University of Dayton Review

Volume 6 Article 3
Number 2 Fall

September 1969

Gerontion: Time's Eunuch

James Farrelly
University of Dayton

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Farrelly, James (1969) "Gerontion: Time's Eunuch," University of Dayton Review: Vol. 6: No. 2, Article 3.
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 Farrelly: Gerontion: Time's Eunuch

Gerontion: Time's Eunuch

James Farrelly

"And one man's year is like the country of a cloud,

mapped on the sky, that soon will vanish into the
watery, ordered wastes, into the dark which is light."
- Dylan Thomas, " The Crumbs of One Man's Year"

In his essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent, " T.S. Eliot states that "no poet, no
artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the
appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone;
you must set him for comparison and contrast among the dead." 1 Apparently what Eliot
is trying to say - in his own inimitable, magisterial way - is that seldom can an artist
create an entirely original work of art. Originality must be tempered, according to Eliot,
both by a considered exploration of the past and a profound examination of what effect
the past has had in the formation of present literary traditions.
"The emotion of art is impersonal," Eliot continues, "and the poet cannot reach this
impersonality without surrendering himself wholly to the work to be done. And he is not
likely to know what is to be done unless he lives in what is not merely the present, but
the present moment of the past, unless he is conscious, not of what is dead, but of what is
already living.,,2
Tradition, then, becomes an important element in Eliot's analysis of the creative act.
And since "honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but
upon the poetry ,,,3 the critical reader must endeavor to place the fruits of the poet's
genius in an historical context, must try to recreate, so to speak, what might be termed
the poet's "historical sense": "This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as
well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a
writer traditional. And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious
of his place in time, of his contemporaneity.,,4
From this brief analysis of Eliot's essay, it becomes apparent that the artist, if he is to
follow Eliot's dicta, must develop a deeply-rooted "historical sense." Admittedly, the
poet must maintain an individuality, an intense awareness of the thought of his time; but
Eliot demands that he also "develop or procure the consciousness of the past
and ... continue to develop this consciousness throughout his career."S As a result, the
true poet will not "fmd it preposterous that the past should be altered by the present as
much as the present is directed by the past. And the poet who is aware of this will be
aware of great difficulties and responsibilities.,,6

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 University of Dayton Review, Vol. 6, No. 2 [1969], Art. 3

Although Eliot's theory may seem somewhat impractical in the abstract, when viewed
concretely in one of his early poems, it becomes an effective and workable hypothesis.
And of all the early poems, perhaps the most obvious paradigm of "Tradition and the
Individual Talent" is "Gerontion." As Grover Smith has observed: "To make the past
seem present, because the memory of it exists in the educated consciousness, and at the
same time to exercise awareness of contemporaneity, are the technical intentions of
'Gerontion,' which thus shows in large the practical application of 'Tradition and the
Individual Talent,.,,7
Structurally, "Gerontion" adheres to Eliot's theory rather scrupulously. The many
historical allusions, mirroring in their own way the pastiche method of The Waste Land,
give the poem a comprehensive view of the past, while Gerontion's consciousness provides
the "contemporaneity" of scene. Even the use of words in the poem suggests conscious
imitation of Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists. 8 The verse form, too, which
sporadically drifts from its modern form into traditional iambic pentameter, harkens back
to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. In the epigraph of the poem, Eliot uses
Shakespeare's words to set the tone and theme of the entire poem: 9

Thou hast nor youth nor age

But as it were an after dinner sleep
Dreaming on both.
(Measure for Measure, III, i, 11. 32-34)

Just as the use of allusions in the poem enables the poet to invoke the past, so, too,
the thematic juxtaposition of past and present reflect the poet's "historical sense."
Gerontion views existence as faithless and empty. Mirroring the drama of the past in the
decadence of the present, he vainly searches for the cause of the spiritual dryness of
Western man. On one level, he becomes a symbol of civilization gone rotten;lO and Eliot
by a brilliant counterpointing of the past and present, of the traditional and the
contemporary, unfolds a panorama of the old and the new, the ancient and the modern,
the golden age and the wasteland. In a "music of ideas" the past and present strive for
dominance, but the fInal resolution of the poem merely posits Gerontion's musings as

Tenants of the house,

Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season.

