The Waste Land-T.S.

Eliot
It appeared in Paris, in 1922. It`s the most complex poem of Eliot. In it he has
used all of his knowledge, that of languauges, of culture, of religions, philosophies
etc. It`s a major work on modernist poet`s both for its broad symbolic
significance and for Eliot`s masterful use of formal techniques, used the method
of painting (usually that of Picaso`s because in his pictures everything is cup of
rubbish), use of allusion,quotation, variety of verse forms, and a collage of poetic
fragments to create the sense of speaking for an entire culture in crisis. It`s
composed of five parts. There is no other connection between them, like they are
five poems written by five different people who never knew or met each other.
Whatever the problems are in the poem it refers to that those are not individual
but rather they`re universal.

In the first section The Burial of the Dead, the opening line April is the smallest
month, the time is April but instead of being a period of revival it`s the cruelest
month. In the context that renewal should be occurring but it`s not.The poet
lives in a modern waste and in the aftermath of a great war, in an industrialized
society that lacks traditional structures lacks traditional structures of authority
and belief, in the mean that there may not be a new growth. There are images of
the changes in seasons, the passing of time, death of plants etc. Also is
mentioned that humanity is trapped in its own wasteland, rubbish left behind by
the war, by going through the motions of living without really living, basically
living dead. In it he says, man can recognize only a heap of broken images
where hes` showing the fragmented nature of the world withouh guidance or
spiritual belief.

The second section A Game of Chess drawn from a Renaissance play about a
seduction, and the chess magery of this section, point to an understanding
marriage and sexuality debased into a game of strategy in which men and
women battle over sex. Instead of life-giving act of love, here it appears as
seduction or rape leading to abortion. The infertility of the landscape as a major
theme is emphasized focusing on different social classes and individual, but
emphasized the fact that love does not exist anymore. The expression hurry up
please it`s time has the meaning as a last call to give an end to this form of
living. This part actually confirmes that love is death, allure and death
( Cleopatra), rape and death (Philomel), desertion and death (Dido), fertility and
death (Lil). The concept of nothingness which also stands for the social reality in
this decade dominates the whole poem, with this part being no exception. What
is left behind is a totally dark, gloomy and sterile picture of the wasteland.

The third section The Fire Sermon is a sermon by Buddha who encourages
people to stay away from earthly passion-free themselves from the fire of lust,
who seems to motify sorrow and that sorrow turns out to be in integral feature of
the modern world.Here Eliot shows the arid, meaningless sexuality that fails to
bring life or renewal.The section opens with a desolate scene at the river Thames
which as a symbol of renewal has been reduced to a dull canal,showed with
negative images such as The river bears no empty bottles,sandwich papers,silk
handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends,. Rats also appear several
time in the poem as well as in this section and carry with them the specter of
urban decay and death which brings about no life. In which point, the narrator
fishing in the dull canal assumes the role of the Fisher King who grows ill or
impotent, as a result what was once a fruitful kingdom is reduced to a
wasteland.In both cases the setting is one of death, decay, a kind of modern hell.
Eliot in the voice of Tiresias, a blind Greek prophet who has lived both as a man
and woman, tells that he was forced to see all those empty relationships between
humankind among the society those days. Eliot is diagnosing his London and his
world with a disease of the senses, through which sex has replaced love and
meaningless physical contact has subsumedreal emotional connection.

The fourth section Death by Water is the shortest section of the poem that
describes a Middle Eastern merchant Phlebas, who drowns in water rather than
being renewed by it-perhaps the drowned sailor of whom Madame Sosostris
spoke Eliot turns again to the theme of death, there is no hope for regeneration
of life. He is a Phonician-that race is of the ancient Greek and Roman times and
did not exist anymore in Eliot`s days. This suggests that death is an inevitable,
universal thing that no amount of time and no change in nation can overcome.
Gentile or Jew- calling the reader to themselves to Phlebas.Eliot
emphasizes that unlike Christ`s resurrection and the Fisher King, we humans will
all meet the fate of Phlebas. The wheel we turn is the Wheel of Fortune which
every man hopes will bring him good luck. Every man looks windward hoping
for the good things. But whether luck or tidings are good or ill, it all ends in death
anyway. Such is Eliot`s comfort.

The last and fifth section What the Thunder Said begins with imagery
associated with the Christ, he choses to show the death of Christ rather than his
resurrection, but even that is preferable to death-in-life: He who was living is
now dead/We who were living are now dying/With a little patience. Then he
portrays the situation of Eastern Europe, moving to the empty chapel when the
guest passes the last test in the search for the Grail (the Holy Grail who healed
the Fisher King) and so in the suppose for us is coming healing too. The imagery
of rain renews the wasteland and Eliot now turns to the renewal of the
individual,using allusions from the Indian tradition, an ancient Indian language.
By thunder cites the three principles of renewal. With these words, a new
beginning is possible, despite the collapse of civilization that is under London
bridge is falling down,falling down,falling down, yet the poem ends with a
benediction Shantih,Shantih,Shantih which means The peace that pass
understanding. This blessing experience expresses a desire for enlightment and
peace, but in the poem it`s only cited, never achieved.