Introduction to Eliot’s The Waste Land AP Literature & Composition Ms. Moss

T.S. Eliot Born in St. Louis, MO, in 1888 Died in Kensington, London, UK, in 1965 Awarded: Nobel Prize in Literature (1948), Tony Award for Best Play (1950) Poet, playwright, essayist

The Waste Land Published in 1922 in the literary magazine The Criterion (UK) “Eliot's poem loosely follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King combined with vignettes of contemporary British society. Eliot employs many literary and cultural allusions from the Western canon, Buddhism and the Hindu Upanishads. Because of this, critics and scholars regard the poem as obscure.[4] The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, and time and conjuring of a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.” ~Taken from Wikipedia.com

The Waste Land A poem in five parts: The Burial of the Dead A Game of Chess The Fire Sermon Death by Water What the Thunder Said

The Waste Land: a Modernist Masterpiece Modernism: The Modernist Period in English Literature occupied the years from shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century through roughly 1965. In broad terms, the period was marked by sudden and unexpected breaks with traditional ways of viewing and interacting with the world. Experimentation and individualism became virtues, where in the past they were often heartily discouraged. Modernism was set in motion, in one sense, through a series of cultural shocks. The first of these great shocks was the Great War, which ravaged Europe from 1914 through 1918, known now as World War One. Taken from The Literature Network

The Waste Land Readers would like to believe that we are the heirs to the legacy of history, literature, and culture, but we are primarily of THE PAST—and our heads ring with echoes. Eliot was interested in what the poem DID, not what it said Meaning is not there and it is not meant to be there.

Their overall message: if you don’t “get” it, LOOK IT UP! Modernists: Felt that Western culture was getting dumber and dumber (and dumber…and dumber…) Their overall message: if you don’t “get” it, LOOK IT UP!

Themes in The Waste Land The damaged human psyche The power of a shared literary history The changing nature of gender roles Fragmentation The power of mythic and religious rituals Infertility and sterility

Major Symbols in The Waste Land: Water Symbolizes both life and death Although water has the regenerative possibility of restoring life and fertility, it can also lead to drowning and death. Water can imply baptism, Christianity, and the figure of Jesus Christ. Water cleanses, water provides solace, and water brings relief.

Major Symbols in The Waste Land: The Fisher King The impotence or death of the Fisher King brought unhappiness and famine.  Eliot saw the Fisher King as symbolic of humanity, robbed of its sexual potency in the modern world and connected to the meaninglessness of urban existence.  But the Fisher King also stands in for Christ and other religious figures associated with divine resurrection and rebirth.

Major Symbols in The Waste Land: Music & Singing Eliot was interested in the divide between high and low culture, which he symbolized using music. He believed that high culture, including art, opera, and drama, was in decline while popular culture was on the rise. Music thus becomes another way in which Eliot collages and references books from past literary traditions. 

Epigraph and Dedication Epigraph translation:  "I saw with my own eyes the Sibyl of Cumae hanging in a jar, and when the boys said to her, Sibyl, what do you want? she replied I want to die.“  "For Ezra Pound: il miglior fabbro" (the better craftsman) Quoting canto XXVI of Dante’s Purgatorio and alluding to Pound’s own work

Eliot’s Allegory The Fisher King’s land represents modern society The modern world needs a pure soul like Perceval to heal its wounds/lands/spiritual decay Until that savior is found, we continue our decline into moral turpitude

Questions?