Moreover, in the course of the poem, Gerontion becomes to a certain extent the
history which his "dry brain" recounts in a "dry season." Unlike Prufrock, Gerontion
never achieves a unique personality. A frustrated artist, he loses himself in the past amid
his proving speculation. Lacking a higher cause, he commits himself to history. 11 "For
the poet must continually ccommit himself as he is at the moment to something which is
more valuable. The progress of the artist is a continual self-sacrifIce, a continual
extinction of personality. " 1 2
Gerontion as artist, then, is unable to act because he can neither rid himself of the
burden of the past nor understand the value of the dismal present. Unlike the poet who

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 Farrelly: Gerontion: Time's Eunuch
has a "sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the
temporal together," Gerontion remains solely the victim of the past. Lost in the maze of
cultural decline, lacking fertility and creative ideas, he cannot muster the inspirational
force necessary to revive his individual talent. As he sings his wearily pathetic song of
himself, Gerontion questions not only the spiritual aridity of civilization but also the
hollowness of his own soul.
Indeed, Gerontion's lament foreshadows the zombian chant of Eliot's "hollow men":

We are the hollow men

We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece fIlled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion ... 13

Gerontion has not been able to cross "with direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom."
Instead he must be "driven by the Trades / To a sleepy corner." His futile search for
meaning in life must fail. For unless Gerontion dies, the rhythm of nature will strike an
unharmonious chord. In death alone can there be resurrection. The inspirational soul of
the past must be transferred to a vigorous successor before it is seriously impaired by
threatened decay. Sir James Frazer explains this death and ressurection myth in The
Golden Bough in the following words:
The divine life, incarnate in a material and mortal body, is liable to be tainted and
corrupted by the weaknesses of the frail medium in which it is for a time enshrined;
and if it is to be saved from the increasing enfeeblement which it must necessarily
share with its human incarnation as he advanced in years, it must be detached from
him before, or at least as soon as, he exhibits signs of decay, in order to be
transferred to a vigorous successor. This is done by killing the old representative of
the god and conveying the divine spirit from him to a new incarnation. The killing
of the god, that is of his human incarnation, is therefore merely a necessary step to
his revival or resurrection in a better form. Far from being an extinction of the
divine spirit, it is only the beginning of a purer and stronger manifestation of it. In
everyone of these instances the life of the god-man is prolonged on condition of his
shewing [sicJ in a severe physical contest of fight or flight, that his bodily strength
has not decayed. 14

It is my contention that Gerontion, as a representative of the decayed past, must give

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 University of Dayton Review, Vol. 6, No. 2 [1969], Art. 3
up his divine spirit, his creative imagination, to i new form if he hopes to make manifest a
stronger and purer self. His life cannot be prolonged since he is incapable of either "fight
or fligh t." Here, as in "Tradition and the Individual Talent," Eliot suggests that "the
difference between the present and the past is that the conscious present is an awareness
of the past in a way and to an extent which the past's awareness of itself cannot
show. " lS Thus, on a narcissistic level, "Gerontion" becomes an ironic testament to the
continuous revivification of the aesthetic sensibility; and a close reading of the poem
clearly underlines the predominant theme of death and resurrection, of sterility and
creativity.
In the opening lines of the poem, Gerontion laments:

Here I am, an old man in a dry month,

Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.
Immediately the theme of spiritual and creative barrenness is introduced. Like Hopkins in
the sonnet, "Thou Art Indeed Just," Gerontion is waiting for a flood of inspiration and
grace:
See, banks and brakes
Now, leaved how thick! laced they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
Them; birds build - but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, 0 thou lord of life, send my roots rain. 16

Gerontion, too, is "time's eunuch." Although he has a comprehensive view of the past,
his "present" is not one of active participation. His is a "dull head among windy spaces."
He was "neither at the hot gates (Thermopylae) I Nor fought in the warm rain." His
"house is a decayed house." Like Tiresias in The Waste Land, Gerontion merely
"perceives the scene" of the dismal present:

The goat coughs at night in the field overhead;

Rocks, moss, stonecrop, iron, merds.
The woman keeps the kitchen, makes tea,
Sneezes at evening, poking the peevish gutter.

