The Waste Land

T.S.Eliot. (1922)
Bs English 6th Semester.
• FOR EZRA POUND

• IL MIGLIOR FABBRO

• I. The Burial of the Dead

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

The Burial of the Dead. Part 1.

•The title of the section is the title of the burial service in the church of England.

The speaker says April is the most cruel month ( Ref. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales) which brings out the
lilacs out of the dead land, mingling the memory of better past and unfilled desires, moving the dull roots
with spring rain. (a time of desolation, the land has lost its fertility and ability to bring forth life, April
presents a dead setting, a miserable setting) In this waste land, winter is quite warm and kind because its
numbs us from having any desire or memory, winter tries to renew little life from dried stems.

Another voice shared prewar memory, Summer surprised them and when they reached the river
Starnbergersee.(Ref. river near Munich), there was shower of rain, they stopped in the rows of trees and
then the sun came out when they reached Hofgarten.(public park in Munich). They drank coffee
• Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee

• With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,

• And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,

• And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

• Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.

• Another voice shared pre war memory, Summer surprised them and when they reached the river

Starnbergersee.(Ref. river near Munich), there was shower of rain, they stopped in the rows of

trees and then the sun came out when they reached Hofgarten.(public park in Munich). They drank

coffee

• "I am not Russian at all; I come from Lithuania, a real German.“

• And when we were children, staying at the arch-duke’s,

• My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,

• And I was frightened. He said, Marie,

• Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.

• In the mountains, there you feel free.

• I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

When we were children, I stayed with my cousin the archduke, and he took me sledding, and I was

scared of the slop. He said to me, "Marie, hold on tight," and down the hill we went. You feel a sense

of freedom up there in the mountains. I read all night long, and I travel south when winter comes.
• What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow

• Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,

• You cannot say, or guess, for you know only

• A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,

• And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,

• And the dry stone no sound of water. Only

• There is shadow under this red rock,

• (Come in under the shadow of this red rock),

• A scene of a wasteland.

•Where are the roots that can grip the ground and branches which grow out of this wasteland. Son of man,(Ref. in the

New Testament, “what could you possibly grow from spirit which is like a stony rubbish.”) we can not say or guess

because you know this wasteland is without any religion, spiritual beliefs or moral values, a heap of broken images.

(Ref. In the Old Testament, “because you know about life which is heap of broken images.’’) In the wasteland , the sun

is intense, and the dead tree gives no shelter and no sweetness. It’s a barren land like a desert which is dry as a stone

,without the sound of water. One comfort is provided by the speaker that there is a shelter under this red rock which can

protect and then proclaims that Messiah is coming to spare us from the weary world..
this red rock which can protect and then proclaims that Messiah is coming to spare us from the

weary world..

Ref. Isaiah------as river of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land”
• And I will show you something different from either

• Your shadow at morning striding behind you

• Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;

• I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

The Wasteland.

The speaker says he will show something different from past and future, as there is there is nothing

in our past which could us comfort. We have just fear of death till our adult age to the old age when

we die and decay and there is nothing in our future which could give us comfort or relief that we

could have a better future. We will have to live in present where we have fear of dust(death), the

terrifying truth of our mortality. REF: “Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return” (Genesis:

3-19).
• Frisch weht der Wind
• Der Heimat zu
• Mein Irisch Kind,
• Wo weilest du?
The next lines are in German and taken from Richard Wagner‘s opera,Tristan and Isolde( a medieval
romance),The wind blows fresh towards my home:my Irish child , where are you waiting?

Ref.A solider left behind his sweet heart Isolde in Ireland.The dejected dying Tristan is lying on the
English shore and is waiting for his beloved but unfortunately there are no signs of the arrival of the
ship.The lover is lamenting absence of his beloved and wishing to see her returning home.
• Another Voice.
• “You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
• “They called me the hyacinth girl.”
• —Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
• Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
• Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
• Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
• Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
• Oed’ und leer das Meer.

• Hyacinths.(REF) Flowers associated with death and mourning. Hyacinth was a beautiful young boy, Apollo's
beloved. One day when they were playing discus, he was accidently struck by the discuss and died. Apollo turned him
into flowers that carried his name.
• A young lady told someone that he gave her Hyacinth flowers and they called her hyacinth girl.(it
seems that the lady is now forgotten by her lover. In the past, she was loved, praised and cared.)
She said that once they came back late from Hyacinth garden, her arms were full of flowers and
her hair is wet. They had a relationship yet the lover could not declare his love her, he could not
see what she was once. He was like a hollow man who cant see anything, feel anything and know
nothing. His life was purposeless and meaningless. (He could not speak or act). He looked into for
love and beauty in her heart but he saw only silence like desolate and empty sea. He was
overwhelmed by emptiness and devoid of feelings.
Next Voice:

• Next voice introduced us to Madam Sosostris who is a famous foreseer. Ref: The poet has
borrowed the name of this fortune teller from Aldous Huxley’s Crome Yellow, in which Sosostris is
a fake fortune teller.

