Snow
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
In my 11th grade English class we looked at The Wasteland and studied how the first stanza conjures up images of life and rebirth: the lilacs, the spring rain, the earth emerging from the blanket of snow. In all of my Earth science-related classes we learned that glaciers melt in the spring and bring an influx of freshwater into the local body of saltwater, but the whole time I thought "why does it happen in the spring? Can't it arbitrarily melt in January or February?" I knew but did not comprehend the fact that the temperature does not go above freezing for a long time in Norway.
When I lived in North Carolina where the ground is visible throughout winter, I never understood the significance of snow melting--the few snows that we got in January quickly melted within a few days. A few days ago when the 55 degree weather finally melted all of the snow off the great lawn, I suddenly remembered reading The Wasteland and discussing how the melting of snow represented rebirth and fertility. Here in Massachusetts it's an entirely different image of snow melting when the snow and ice have been on the ground for weeks: the white veil of ice lifts to reveal the grass, living and breathing, that was buried under the ice the whole time. It was a visual and mental image entirely different from the snow melts that I had seen before.
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
In my 11th grade English class we looked at The Wasteland and studied how the first stanza conjures up images of life and rebirth: the lilacs, the spring rain, the earth emerging from the blanket of snow. In all of my Earth science-related classes we learned that glaciers melt in the spring and bring an influx of freshwater into the local body of saltwater, but the whole time I thought "why does it happen in the spring? Can't it arbitrarily melt in January or February?" I knew but did not comprehend the fact that the temperature does not go above freezing for a long time in Norway.
When I lived in North Carolina where the ground is visible throughout winter, I never understood the significance of snow melting--the few snows that we got in January quickly melted within a few days. A few days ago when the 55 degree weather finally melted all of the snow off the great lawn, I suddenly remembered reading The Wasteland and discussing how the melting of snow represented rebirth and fertility. Here in Massachusetts it's an entirely different image of snow melting when the snow and ice have been on the ground for weeks: the white veil of ice lifts to reveal the grass, living and breathing, that was buried under the ice the whole time. It was a visual and mental image entirely different from the snow melts that I had seen before.