1. “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot
Adela, Erica and Hilda

2. Synopsis 433 lines 20th Century
Meditation on the state of Western civilization
mixes descriptions of contemporary life with literary allusions and quotations, religious symbolism, and references to ancient and medieval cultures and mythologies, vegetation and fertility rites
The Waste Land is a 433-line poem by T. S. Eliot.
It is one of the most famous poems of the 20th century, dealing with the decline of civilization and the impossibility of recovering meaning in life.
This poem is a meditation on the state of Western civilization, especially regarding the sense of depression, waste, and futility of the post-World War I era.
The poem mixes descriptions of contemporary life with literary allusions and quotations, religious symbolism, and references to ancient and medieval cultures and mythologies, vegetation and fertility rites.

3. Synopsis Eastern religions and philosophies
emphasize themes of barrenness and desolation and portrays a dying society
the ending suggests hope of redemption through concepts and images grounded on the synthesis of Christian and Eastern (Hindu/Buddhist) spirituality
As well as Eastern religions and philosophies; the poem emphasizes themes of barrenness and desolation and portrays a dying society, but the ending suggests hope of redemption through concepts and images grounded on the synthesis of Christian and Eastern (Hindu/Buddhist) spirituality.

4. Language & Form
Modernist poetry. Irregular verse, at times free, at times reminiscent of the blank verse of Eliot’s plays
The poem was reduced to half the length of earlier drafts at Ezra Pound's suggestion
Complex scholarly annotations to explain the many quotations and obscure allusions
Five sections and features multiple voices and a deliberate attempt at creating a sense of fragmentation, discontinuity, and decay.
Modernist poetry. Irregular verse, at times free, at times reminiscent of the blank verse of Eliot’s plays; English original with passages in other languages; at Ezra Pound's suggestion, the poem was reduced to half the length of earlier drafts (the poem bears a dedication acknowledging Pound as il miglior fabbro, “the better craftsman”); Eliot included complex scholarly annotations to explain the many quotations and obscure allusions of the poem; special credit is given to the work of the anthropologist James Frazer, The Golden Bough ( ) and Jessie Weston’s treatment of the Grail legends, From Ritual to Romance (1920); the poem is divided into five sections and features multiple voices and a deliberate attempt at creating a sense of fragmentation, discontinuity, and decay.

5. Structure Epigraph Five sections The Burial of the Dead
A Game of Chess
The Fire Sermon
Death by Water
What the Thunder Said

6. Epigraph
"Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: Sibulla ti qeleiz; respondebat illa: apoqanein qelw."
For Ezra Pound
il miglior fabbro.
Quotes Petronius's Satyricon (first century C.E.)
“For once I myself saw with my own eyes the Sibyl at Cumae hanging in a cage, and when the boys said to her ‘Sibyl, what do you want?’ she replied, ‘I want to die.’”
The epigraph quotes Petronius's Satyricon (first century A.D.)
The Sibyl, a prophetess, had been granted immortal life but not immortal youth by Apollo. Her shriveled form was kept in a jar in the temple of Hercules at Cumae.

7. I. The Burial of the Dead (1/2)
Four poems
Line 1-18
Marie recalls her sledding and claims that she is German, not Russian. The woman mixes a meditation on the seasons with remarks on the barren state of her current existence.
Line 19-42
A prophetic, apocalyptic invitation to journey into a desert waste, where the speaker will show the reader “something different from either/ Your shadow at morning striding behind you/ Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;/ [He] will show you fear in a handful of dust.“
The first section of The Waste Land takes its title from a line in the Anglican burial service. It is made up of four vignettes, each seemingly from the perspective of a different speaker.
The first is an autobiographical snippet from the childhood of an aristocratic woman, in which she recalls sledding and claims that she is German, not Russian (this would be important if the woman is meant to be a member of the recently defeated Austrian imperial family). The woman mixes a meditation on the seasons with remarks on the barren state of her current existence ("I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter").
The second section is a prophetic, apocalyptic invitation to journey into a desert waste, where the speaker will show the reader "something different from either / Your shadow at morning striding behind you / Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; / [He] will show you fear in a handful of dust" (Evelyn Waugh took the title for one of his best-known novels from these lines). The almost threatening prophetic tone is mixed with childhood reminiscences about a "hyacinth girl" and a nihilistic epiphany the speaker has after an encounter with her. These recollections are filtered through quotations from Wagner's operatic version of Tristan und Isolde, an Arthurian tale of adultery and loss.

8. I. The Burial of the Dead (2/2)
Four poems
Line 43-59
It describes an imaginative tarot reading, in which some of the cards Eliot includes in the reading are not part of an actual tarot deck.
Line 60-76
The speaker walks through a London populated by ghosts of the dead. He confronts a figure with whom he once fought in a battle. The speaker asks the ghostly figure, Stetson, about the fate of a corpse planted in his garden.
The third episode in this section describes an imaginative tarot reading, in which some of the cards Eliot includes in the reading are not part of an actual tarot deck.
The final episode of the section is the most surreal. The speaker walks through a London populated by ghosts of the dead. He confronts a figure with whom he once fought in a battle that seems to conflate the clashes of World War I with the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage (both futile and excessively destructive wars). The speaker asks the ghostly figure, Stetson, about the fate of a corpse planted in his garden. The episode concludes with a famous line from the preface to Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal (an important collection of Symbolist poetry), accusing the reader of sharing in the poet's sins.