• Clairvoyant: In Egypt, weather prophets used to forecast the rise and fall of the river Nile, with
the help of a Tarot pack of 78 cards.

• She has a bad cold which she couldn’t cure,(so she is flawed , not a foreseer), In spite of it, she is v
known to be the wisest woman in Europe. She takes the tarot(pack of cards) and starts flipping the
cards to tell our fate. The card no.1is the drowned Phoenician sailor. We should fear death by
water.(This isn’t our fate as we have no chance of rebirth). Ref: Shakespeare’s Tempest, when a
sailor drowns, he becomes something mystical and beautiful, he has pearls in his eyes, when he drowns,
he has a rebirth, he decomposes and then becomes immortal.

• Card no 2: Here is Belladonna, the Lady of Rocks, The lady of situations. This is the painting of
Virgin Mary by Leonardo De Vinci, IN this modern world she isn’t the lady of salvation or mercy but
she will sacrifice others to fulfill her desires.

• Card no.3: Here is a man with three staves. It signifies, the king Fisher, also known as the wounded
king who is the last in a long line charged with the keeping of Holy Grail. He is always wounded in
the legs, incapable of standing. So a man stands looking out a wasteland, longing to be healed, to see
his land come to life again. There is no hope in future for the king or for us.
Card no 4: And here is the wheel. Wheel of time , fundamental design of nature. It moves endlessly,
seasons change, Day / night changes Routine in which we exist, Turn and twists of fate. New vistas
and heights.

Card no 5: There is the one eyed merchant, one eye is eye of commerce which tells us that we are
indulged in materialism and think life in terms of profit and loss. The second eye which is dead is of
religion, we have no faith, no belief in God or spirituality.

Card no 6: which is blank card, is something he carries on his back which she is forbidden to see.
The fact that nothing changes in the wasteland and ultimately, the wasteland will fail to exist. The
people of the waste land will become blank and non existent, It also depicts the imperfection of
Madam Sosostris, she cant control the fate or chosen another path, and she could be wrong about her
madam Sosostris, she cant control the fate or chosen another path, and she could be wrong about her
reading.

I do not find, The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.

I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.

Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,

Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:

One must be so careful these days.

She says that she doesn’t find The Hanged Man or Messiah who can take the punishment. She
• predicts that we should fear death by water. She says that she has seen crowds of people, walking
around in a ring. Ref: Dante’s Inferno, Dante is standing at the gate of Hell and wonders at the
multitudes of people passing through the gate. He stands before the limbo and listens to the sighs
of many souls who couldn’t be saved by the Savior.( people of wasteland) The speaker thanked
her and says that if you meet dear Mrs. Equitone, please tell her that he will bring the horoscope
himself as it’s the time of modernism and one must be care full these days and shouldn’t believe
in everything.
Unreal City(Phrase taken from Baudlaire’s poem about Paris)

• Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,

• A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
• I had not thought death had undone so many.
• Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
• And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
• Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
• To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
• With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.

Fog shrouds the wasteland and prevents us from seeing something real, we are unable to see ahead of us
because fog blinds and confuses us. The scene of a wintry morning covered with fog is the symbol of
desolation and spiritual decay. A crowd moving mechanically over London Bridge so,many
• Ref. Dante’s Inferno as Dante stood in the region called Limbo and he said that he saw a long
stream of people here as he never expected that death had claimed so many people.There wasn’t
any sound heard but just lamentations and sighs. The sighs were from those people who died
before Christ and as they weren’t Christians so they couldn’t be saved by Christ. They had a desire
that Christ should salvage them from Hell. People walking over the London Bridge don’t look up
or down their faces are drawn and their eyes downcast. They are routine office workers as they
wind their way through the crowd and they across the London Bridge. Men aren’t alone they are
in a crowd yet they are isolated detached from each other. There is no communication or
fellowship or no meaningful interaction. They have become living dead. They move up the hill
and down the
King William Street. There Saint Mary Woolnoth has a big clock to keep the time. And at 9’ 0 clock(
hour of day when Christ was crucified) when the dead bell rings there will be a funeral march of the
people, dead souls to their graves. The church at 9’0 clock, it is also the hour of opening the offices,
a beginning of another boring and mechanical day. The dead sound also refers to the painfulness of
the London crowd as it is the beginning of a modern mechanical/ commercial world, just
materialism, no spirituality. The devotion to business is a denial of Christ’s teaching.

