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The wastland

Introduction Thomas Steams Eliot was born in St.Louis, Missouri, on September 26,1888. His First book
of poems, Prufrock and other observation, was published in 1917, and immediately established him as a
leading poet of the avant-garde.

3. As a poet, he transmuted his affinity for the English metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century.
His poem in many respects articulated the disillusionment of a younger post- world war 1 generation
with the convention both literary and social of the Victorian ear. T.S. Eliot received the Nobel prize for
literature in 1948. He died in London on January 04,1965.

4. The Waste land it’s a epic poem. A poem made of collage of images. In ‘The Waste land’ Image and
symbol take in city life. T. S Eliot represent the city life people living style. Eliot use complex language
and also use mythical technique in the ‘The Waste Land’. Poem divided in five parts. Five parts like this :

5. Five parts of Waste Land The Burial of the Dead A Game Of Chess The Fire Sermon Death By Water
What the thunder Said

6. The Burial of the Dead The first part of the poem the poem is ‘The Burial of the Dead.’ The poem’s
speaker talk about how spring is an a Horrible time of year stirring up memories of a bygone days and
unfulfilled desires. The first part The Burial of the dead stars with this line : April is the cruellest month
breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain……..

7. In this lines unknown speaker claims that April is the cruelest month, even though we might usually
thinking of spring as a time of love. This section title from a line in the Anglican burial service. These
recollection from Wagner’s operatic version of Tristan and Isolate an Arthurian take of adultery and loss.

8. A Game of Chess This section takes its title from two plays by the early 17 th century playwright
Thomas Middleton, in one of which the move in a game of chess denote stages in seduction. This part
start with like this lines: The chair she sat in, like a burnished throne, Glowed in the marble, where the
glass, Held up by standardats wrought with fruited vines…….

9. This part opens with a description of a woman sitting inside a really expensive room. Eliot vividly
paints a picture of someone sitting on the bank of the famous Thames river in Landon. Although Eliot is
able to produce starting beautiful poetry from the rough speech of the women in bar he nevertheless
present their conversation as reason for pessimism.

10. The Fire Sermon The title of this, the longest section of the poem .This part start with like this lines:
‘The river’s tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf. Clutch and sink into the wet bank, the wind. Crosses
the branch land, unheard the nymphs are departed.’……

11. This section opens with a desolate riverside scene: Rats and garbage surround the speaker, who is
fishing and ‘musing on the king my brother’s wreck.’ The Fire Sermon however, also includes bits of
many musical pieces, including Spenser’s wedding song, a soldier’s ballad a nightingale’s chirps, a song
from Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wake filed, and a mandolin tune.

12. Death by Water This part is shortest of section in the poem. This part describes a man, Phlebas the
Phoenician who has died, apparently by drowning. This part start like lines ‘Phelbas the Phoenician a
fortnight dead, Forget the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell And the profit and loss………’
13. This lines tells us that some guy named Phlebas the Phoenician is the one who’s been killed by
water. He’s been dead for two weeks, or a fortnight.

14. What the thunder said The final section of the poem opening is taken from the crucifixion of
Christ.This section start like this lines: ‘After the torchlight red on sweaty faces After the frosty silence in
the gardens , After the agony in stony places The shouting and the crying’……..

15. These lines in particular refer to the moment that has come after death of Christ, but before his
rebirth on Easter Sunday. The scene then shifts to the Ganges, half a world away from Europe, where
thunder rumbles. In this poem Thunder Speak this three words :- DATTA DAYADHVAM DAMYATA
According to these fables, the thunder “gives “, “sympathizes” and “controls” through out’s “speech”.
Eliot launches into a meditation on each of these aspects of the thunder’s power.

