Song for Simeon

A detailed Summary of Song for Simeon

In the poem "A Song for Simeon," T.S. Eliot uses ambiguity and religious allusion to convey decay and death of the old order to make room for modernity. Examining the imagery in the poem and the tone used allows for a better idea of what the speaker's attitude is toward these changes, and perhaps a hint of how the author himself feels. The view the speaker takes toward the changes he believes are to come is one of fear. He feels threatened by the thought of the way of life he knows ending and seems to prefer that his life, which he feels to be complete already, end before he can witness that end.

Looking at the poem as a whole, two main themes stand out. First, the focus of it changes from beginning to end. The first stanza of the poem gives a broad view of the world itself with little focus on the speaker, while the last stanza's focus is almost entirely on the speaker and what he does or does not want. This change toward egocentrism may be an attempt to convey that people in the future will be more concerned with themselves than the world as a whole. The second theme is the change away from traditional ways that occupies the speaker's mind. It is as though the traditional ways are a rope that the

The line "My life is light, waiting for the death wind," (4) could be interpreted in two ways. Light may refer to light we see, as in a candle, in which case the death wind would cause darkness by blowing out the light. When read with "Like a feather on the back of my hand" (5), light could also be interpreted as weight. There may be so little of the speaker's life left, that a "death wind" would simply blow it away as it would a feather. This interpretation of the death wind is supported later in the poem as well where the speaker says he has "no tomorrow," implying he is on the brink of death (25). "Fleeing from the foreign faces and the foreign swords" (17) also is ambiguous to leave room for interpretation. What are the foreign faces and the foreign swords? They first create an image of war, but swords were no longer used in war at the time the poem was written. The foreign faces are more likely referring to the modern ideas that are foreign to the speaker. The foreign swords would then represent those modern ideas attempting to fight their way into the traditional world. The fact that the people are fleeing from the faces and swords show that the world was not ready for what is to come. Lines 34 refers once again to a sword, but unlike in line 17 it is not a sword people are fleeing from, but a sword that pierces God's heart. If looked at in the context of lines 20 - 24, the sword here could represent the Judeo-Christian split after the death of Christ. Perhaps the speaker is conveying that he believes the changes in the future are likely to have an impact as large as the birth of Christianity. It also may represent that the speaker believes the people in the era to come will not believe in God, and religion will die or become much less common. The lack of concrete statements in the poem allows for many different interpretations of what it may mean.

The poem also uses allusions to religion to create images for the reader. Beginning in the second sta

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Approximate Word count = 1339
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English