• There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: “Stetson!

“You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!

• There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: “Stetson!
• Another voice “That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
• “Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
• “Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
• “Oh keep the Dog far hence, that’s friend to men,
• “Or with his nails he’ll dig it up again!
• “You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!”
Another Voice: The speaker met someone whom he knew and cried out his name Stetson. He
reminded him that he had fought by his side at Mylae. The man asked about the corpse which he
planted last year in his garden.
He asks his friend that if there are any chances of rebirth and if this year there are chances of rebirth? or the frost
underneath the corpse destroyed its bed? The words sprout or bloom provides, parallel between the death of
nature, and the death of human being, there is emptiness in human as well as nature. Ref: Mylae’ is a symbol of
warfare – it was a naval battle between the Romans and Carthage, and Eliot uses it here as a symbol of the First
World War, to show that humanity has never changed, war will never change, and that death itself will never
change. The speaker asks his friend to keep the dog, which is friend of man, at a distance from the grave because
the dog will dig the earth with its nails and there will be no rebirth. If corpse is dug up again, then his spirit will
never find rest, and he will never be reborn – here, Eliot, capitalizing on the quote, changes it so that the attempt to
disturb rebirth is seen as a good thing. After all, Eliot is implying, who would want to be reborn in this wasteland.
In the last line, the speaker addresses the readers and calls them Hypocrite readers – my likeness, –
my brother!” The speaker is indifferent to the spiritual values though he talks of spiritual
regeneration, the readers know it is a very a distant possibility.
 The Waste Land | Part 2, A Game of Chess | Summary

• The second section of The Waste Land begins with what appears to be a new scene: a woman sitting
on a chair that looks like a "burnished throne," which is given an elaborate and almost alluring
description. The speaker goes on to develop a very richly evocative picture of the woman's "jewels"
and perfumes, and the strange pattern that is created on the ceiling of the room. The scene is ornate—
but also troubling, as these sights and smells "confused / And drowned the sense in odours." The
confused mixture of images and references continues, as the speaker then describes the interior of
this room, including artwork and furniture, which reminds the speaker of scenes from Greek
mythology. Footsteps are heard, under the bright light of fire, she started brushing her hair, she was
ready to say everything that she was planning to say but she couldn’t do so.
• There was no communion and she lost her ability to talk.
• “My nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. 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.”

• I think we are in rats’ alley

• Where the dead men lost their bone.

Another Voice: A woman asks the man to stay with her because she is very nervous. The man didn’t reply and
she asks him again to speak to her, She asks him what he is thinking of? What he is thinking about? She says
she will never know what he is thinking. The man says that he thinks they are in rats valley.
( cold, dark and alone in cellars.) where the dead men have lost their souls.
“What is that noise?”
The wind under the door.
“What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?”
Nothing again nothing.
“Do
“You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
“Nothing?”

I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
“Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?”
• The woman asks about the noise and the man tells her it’s the wind under the door. The wife again
inquired about the noise and the wind and the answered nothing and nothing.( hollow men) The
wife again inquired if he knows, sees or remember anything. The man says he remembers the
drowned sailors bodies which are transformed into something beautiful. She asks him if he is alive
or not and is there any thing in his head. (living dead, spiritually numb, hollow men).

• O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag—

• It’s so elegant

• So intelligent
• Another Voice: All traditional values are collapsing and icon figure like Shakespeare is
reduced to a jazz song. Blending high and low culture.

• What shall I do now? What shall I do?”

• “I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street

• “With my hair down, so. What shall we do tomorrow?

• “What shall we ever do?”

• The hot water at ten.

• The repetition of 'what shall we do?’ shows meaning life, no future, no chances of rebirth, what we do
in this wasteland. There is nothing to look forward to, this fear is shown by the line ‘What shall we ever
do?’ The waste landers are just killing their time as they cant escape from this waste land.

• And if it rains, a closed car at four.

• And we shall play a game of chess,

• Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.

