With a musical title like "Preludes," we just know there's gotta be some music here somewhere. Well, it's definitely got a particular sound, though (in true Eliot style) a consistent beat is nowhere to be found. To get a handle on Eliot's sonic stylings, let's break down his method:
Consonance
Consonance, or the repetition of consonant sounds, is a pretty quick way to add a little rhythm to a line. For example, try reading the first three lines of the poem aloud:
The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
Notice the repetition of the S sound? It almost becomes a tongue-twister. He uses consonance (and the similar trick of alliteration) frequently throughout the poem to make the words practically jump off the page. For instance, check out the B alliteration in "broken blinds" (10), the L sounds in "lighting of the lamps" (12), the hard C sounds in "comes to consciousness" (13), and the whole mess of S sounds in "short square fingers stuffing pipes" (42).
We bet you can find a few more. These strong consonant sounds, combined with the ever-changing meter (see "Form and Meter" for more) make for a poem that jumps and dances around, never settling into one style and letting us as readers get comfortable. Comfort is just not what this poem is about. (But, if you want to accentuate the positive in these sound choices, you can look to the influence of a new popular music in Eliot's era: jazz. Who knew Eliot was such a hip guy?)