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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