Thursday, 31 December 2015

The Waste Land - T. S. Eliot

The Waste Land

   T. S. Eliot

                                  

       T. S. Eliot is one of the very famous 20th century poets. This epic poem “The Waste Land” highly considered poem in the world. T. S. Eliot criticized his own culture, own people, and his own land by called it as a “Waste Land”. “The Waste Land” is the reflection of the western society. The West now becomes Waste and also the land of West became unfertile, sterile, deserted and nothing grows.

The poem divided into five parts such as:

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

      It is one of the characteristics of the modern writer that they aren’t follow the writing tradition instead of that they are believe in breaking down the writing tradition. T. S. Eliot is one of them. At the very beginning he tries to beak the rule and regulation like:

Chaucer- “April is the sweetest month”
T. S. Eliot- “April is the Cruelest month”

      Breaking archetypal patterns, tradition or basic symbol is the characteristics of modern writer. The Waste Land is in the form of fragmentation. The structure of this poem is unstructured. Tiresias is the narrator of this poem and also the important character in this poem.

 “What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,”

      This lines talks about the main problematic thing in this poem and the problem is that now the roots are become spoiled or sterile. So, how is this possible to the branches to grow on unfertile or stony rubbish land? It can be compared with “The Grain of Wheat”. Not the whole but this line which is talked about the roots are now become spoiled. Even the land is not good for branches to grow because whatever grows there it may be poised. Same is in the “Grain of Wheat” that now the land becomes poisoned so whatever grows there it maybe with poisoned. So, how is it possible for human being to live there?

 This poem composed with various mythical elements like:

Myth of Tiresias
Three Waste Lands: That of Fisher King, King Oedipus and Biblical.
Jessie Weston’s From Ritual to Romance: Myth/ Legend of Holy Grail and Fisher King.
James Frazer’s The Golden Bough: Myth of Vegetation.
Biblical Myth: Waste Land of Emmaus mentioned in Ecclesiastes and Ezekiel.
Myth of Sibyl
Myth of Philomela
Tristan and Isolde
Indian Myth of Prajapati the King

This poem covers various themes like:

Life in Death and Death in Life
Spiritual Degradation
Sexual Perversion
Fragmentation
Disillusion and Despair

       Eliot used myth, allusion and references to prove his point that in the west land there was nothing instead of spiritual degradation and sexual perversion.  People are now falling down. They haven’t any direction to go there because one direction that they have is the religion but now people loss that also. The life of people becomes mechanized, robotic. They live life for the sake of live. Even they aren’t interested into the relationship and don’t like to talk with each other. Relationship now becomes the fake, doubted and unfaithful. See the lines,

“Stay with me.
Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak
What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
I never know what you are thinking. Think.
Do you know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember nothing?”

     These lines indicate fragmentation and distance in relationship.

“Hurry up please, it’s time
They wash their feet in soda water
At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
Like a taxi throbbing waiting”

     Due to the industrialization, life of people becomes more pathetic, mechanic. They haven’t time. Now they become more artificial. After this long dilemma of modern life he gave solution to the West people.

     In the last part of this poem “What the Thunder Said”, Eliot talks about three DA:

DATTA
DAYADHVAM
DAMYATA

      He repeats the instruction for salvation of Prajapati, give alms, be compassionate, be controlled, and ends three times repeating the Hindu word “Shantih”, which Eliot states in his notes signifies “the peace which passeth understanding.”

       T.S. Eliot considered in this poem as a regressive writer because he tries to give answer from what happen in past and compared with present. Moreover he also criticized for this poem while it is compared with his own write up “The Tradition and Individual Talent”.



  







  



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