The wasteland

“The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot

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Presentation transcript:

“The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot Adela, Erica and Hilda

Synopsis 433 lines 20th Century Meditation on the state of Western civilization mixes descriptions of
contemporary life with literary allusions and quotations, religious symbolism, and references to ancient
and medieval cultures and mythologies, vegetation and fertility rites The Waste Land is a 433-line poem
by T. S. Eliot. It is one of the most famous poems of the 20 th century, dealing with the decline of
civilization and the impossibility of recovering meaning in life. This poem is a meditation on the state of
Western civilization, especially regarding the sense of depression, waste, and futility of the post-World
War I era. The poem mixes descriptions of contemporary life with literary allusions and quotations,
religious symbolism, and references to ancient and medieval cultures and mythologies, vegetation and
fertility rites.

Synopsis Eastern religions and philosophies emphasize themes of barrenness and desolation and
portrays a dying society the ending suggests hope of redemption through concepts and images
grounded on the synthesis of Christian and Eastern (Hindu/Buddhist) spirituality As well as Eastern
religions and philosophies; the poem emphasizes themes of barrenness and desolation and portrays a
dying society, but the ending suggests hope of redemption through concepts and images grounded on
the synthesis of Christian and Eastern (Hindu/Buddhist) spirituality.

Language & Form Modernist poetry. Irregular verse, at times free, at times reminiscent of the blank
verse of Eliot’s plays The poem was reduced to half the length of earlier drafts at Ezra Pound’s
suggestion Complex scholarly annotations to explain the many quotations and obscure allusions Five
sections and features multiple voices and a deliberate attempt at creating a sense of fragmentation,
discontinuity, and decay. Modernist poetry. Irregular verse, at times free, at times reminiscent of the
blank verse of Eliot’s plays; English original with passages in other languages; at Ezra Pound’s suggestion,
the poem was reduced to half the length of earlier drafts (the poem bears a dedication acknowledging
Pound as il miglior fabbro, “the better craftsman”); Eliot included complex scholarly annotations to
explain the many quotations and obscure allusions of the poem; special credit is given to the work of the
anthropologist James Frazer, The Golden Bough (1890-1918) and Jessie Weston’s treatment of the Grail
legends, From Ritual to Romance (1920); the poem is divided into five sections and features multiple
voices and a deliberate attempt at creating a sense of fragmentation, discontinuity, and decay.

Structure Epigraph Five sections The Burial of the Dead A Game of Chess The Fire Sermon Death by
Water What the Thunder Said

Epigraph “Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri
dicerent: Sibulla ti qeleiz; respondebat illa: apoqanein qelw.” For Ezra Pound il miglior fabbro. Quotes
Petronius’s Satyricon (first century C.E.) “For once I myself saw with my own eyes the Sibyl at Cumae
hanging in a cage, and when the boys said to her ‘Sibyl, what do you want?’ she replied, ‘I want to die.’”
The epigraph quotes Petronius’s Satyricon (first century A.D.) The Sibyl, a prophetess, had been granted
immortal life but not immortal youth by Apollo. Her shriveled form was kept in a jar in the temple of
Hercules at Cumae.
I. The Burial of the Dead (1/2) Four poems Line 1-18 Marie recalls her sledding and claims that
she is German, not Russian. The woman mixes a meditation on the seasons with remarks on
the barren state of her current existence. Line 19-42 A prophetic, apocalyptic invitation to
journey into a desert waste, where the speaker will show the reader “something different
from either/ Your shadow at morning striding behind you/ Or your shadow at evening rising
to meet you;/ [He] will show you fear in a handful of dust.“ The first section of The Waste
Land takes its title from a line in the Anglican burial service. It is made up of four vignettes,
each seemingly from the perspective of a different speaker. The first is an autobiographical
snippet from the childhood of an aristocratic woman, in which she recalls sledding and
claims that she is German, not Russian (this would be important if the woman is meant to be
a member of the recently defeated Austrian imperial family). The woman mixes a
meditation on the seasons with remarks on the barren state of her current existence (“I
read, much of the night, and go south in the winter”). The second section is a prophetic,
apocalyptic invitation to journey into a desert waste, where the speaker will show the
reader ”something different from either / Your shadow at morning striding behind you / Or
your shadow at evening rising to meet you; / [He] will show you fear in a handful of dust”
(Evelyn Waugh took the title for one of his best-known novels from these lines). The almost
threatening prophetic tone is mixed with childhood reminiscences about a “hyacinth girl”
and a nihilistic epiphany the speaker has after an encounter with her. These recollections
are filtered through quotations from Wagner’s operatic version of Tristan und Isolde, an
Arthurian tale of adultery and loss.