In this atmosphere Gerontion sits,

.. an old man
A dull head among windy spaces. 1 7

At this point the poem shifts abruptly. Gerontion exclaims:

Signs are taken for wonders. 'We would see a sign!'

The word within a word, unable to speak a word,
Swaddled with darkness. In the juvescence of the year

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 Farrelly: Gerontion: Time's Eunuch
Came Christ the tiger
In depraved May, dogwood and chesnut, £lowering judas,
To be eaten , to be divided, to be drunk
Among whispers ... 18

Christ came as the inspired word, but his message has been swaddled in darkness. Where
faith and devotion once reigned, betrayal and hypocritical communion now preside.
Christ is eaten, divided, and drunk
by Mr. Silvero
With caressing hands, at Limgoes
Who walked all night in the next room ;
By Hakagawa, bowing among the Titians;
By Madame de Tornquist, in the dark room
Shifting the candles; Fraulein von Kulp
Who turned in the hall, one hand on the door ..... 19

Internationalized by their names, all of these figures have distorted the Incarnation. As
George Williamson observes:

The sacrament of spring, both natural and spiritual, comes to be eaten, to be taken
in communion "among whispers" - a phrase which introduces further depravation.
It is perverted by Mr. Silvero, whose devotion turns from the Lord's Supper to his
porcelain at Limoges; by Hakagawa, who worships painting; by the Madame who
turns "medium"; and by the Fraulein, her client. 20

The supernatural rebirth of human nature through Christ is no longer recognized.

Gerontion himself has "no ghosts," no supernatural beliefs, no vital sense of the past :

Vacant shuttles
Weave the wind. I have no ghosts,
An old man in a draughty house
Under a windy knob. 21

The next portion of the poem deals with the deception of history:

After such knowledge, what forgiveness?

In a plea for forgiveness, Gerontion demonstrates the destructive guile of Clio, who

Gives too late

What's not believed in, or if still believed,
In memory only, reconsidered passion.

Man is forced to act from false values; for the "sign," the Word, is no longer believed in:

Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.

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These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree. 2 2

The climax of the poem is now reached. Gerontion must face the inevitability of
death, of the "void." In His Second Coming, Christ comes to devour, not to be devoured.
Addressing God, Gerontion cries out:

I that was near your heart was removed therefrom

To lose beauty in terror, terror in inquisition. 23

Old age has eaten away his life; he has "lost his passion." His senses no longer function. In
a fu tile gesture he grasps for life:
I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch:
Hou should I use them for your closer contact?

But the images of desolation overcome h.is inquisition. All are

whirled
Beyond the circuit of the shuddering Bear
In fractured atoms.

Unlike the Gulf-claimed gull who bravely resists the wind, Gerontion is

driven by the Trades

To a sleepy corner.

Yet in Gerontion's death there is hope: for a new life, for a resurrection, for a creative
energy. His divine spirit, newly housed in a reincarnated form, will rejoice with Keats's
Young Apollo in Hyperion:
Knowledge enormous makes a god of me....
Creations and destroyings all at once
Pour into the wide hollows of my brain,
And deify me. 24

University of Dayton

1 T. S. Eliot, The Sacred Wood (New York , 1964), p. 49.

2Ibid., p. 59.

3 Ibid., p. 53.

4 Ibid., p. 54.

5 Ibid., p. 53.

6 Ibid., p. 50.

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 Farrelly: Gerontion: Time's Eunuch
7 Grover Smith, Jr., T. S. Eliot's Poetry and Plays (Chicago, 1956), p.57.

8 Ibid., p. 57. In the "Notes" to Chapter 4 , p. 305, Smith lists the sources of manyof Eliot's
allusions. For another scholarly treatment of the same subject, see Hugh Kenner, Th e Invisible
Poet: T. S. Eliot (New York, 1959), pp. 139-141.

