TS Eliot and The Waste Land
This week's focus was TS Eliot's "The Waste Land". Before I start to rant about what parts mean and what images and themes are evident in Eliot's poem, it is important to understand certain frames of reference Eliot uses. Once you understand these, it is easier to comprehend and henceforth the poem becomes,perhaps, a little clearer. First, we have to understand he discusses the old vegetation myths, especially the myth of the Search or the Quest for the Holy Grail. This myth is one that is evident in the whole poem, a soldier on a quest for the holy grail, yet he could only ask the question to the young maiden if he were pure... This is one of the vegetations myths, with Death and Resurrection, Planting and Rebirth. The second is that of the Tarot Cards. These cards were usually used to tell fortunes. The most important of these that was used in the poem are the face cards. Eliot drew his imagery off of these cards. Eliot also used Elizabethan dramatist, such as John Webster, who is quoted multiple times from the White Devil. As well, there are many biblical references, mainly from Ezekiel and Isiah. Hence the main point of this poem is that when the King gets sick, his land gets sick. If the king is maimed and infurtile( a sexual idea), the land is infurtile and therefore a Waste Land. It is only when the king is healed and his furtility has been restored that too the land can become pure and healed. As you can see, the heart of the poem deals with the modern world's perversion of love and sexuality, although it also deals with alot of literary ideas. Also, the Wasteland is sort of a desolate place, yet its inhabitants are not dead nor alive. They are in that state between death and life. That's why when the poem opens in Section 1 with the most famous of the lines: "April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memor and desire...". When this memory of life is brought forth, those who live in the wasteland can't handle it. The memories are painful for them, because you can't simply go back to life, you have to pass through death. There are alot of biblical references to Ezekiel and Isiah, as well as Ecclesiastes( or Kohelet in hebrew, sorry, when it comes to the bible, i think in Hebrew.) However, all of these references are vegetation references. Ezekiel was a prophet who focused alot on the destruction of the land and what will eventually happen to it. Ecclesiastes too discusses the land, and its desolation : "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was". Yet, in Judaism and some religions, once you die, your body turns back to dust, the way it began, and your soul rises up. Hence, these biblical references deal with the death and the state in which everyone who lives in the Waste Land is in. There are two key parts to this poem, one that is the hyacinths passage, and Tiresias's visions. The first passage deals with the Quest for the Holy Grail, in which the speaker can not spek or find the words to say when he finds the girl, as he says himself: "I was neither living nore dead, and I knew nothing". The second part is Tiresias's vision, in which he sees the perversion of love, and sees the substance of the poem. Tiresias is often known as the blind prophet, here's the story:When Tiresias was walking in the woods one day, he came upon two great serpents copulating; he struck them with his staff, and was thereupon transformed into a woman. Seven years later, she/he passed by the same place and came upon the same two serpents copulating; she/he struck them again with the staff and was turned back into a man. Some time later, Zeus and Hera were arguing over who had more pleasure in sex, the man or the woman: Zeus said it was the woman, while Hera claimed men got more pleasure from the act. To settle the argument, they consulted Tiresias, since he had experienced life as both sexes, and Tiresias sided with Zeus. In her anger, Hera struck Tiresias blind. Since Zeus could not undo the act of another deity, he gave Tiresias the gift of prophecy in compensation. from http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/tiresias.html Hence Tiresias becomes central to this poem ( I always think of Antigone when I heard Tiresias, as he appears in Creon's court and is essentially the prophet who sees what is about to occur to Creon's kingdom and predicts Antigone's fate). Tiresias sees all the persversion in the wasteland, and brings up the seduction and the sexuality in this poem. Yet, this is what the poem is truely about, how all true love is perverted. The Thames all discuss their seductions, the typist describes her seduction, even Lil in the bar discusses her perverted love. However, there is no feeling, no sentiments attached to this love, its truely perverted. Hence, this poem is about chaos, even the form and the meaings are chaotic. But, there is a glimpse of hope at the end of the waste land, and glimpse of some kind of a way out, some salvation, in the poem's last section "What the Thunder Said". There is one thing that I no one has discussed that I'd like to throw in the air. Eliot uses the idea of the dry bones, with no biblical reference. However, if you know some of Ezekiel, he is best known as the prophet who prophecizes about the dry bones, and the desolation of the land. Is it possible that this was one of the biblical refrences that no one bothered to footnote because everyone understood, or am I reading too much into it? (Just a point to ponder).
