Summary of Sweeney Among the Nightingale by T.S. Eliot

 

Sweeney Among the Nightingale

-        T.S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot’s Sweeney among the Nightingale talks about the evil overcoming human society. In this poem the contemporary world is portrayed in a state of moral decay.

In Aeschylus, Agamemnon cries out “Alas I have been struck deep with a mortal blow after his wife Clytemnestra murders him in his bath. Sweeney represents a modern figure caught in the grips of the evil. He is among the Nightingales (world).

T.S. Eliot gives a double meaning for the term Nightingale. These birds are also associated with sorrow. This bird also suggests the story of philomel. The poet uses certain animal images to describe the Sweeney. He is called Ape Neck and in his face the appearance of Zebra and Giraffe is also observed. In the first stanza Sweeney is unaware about the danger and enjoys himself as a mere observer.

The second stanza emphasizes the danger threatening Sweeney’s life. He employs certain signs in the sky as omens of approaching evil. The appearance of the moon and the clouds signify a storm about to take place. The stormy moon, death and the raven come as a warning for the approaching sexual disaster which Sweeney is about to fall.

Eliot creates an anti – climax or a comic twist when the woman in the Spanish cap tries to sit on Sweeney’s knees slips and falls. She pulls the table cloth and overturns the coffee cup but she gets reorganized and yawns. All these may be elaborate drama to tempt and trap Sweeney. The silent man in mochu brown is mysterious character associated with the two immoral women. He appears relaxed as he sprawls at the window sill. The fruits mentioned suggest lust. The waiter brings oranges, bananas, figs and hot house grapes. Man is like an animal when he loses his moral senses. That is why the man is described as some kind of creature of a lower animal species.

Sweeney according to Eliot is a character like Oedipus and Agamemnon caught in the grip of evil. The Nightingale cry near the convent of the sacred heart. So much of unspeakable sexual crimes take place even in the presence of holy places. There is a curse on humanity because the body of Agamemnon is covered by the liquid shiftings of the Nightingales. The poem shows Eliot’s deep concern for the moral decay in society.