9 Jane Worthington, "The Epigraphs to the Poetry ofT. S. Eliot," American Literature, XXI (March,
1949), 5-6 . Miss Worthington suggests that the "theme of 'Gerontion' is given in the first halfline
of the epigraph, whereas the tone and atmosphere of the poem are suggested in the following line
and a half. Such completeness is rare in Eliot's epigraphs."

10 Smith , p. 60.

11 Smith has noted a progression in Eliot's works from history in "Gerontion" to myth in The Waste
Land to God in "Ash Wednesday." Gerontion becomes Tiresias becomes the speaker of "Ash
Wednesday." In every case, however , the persona becomes a representation of the creative process.

12 On an aesthetic level, Gerontion's role in the poem takes on a new significance. This significance
will be more clear, I trust, when I begin to examine the text of the poem.

13 T. S. Eliot, Selected Poems (New York, 1964), p. 77.

14 Sir James Frazer, The New Golden Bough, ed. Theodore H. Gaster (New York, 1964) , pp. 305-306.
The analogy between the divine spirit and the poetic imagination is more fully understood, I
believe, if Coleridge's definitions of the primary and secondary imagination are considered. An
insight into the mythic structure of the poem can be found in the words of Richard Chase in
"Myth and Literature": "myth dramatizes in poetic form the disharmonies, the deep neurotic
disturbances which may be occasioned by this clash of inward and outward forces, and that by
reconciling opposing forces, by making them interact coercively toward a common end, myth
performs a profoundly beneficial and life-giving act." See Myth and Method, ed. James E. Miller
(Lincoln, Nebraska , 1960), p. 143.

15 T.S. Eliot, The Sacred Wood, p. 52.

16 Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Thou Art Indeed Just," Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. W. H.
Gardner (New York, 1961), p. 113.

17 According to Frazer, ". .. the spirit of the ripe corn is conceived, not as death, but as old, and
hence it goes by the name 'old man' (p. 321). "The modern, but doubtless ancient, Arab custom of
burying the 'Old Man' ..... (p. 405) is similar to the death and resurrection theme that I propose
in "Gerontion."

18 The May-Tree, Frazer points out, is the embodiment of the tree spirit or spirit of vegetation. But
th e trees in "Gerontion" are ironically portrayed. Dogwood, which is a symbol of the birth of
Christ, is also noted for its showy involucres. The chestnut, which is an edible nut of a beech tree,
is also connotative of something which has been repeated to the point of staleness. And flowering
judas, with its royal hue , is also symbolic of the betrayal of Christ.

19 All those who "eat, " "divide," and "drink" the essence of Christ in "Gerontion" have profaned His
love.

20 George Williamson, A Reader's Guide to T. S. Eliot (New York, 1953), p. 109.

21 See Job 7: 6-7. Kenner sees an echo of Joyce in these lines: "The void awaits surely all of them
that weave the wind : a menace, a disarming and worsting from those embattled angels of the

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 University of Dayton Review, Vol. 6, No. 2 [1969], Art. 3
church" (p. 130). Gerontion, along with De Bailhache, Fresca, Mrs. Cammel, must in the end face
the void.

22See Frazer's discussion of the "wrath-bearing tree," pp. 396-97.

23 Robert M. Brown and Joseph Yokelson, "Eliot's 'Gerontion,' 56-61," The Explicator XV
(February, 1957), 31. Both Brown and Yokelson make an excellent case for interpreting the one
addressed here as God and not a lady. I, too, feel that the sexual level of the poem is secondary.
The authors of this article also interpret the line, "To lose beauty in terror, terror in inquisition,"
in a very convincing manner: "To lose 'beauty in terror' means, we think, to move from
Catholicism to Calvinism, with its terrifying Jehovah-God. To lose 'terror in inquisition' suggests
the movement from Calvinism to the modern secular world in which man - at least thinking man
- compulsively questions his significance in a universe almost empty of God."

24 John Keats, "Hyperion," Ill, 113, 116-118, The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John
Keats, ed. Harold E. Briggs (New York, 1951), p.247.

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