The Wasteland is set up into five fragments, reflecting the fragmentation the West suffered post-war. Time as well as nature are marching forward while people are knocked out of rhythm with the natural world. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account.

“The Wasteland” begins with one of the most famous lines in literary history: “April is the cruelest month”. , “April is the cruellest month, breeding/ Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/ Memory and desire, stirring/ Dull roots with spring rain” (Eliot 1-4), these lines start describing the fragmentation of Western culture. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account.

Before the fragments of the poem start, Eliot wrote an epigraph from the Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter about Sybil wanting to die: “For once I saw with my own eyes the Sybil at Cumae hanging in a cage, and when the boys asked her, ‘Sybil, what do you want?’ she responded, ‘I want to die.’” By starting the poem with this section, readers can already see what this poem is about: death and destruction of and in the West. The modernist poem The Waste Land was written by T.S. for one of two reasons: 1) he was relieved the world finally found peace and the war was over or 2) he was hoping the world would find peace, and he was praying for that day to happen soon. The fragments are not related and don’t seem to make much sense when put together, much like how the West was left with many pieces of the culture left and tried to put it back together, but how can you rebuild something that’s been destroyed? Spring is supposed to be a happy time of the year where life is created, but instead, these lines describe spring in a depressing way. Another dark image we are presented with is that of the Thames in the later section of the poem called “The Fire Sermon. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. of Petronius Arbiter about Sybil wanting to die: “For once I saw with my own eyes the Sybil at Cumae hanging in a cage, and when the boys asked her, ‘Sybil, what do you want?’ she responded, ‘I want to die.’” By starting the poem with this section, readers can already see what this poem is about: death and destruction of and in the West. ( Log Out /  There is some serious friction in this statement, how can the first month of spring be the cruelest month? Spring is supposed to be a happy time of the year where life is created, but instead, these lines describe spring in a depressing way. These images are in stark contrast to what we would usually expect from a heavily populated area. Eliot portrays the fragmentation of western culture through conflicting dark images as well as the use of different language and the liberal use of allusions to other works. ( Log Out / 

Eliot used these lines at the very end of. T.S. , by T.S. The Waste Land is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Eliot clearly believes that western society has been deeply scarred and shattered by World War One.

But upon further reading I realized that this is in fact a nightmare, not an environmentalist’s dream.

The fragments are not related and don’t seem to make much sense when put together, much like how the West was left with many pieces of the culture left and tried to put it back together, but how can you rebuild something that’s been destroyed? Sybil wants to die, and maybe Eliot does too because the world is just too horrible now to live in. Change ), Of the Reading of Many Books There is No End. The layout of the poem itself is representation of the West after World War I. is set up into five fragments, reflecting the fragmentation the West suffered post-war. Eliot could be using these lines to talk about the first spring after World War I ended and how, while spring is supposed to be beautiful, that beauty is coming from “dead land” and “dull roots.” This comparison makes readers realize just how broken the world was after the war. ( Log Out /  Eliot's "The Wasteland": Portrait of a Desolate World J. Patrick Spencer The Waste Land.

There is nothing floating in the river which is usually a result of partying and going about the city. Eliot, the theme that made the most sense to me was the theme of the fragmentation of the culture of the West post-World War I. and find homework help for other The Waste Land questions at eNotes

It further shows how society has completely fallen out of step with it’s previous rhythm. Or other testimony of summer nights.

In just the first lines from 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” (Eliot 1-4), these lines start describing the fragmentation of Western culture. Throughout the poem, Eliot uses diction that reflects the horror and trauma the world underwent during the war and how the world attempted to recover from it. The nymphs refer to departed party goers and city dwellers, or rather the happiness the people once had. Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song. Eliot, the theme that made the most sense to me was the theme of the fragmentation of the culture of the West post-World War I. Not only did he believe it was the lack of religion, but he also uses a paraphrase of Psalm 137 in “The Fire Sermon” to compare the enslaved Jewish people longing for Jerusalem to the longing for the good old days that Eliot preferred. Before the fragments of the poem start, Eliot wrote an epigraph from the. T.S.

Eliot’s notion that the fragmentation of religion post-WWI led to its own demise is very heavily relied upon in “Burial of the Dead” when he… The world was rapidly changing around him, and Eliot felt that lack of religion was to blame for that and the growing culture of atheism. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. lilacs out of dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. On some pages there are even more footnotes (from both him and the Broadview) than there is poetry. Fragmentation and, in turn, change, are both similarly intertwined in T.S. Eliot presents us with a dark image of a mirthless river: “…The nymphs are departed.

( Log Out /  Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Eliot's legendary poem, "The Wasteland", one may experience mixed feelings about the poem as a whole.