Question

Read the following poem from the Modernist period, written between the world wars. In one or two paragraphs, analyze the themes, values, and ideas that are reflected in the text.
The Boston Evening Transcript
by T. S. Eliot
The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript1
Sway in the wind like a field of ripe corn.
When evening quickens faintly in the street,
Wakening the appetites of life in some
And to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript,
I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning
Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld2,
If the street were time and he at the end of the street,
And I say, "Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript."
1-A daily newspaper published in Boston, MA in the late 1800s and early 1900s
2-Rochefoucauld was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs and a nobleman

Answer 1

The readers of the newspaper as swaying with the opinion of the paper and losing their zeal of life. This is about the persuasiveness of people and how they let information affect their senses.

Explanation:

In this short poem, T S Eliot satirizes a real newspaper to show the fickle nature of what information does to people's opinions.

This is illustrated in the metaphor that people who read the paper sway in the wind like a corn field. Whatever is the current wind regarding the social climate, people follow it.

Some others loose their zeal of life reading about this. The goodbye to Rouchefoucauld also symbolizes a loss of good literature and cognitive thinking,