I. The Burial of the Dead (2/2) Four poems Line 43-59 It describes an imaginative tarot
reading, in which some of the cards Eliot includes in the reading are not part of an actual
tarot deck. Line 60-76 The speaker walks through a London populated by ghosts of the dead.
He confronts a figure with whom he once fought in a battle. The speaker asks the ghostly
figure, Stetson, about the fate of a corpse planted in his garden. The third episode in this
section describes an imaginative tarot reading, in which some of the cards Eliot includes in
the reading are not part of an actual tarot deck. The final episode of the section is the most
surreal. The speaker walks through a London populated by ghosts of the dead. He confronts
a figure with whom he once fought in a battle that seems to conflate the clashes of World
War I with the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage (both futile and excessively
destructive wars). The speaker asks the ghostly figure, Stetson, about the fate of a corpse
planted in his garden. The episode concludes with a famous line from the preface to
Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal (an important collection of Symbolist poetry), accusing the
reader of sharing in the poet’s sins.

II. A Game of Chess This section focuses on two opposing scenes: high society and the lower
classes. Two poems Line 77-138 A wealthy, highly groomed woman surrounded by exquisite
furnishings. Line 139-172 In a London barroom, where two women discuss a third woman.
This section takes its title from two plays by the early 17 th-century playwright Thomas
Middleton, in one of which the moves in a game of chess denote stages in a seduction. This
section focuses on two opposing scenes, one of high society and one of the lower classes.
The first half of the section portrays a wealthy, highly groomed woman surrounded by
exquisite furnishings. As she waits for a lover, her neurotic thoughts become frantic,
meaningless cries. Her day culminates with plans for an excursion and a game of chess. The
second part of this section shifts to a London barroom, where two women discuss a third
woman. Between the bartender’s repeated calls of “HURRY UP PLEASE IT’S TIME” (the bar is
closing for the night) one of the women recounts a conversation with their friend Lil, whose
husband has just been discharged from the army. She has chided Lil over her failure to get
herself some false teeth, telling her that her husband will seek out the company of other
women if she doesn’t improve her appearance. Lil claims that the cause of her ravaged looks
is the medication she took to induce an abortion; having nearly died giving birth to her fifth
child, she had refused to have another, but her husband “won’t leave [her] alone.” The
women leave the bar to a chorus of “good night(s)” reminiscent of Ophelia’s farewell speech
in Hamlet.

III. The Fire Sermon (1/3) Taken from a sermon given by Buddha in which he encourages his
followers to give up earthly passion and seek freedom from earthly things. Four poems Line
173-206 Line 207-214 Line 215-265 Line 266-311 The title of this, the longest section of The
Waste Land, is taken from a sermon given by Buddha in which he encourages his followers
to give up earthly passion (symbolized by fire) and seek freedom from earthly things. A turn
away from the earthly does indeed take place in this section, as a series of increasingly
debased sexual encounters concludes with a river-song and a religious incantation.

IV. The Fire Sermon (2/3) The section opens with a desolate riverside scene: Rats and garbage
surround. The speaker, who is fishing and “musing on the king my brother’s wreck.” The
speaker is then propositioned by Mr. Eugenides, the one-eyed merchant of Madame
Sosostris’s tarot pack. The section opens with a desolate riverside scene: Rats and garbage
surround the speaker, who is fishing and “musing on the king my brother’s wreck.” The
river-song begins in this section, with the refrain from Spenser’s Prothalamion: “Sweet
Thames, run softly till I end my song.” A snippet from a vulgar soldier’s ballad follows, then a
reference back to Philomela (see the previous section). The speaker is then propositioned by
Mr. Eugenides, the one-eyed merchant of Madame Sosostris’s tarot pack. Eugenides invites
the speaker to go with him to a hotel known as a meeting place for homosexual trysts.

