Eliot’s Christmas Poems: An Essay in Writing-as-Reading and Other “Impossible Unions”. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137479129_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137479129_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-50377-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47912-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)