Thesis help!

[PacoPaco]

Alright...i have to write a 5 page research paper over a poem by T.S Eliot. I haven't been able to decide what poem I want to do it over, norm for that matter what my thesis is going to be! Could you guys help?:flare:

[JBI]

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. His most famous poem, besides perhaps the Wasteland.

[Charles Darnay]

I also second the choice of Prufrock...it's a great poem and simple enough to get down in 5 pages.....Wasteland will be more difficult to condense.

[PacoPaco]

Yay! Thats the one that I keep finding stuff on...but I really liked Sweeney Among the Nightingales too. Guess it's not quite as well known...

[PacoPaco]

Alright, now can you guys help me understand the poem? Whats the point hes trying to get across? Theme? Any ideas which direction to point my paper in?

[Scheherazade]

Paco,

If you share some of your own thoughts first, I am sure there will be some members who are willing to discuss them with you.

Good luck! :)

[PacoPaco]

Ugh! Honestly, this poem frustrates me so! I'd prefer to do William Blake's Sick Rose but I can't...Blake is taken.:bawling:

[Scheherazade]

Then maybe you should pick a poem that does not frustrate you so much.

[PacoPaco]

Well that would be wonderful but I have to write no less than a 5 page research paper over it...And the poem has the most stuff on it! I'd prefer to do Sweeney Among the Nightingales, but I can't find anything on it! No research, then no paper to do it on...

[PacoPaco]

Any ideas!? Pleeeaaasssseee! First draft is due Thrusday...

[romantic novel]

You can write about The Waste Land...It is very interesting I did once a research on it. so I can help you with all you need(biography-critisim and symbols).
However, the main idea of the poem is the poet's reflection of modern world...
if you are interested just tell me.. i'm ready

[JBI]

I wouldn't touch the Wasteland unless you are willing to read 100s of pages of analysis, seriously, it is that dense. Either way, Prufrock is almost as written about, and seems more historically important. You should try, first with Wikipedia, and then online, to find what you are looking for.

To be honest, if you are writing 5 pages on it, you're going to need outside sources. I think Eliot was perhaps the worst choice for you to take, you clearly not really knowing where you are coming from when it comes to poetry, and he being one of the most complex poets, who is dependent on the knowledge of his readers.

But for starts, you can perhaps read the poem.