If it rains and the cars stop moving at four, then they will play the chess and trying to open his eyes
forcefully and also waiting for something to happen or someone to talk into his life and give it a meaning.
• Another Voice : (Low Class)
• When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said—
• I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself,
• HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
• Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
• He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you
• To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.
• You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,
• He said, I swear. I can't bear to look at you.
• And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert,
• He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time,
• And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said.
• These lines focus on one woman telling a story of her acquaintances to her friends at a bar. One
woman tells that how she told her friend to make herself look good and appealing because her
(the friend's) husband was coming back from the war.(Physical beauty is more important than
anything).The woman tells her friend to get all of her gross teeth pulled out and to buy herself a
new set. She then warns her friend to change herself as she looks very old and Albert cant love
her like this. Some other woman's going to catch her husband's eye. If Lil cant give him
satisfaction, there are some ladies who will. Lil is quite surprised. The phrase "HURRY UP
PLEASE ITS TIME" is a standard thing for bartenders to say in the U.K. when the bar is closing
for the night. Here this announcement acts like a hindrance in the story being told.
• Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said.
• Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look.
• HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
• If you don't like it you can get on with it, I said.
• Others can pick and choose if you can't.
• But if Albert makes off, it won't be for lack of telling.
• You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.
• (And her only thirty-one.)

• Lil says that she knows there are other women who will seduce her husband then she looks at the lady(speaker)

reproachfully. The narrative is again interrupted by bar tender and he asks everyone to hurry up. The lady tells

Lil that if she doesn’t like to look pretty then she can be as she is. If her Albert enjoys his life with other

women then it will be Lil’s mistake. The lady tells Lil that she should be ashamed of her figure because she

looks so old and unattractive. She is 31 but looks much older.

• I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face,
• It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she said.
• (She's had five already, and nearly died of young George.)
• The chemist said it would be alright, but I've never been the same
• You are a proper fool, I said.
• Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said,
• What you get married for if you don't want children?

Lil tells the lady in a sad tone that it isn’t her fault. She took some pills for the abortion of her 6 th child. She has
already five children and she nearly died when her younger George was born. The chemist who sold her the
pills had assured her that the pills were quite safe but now she has realized that the pills have ruined her health,
beauty and youthfulness. The lady is angry with her and calls her a fool. If she doesn’t
want Albert to leave her she should be attractive for him. The lady asks Lil that if she didn’t want children why she got
married.(having children is not in her control, its her husband wish)It reflects the theme of infertility that comes up over and
over again in this poem. The waste landscape of the world can no longer give life and lower class women half-killing
themselves to abort.

HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME

Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon,

And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot—

HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME

HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME

Goodnight Bill. Goodnight Lou. Goodnight May. Goodnight.

Ta ta. Goodnight. Goodnight.

• In these lines, the subject of the women's conversation completely changes to normal everyday things, like
visiting someone's house and having a really nice ham or "hot gammon“. Lil tells them that last Sunday, they
were together at Albert’s house and they had a dish of hot dog meat. They had invited her specially to dinner
to eat this hot dish. But that story will have to be finished another day, because the barkeep is practically
yelling now. The scene ends with everyone saying goodnight to one another as though they're all very
pleasant and polite. The people in the bar are: Bill, Lou, and May. This final repetition of "good night" is also
a reference to Ophelia, the young woman who drowns herself in Shakespeare's Hamlet. In wasteland there is
more lust than love.Women in wasteland suffer from lust.. Ophelia is also the victim of love and Philomela is
a victim of lust.
The part 4th.

• IV. Death by Water(symbol of rebirth & purification) (one of the cards,

fear death by water)
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,

• Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell

• And the profit and loss.

• Phlebas the Phoenician, a skilled sailor, has been for15 days. He forgot the cry of the seagulls, and

the waves of the sea and got involved only in the profit and loss of his shipping business. He

forgot his identity and purpose and his greed and passion for the temporal pleasures doomed him.
• A current under sea

• Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell

• He passed the stages of his age and youth

• Entering the whirlpool.

•
• His bones moved and clashed by the force of water waves as they whispered among themselves.

His body was thrashed by the waves, he passed the stages of his life in reverse order. He got old as

he rose and fell on the waves then he becomes young and he was swallowed by death. He didn’t

have any rebirth.

• Gentile or Jew

• O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,

• Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

•
• The speaker addressed the whole humanity that whoever you are who are sea and are trying to

make your worthwhile by blindly following the worldly pursuits and riches, reflect on the doom of

Phlebas who was once handsome and tall, perished in the whirlpool of deof any use ath. His

youth, strength and wealth wasn’t of any use to him. In the waste land, water has become a source

of death because man leads a life of sensuous pleasures and is always in pursuit of riches. The

sailor is an example of a modern businessman who is caught in the whirlpool of materialism.

When he meets his death, there is no rebirth for him because his life has no moral values, salvation

is possible for those who pursue good values and have faith in God.