Anyways, this is by far one the most difficult and most interesting poems of all time. It is by far a very dark and gloomy poem, filled with sexual ideas and love as perversion, yet it ends wit the thunder clamps: Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata, or give, sympathize and control, and ultimately ending with "Shandtih shantih shantih"-- Peace. Its a nice and soothing way to end such a poem. Even if you go through reading the poem in disgust or in disbelief, the last section ties everything together, and makes you really appreciate life, Eliot and his amazing craft of poetry.
I've found a new respect for all the foot notes and especially the bible after this poem (although I am quite religious myself), but it really makes me look at life differently. Maybe it will make you look at your life differently as well. Or maybe not. :D
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memor and desire...". When this memory of life is brought forth, those who live in the wasteland can't handle it. The memories are painful for them, because you can't simply go back to life, you have to pass through death. There are alot of biblical references to Ezekiel and Isiah, as well as Ecclesiastes( or Kohelet in hebrew, sorry, when it comes to the bible, i think in Hebrew.) However, all of these references are vegetation references. Ezekiel was a prophet who focused alot on the destruction of the land and what will eventually happen to it. Ecclesiastes too discusses the land, and its desolation : "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was". Yet, in Judaism and some religions, once you die, your body turns back to dust, the way it began, and your soul rises up. Hence, these biblical references deal with the death and the state in which everyone who lives in the Waste Land is in. There are two key parts to this poem, one that is the hyacinths passage, and Tiresias's visions. The first passage deals with the Quest for the Holy Grail, in which the speaker can not spek or find the words to say when he finds the girl, as he says himself: "I was neither living nore dead, and I knew nothing". The second part is Tiresias's vision, in which he sees the perversion of love, and sees the substance of the poem. Tiresias is often known as the blind prophet, here's the story:When Tiresias was walking in the woods one day, he came upon two great serpents copulating; he struck them with his staff, and was thereupon transformed into a woman. Seven years later, she/he passed by the same place and came upon the same two serpents copulating; she/he struck them again with the staff and was turned back into a man. Some time later, Zeus and Hera were arguing over who had more pleasure in sex, the man or the woman: Zeus said it was the woman, while Hera claimed men got more pleasure from the act. To settle the argument, they consulted Tiresias, since he had experienced life as both sexes, and Tiresias sided with Zeus. In her anger, Hera struck Tiresias blind. Since Zeus could not undo the act of another deity, he gave Tiresias the gift of prophecy in compensation. from http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/tiresias.html Hence Tiresias becomes central to this poem ( I always think of Antigone when I heard Tiresias, as he appears in Creon's court and is essentially the prophet who sees what is about to occur to Creon's kingdom and predicts Antigone's fate). Tiresias sees all the persversion in the wasteland, and brings up the seduction and the sexuality in this poem. Yet, this is what the poem is truely about, how all true love is perverted. The Thames all discuss their seductions, the typist describes her seduction, even Lil in the bar discusses her perverted love. However, there is no feeling, no sentiments attached to this love, its truely perverted. Hence, this poem is about chaos, even the form and the meaings are chaotic. But, there is a glimpse of hope at the end of the waste land, and glimpse of some kind of a way out, some salvation, in the poem's last section "What the Thunder Said". There is one thing that I no one has discussed that I'd like to throw in the air. Eliot uses the idea of the dry bones, with no biblical reference. However, if you know some of Ezekiel, he is best known as the prophet who prophecizes about the dry bones, and the desolation of the land. Is it possible that this was one of the biblical refrences that no one bothered to footnote because everyone understood, or am I reading too much into it? (Just a point to ponder).
Anyways, this is by far one the most difficult and most interesting poems of all time. It is by far a very dark and gloomy poem, filled with sexual ideas and love as perversion, yet it ends wit the thunder clamps: Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata, or give, sympathize and control, and ultimately ending with "Shandtih shantih shantih"-- Peace. Its a nice and soothing way to end such a poem. Even if you go through reading the poem in disgust or in disbelief, the last section ties everything together, and makes you really appreciate life, Eliot and his amazing craft of poetry.
I've found a new respect for all the foot notes and especially the bible after this poem (although I am quite religious myself), but it really makes me look at life differently. Maybe it will make you look at your life differently as well. Or maybe not. :D