II. The Fire Sermon (3/3) The speaker then proclaims himself to be Tiresias, a figure from
classical mythology who has both male and female features and is blind but can “see” into
the future. Tiresias/the speaker observes a young typist, at home for tea, who awaits her
lover, a dull and slightly arrogant clerk. The woman allows the clerk to have his way with
her, and he leaves victorious. Tiresias, who has “foresuffered all,” watches the whole thing.
After her lover’s departure, the typist thinks only that she’s glad the encounter is done and
over. The speaker then proclaims himself to be Tiresias, a figure from classical mythology
who has both male and female features (“Old man with wrinkled female breasts”) and is
blind but can “see” into the future. Tiresias/the speaker observes a young typist, at home
for tea, who awaits her lover, a dull and slightly arrogant clerk. The woman allows the clerk
to have his way with her, and he leaves victorious. Tiresias, who has “foresuffered all,”
watches the whole thing. After her lover’s departure, the typist thinks only that she’s glad
the encounter is done and over. A brief interlude begins the river-song in earnest. First, a
fisherman’s bar is described, then a beautiful church interior, then the Thames itself. These
are among the few moments of tranquility in the poem, and they seem to represent some
sort of simpler alternative. The Thames-daughters, borrowed from Spenser’s poem, chime
in with a nonsense chorus (“Weialala leia / Wallala leialala”). The scene shifts again, to
Queen Elizabeth I in an amorous encounter with the Earl of Leicester. The queen seems
unmoved by her lover's declarations, and she thinks only of her “people humble people who
expect / Nothing.” The section then comes to an abrupt end with a few lines from St.
Augustine’s Confessions and a vague reference to the Buddha’s Fire Sermon (“burning”).

III. Death by Water The shortest section of the poem. Describes a man, Phlebas the Phoenician,
who has died by drowning. In death he has forgotten his worldly cares as the creatures of
the sea have picked his body apart. The shortest section of the poem. “Death by Water”
describes a man, Phlebas the Phoenician, who has died, apparently by drowning. In death he
has forgotten his worldly cares as the creatures of the sea have picked his body apart. The
narrator asks his reader to consider Phlebas and recall his or her own mortality.

IV. What the Thunder Said (1/2) One poem: line 322-423 Builds to an apocalyptic climax, as
suffering people become “hooded hordes swarming” and the “unreal” cities of Jerusalem,
Athens, Alexandria, Vienna, and London are destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again. The
scene then shifts to the Ganges, half a world away from Europe, where thunder rumbles.
The final section of The Waste Land is dramatic in both its imagery and its events. The first
half of the section builds to an apocalyptic climax, as suffering people become “hooded
hordes swarming” and the “unreal” cities of Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna, and
London are destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again. A decaying chapel is described, which
suggests the chapel in the legend of the Holy Grail. Atop the chapel, a cock crows, and the
rains come, relieving the drought and bringing life back to the land. Curiously, no heroic
figure has appeared to claim the Grail; the renewal has come seemingly at random,
gratuitously. The scene then shifts to the Ganges, half a world away from Europe, where
thunder rumbles. Eliot draws on the traditional interpretation of “what the thunder says,” as
taken from the Upanishads (Hindu fables). According to these fables, the thunder “gives,”
“sympathizes,” and “controls” through its “speech”; Eliot launches into a meditation on each
of these aspects of the thunder’s power. The meditations seem to bring about some sort of
reconciliation, as a Fisher King-type figure is shown sitting on the shore preparing to put his
lands in order, a sign of his imminent death or at least abdication.
V.
VI. What the Thunder Said (2/2) Finale: line 424-434 Ends with a series of disparate fragments
from a children’s song, from Dante, and from Elizabethan drama, leading up to a final chant
of “Shantih shantih shantih.” The poem ends with a series of disparate fragments from a
children’s song, from Dante, and from Elizabethan drama, leading up to a final chant of
“Shantih shantih shantih”—the traditional ending to an Upanishad. Eliot, in his notes to the
poem, translates this chant as “the peace which passeth understanding,” the expression of
ultimate resignation.

Theme source

I. The Burial of the Dead Theme Inhabitants in the Waste Land live a hopeless life. People can
usually obtain salvation (rebirth) from the burial of the dead, but inhabitants in the Waste
Land are afraid of rebirth.

II. A Game of Chess Theme The community’s impotence and degradation, sex and spirit, is
conveyed.

III. The Fire Sermon Theme Eliot uses St. Augustine and Buddha’s thoughts to teach man to
keep away from decay.

IV. Death by Water Theme There will be no revival or resurrection after the Phoenician’s death.
Misunderstanding of greed and values have buried human beings deeper as a whole into the
whirlpool.

V. sympathize, and control.


VI.

Analysis (1/2) A modern myth that world moving toward crisis and chaos Eliot uses A modern myth that
world moving toward crisis and chaos Multiple narrators: to see from different angles Dramatic
monologue: to convey the characters’ stream of unconsciousness and psychological condition.
Fragmentation: fragmentation of modern life, lack of integration in the modern experience

Analysis (2/2) Allusion to plays, and myths: To compare and contrast the present and the past To
produce the dramatic irony (Myths exists in fertility rites and a universal subconscious. Eliot uses myths
to produce sympathy. ) Biblical references: severed from the system of belief that gave them coherence
and meaning.

Techniques in Text Dramatic monologue (L8—18, L25—30) Allusions to the Bible (L20), plays (The
Tempest, The Devil’s Law Case), and myths (The Fisher King, Inferno) Fragmentary forms—Ex. Broken
image (L22)(L428-30) Symbols of water, hyacinth, the Tarot pack of cards, the drowned Phoenician
Sailor, the Hanged God. Compare and Contrast---Mylae War is compared to the World War I. Quotations
—Paradise Lost9 (IV, 140), The Devil’s Law Case (III,ii,162), The White Devil (V,6, 203-205), Confession…
pun—jug (L103)

Epigraph to express the subject Sibyl in the Satyricon (myth) , a woman with prophetic power and long
life, grows old, but cannot die. She is yearning to die. The Sibyl’s condition suggests Eliot lives in a
culture that has decayed and withered but will not end.

Quotation And Interpretation L1-7 APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding …Winter kept us warm,
covering … (The Waste Land opens with a compare to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. April is not the
painful month for pilgrimages and storytelling.) L30 I will show you fear in a handful of dust. (How dry
and fearful the Waste Land it is. )

Quotation And Interpretation L55 The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. (The death and rebirth of a
god –Rebirth comes after the death. And water suggests spiritual renewal.)

Quotation And Interpretation L99-103 The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king…’Jug Jug’ to dirty
ears. (People only can hear the sex and violence in the myth but not appreciate a myth.) L126 ‘Are you
alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?’ (Inhabitants in the Waste Land are without thoughts—
spiritual dryness.)

Quotation And Interpretation L48 Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look! L257 ‘This music crept by
me upon the waters’ (Quoted from Shakespeare’s The Tempest— sea-change is the symbol of
refreshment and purification. And the Waste Land is a place that is lack of water.)

Quotation And Interpretation L329 We who were living are now dying (People have no belief. Religion
doesn’t exist for them.) L423-25 I sat upon the shore …Shall I at least set my lands in order? (In the myth
of the Fisher King, the king is impotent and the land is barren; society waits for salvation in the person of
a knight (looking for the Holy Grail) who will come and ask the right question and bring the much-
needed rain.)
Study Questions What is the function of the epigraph in the beginning to the poem? Is the downward
motion significant in the first section? What does the thunder say? What is happening to the waste
land? What is the “Waste Land” Eliot describes?

Study Questions Why T.S. Eliot chose the “A Game of Chess” as the title of the second part of the work?
What’s the connection of this section with previous one? What the representative meaning of “water”
in the fourth part of the work?

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