9. II. A Game of Chess
This section focuses on two opposing scenes: high society and the lower classes.
Two poems
Line
A wealthy, highly groomed woman surrounded by exquisite furnishings.
Line
In a London barroom, where two women discuss a third woman.
This section takes its title from two plays by the early 17th-century playwright Thomas Middleton, in one of which the moves in a game of chess denote stages in a seduction. This section focuses on two opposing scenes, one of high society and one of the lower classes.
The first half of the section portrays a wealthy, highly groomed woman surrounded by exquisite furnishings. As she waits for a lover, her neurotic thoughts become frantic, meaningless cries. Her day culminates with plans for an excursion and a game of chess.
The second part of this section shifts to a London barroom, where two women discuss a third woman. Between the bartender's repeated calls of "HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME" (the bar is closing for the night) one of the women recounts a conversation with their friend Lil, whose husband has just been discharged from the army. She has chided Lil over her failure to get herself some false teeth, telling her that her husband will seek out the company of other women if she doesn't improve her appearance. Lil claims that the cause of her ravaged looks is the medication she took to induce an abortion; having nearly died giving birth to her fifth child, she had refused to have another, but her husband "won't leave [her] alone." The women leave the bar to a chorus of "good night(s)" reminiscent of Ophelia's farewell speech in Hamlet.

10. III. The Fire Sermon (1/3)
Taken from a sermon given by Buddha in which he encourages his followers to give up earthly passion and seek freedom from earthly things.
Four poems
Line
Line
Line
Line
The title of this, the longest section of The Waste Land, is taken from a sermon given by Buddha in which he encourages his followers to give up earthly passion (symbolized by fire) and seek freedom from earthly things. A turn away from the earthly does indeed take place in this section, as a series of increasingly debased sexual encounters concludes with a river-song and a religious incantation.

11. III. The Fire Sermon (2/3)
The section opens with a desolate riverside scene: Rats and garbage surround. The speaker, who is fishing and “musing on the king my brother's wreck.”
The speaker is then propositioned by Mr. Eugenides, the one-eyed merchant of Madame Sosostris's tarot pack.
The section opens with a desolate riverside scene: Rats and garbage surround the speaker, who is fishing and "musing on the king my brother's wreck." The river-song begins in this section, with the refrain from Spenser's Prothalamion: "Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song." A snippet from a vulgar soldier's ballad follows, then a reference back to Philomela (see the previous section).
The speaker is then propositioned by Mr. Eugenides, the one-eyed merchant of Madame Sosostris's tarot pack. Eugenides invites the speaker to go with him to a hotel known as a meeting place for homosexual trysts.

12. III. The Fire Sermon (3/3)
The speaker then proclaims himself to be Tiresias, a figure from classical mythology who has both male and female features and is blind but can “see” into the future.
Tiresias/the speaker observes a young typist, at home for tea, who awaits her lover, a dull and slightly arrogant clerk. The woman allows the clerk to have his way with her, and he leaves victorious.
Tiresias, who has “foresuffered all,” watches the whole thing. After her lover's departure, the typist thinks only that she's glad the encounter is done and over.
The speaker then proclaims himself to be Tiresias, a figure from classical mythology who has both male and female features ("Old man with wrinkled female breasts") and is blind but can "see" into the future.
Tiresias/the speaker observes a young typist, at home for tea, who awaits her lover, a dull and slightly arrogant clerk. The woman allows the clerk to have his way with her, and he leaves victorious.
Tiresias, who has "foresuffered all," watches the whole thing. After her lover's departure, the typist thinks only that she's glad the encounter is done and over.
A brief interlude begins the river-song in earnest. First, a fisherman's bar is described, then a beautiful church interior, then the Thames itself. These are among the few moments of tranquility in the poem, and they seem to represent some sort of simpler alternative. The Thames-daughters, borrowed from Spenser's poem, chime in with a nonsense chorus ("Weialala leia / Wallala leialala"). The scene shifts again, to Queen Elizabeth I in an amorous encounter with the Earl of Leicester. The queen seems unmoved by her lover's declarations, and she thinks only of her "people humble people who expect / Nothing." The section then comes to an abrupt end with a few lines from St. Augustine's Confessions and a vague reference to the Buddha's Fire Sermon ("burning").

13. IV. Death by Water The shortest section of the poem.
Describes a man, Phlebas the Phoenician, who has died by drowning.
In death he has forgotten his worldly cares as the creatures of the sea have picked his body apart.
The shortest section of the poem.
"Death by Water" describes a man, Phlebas the Phoenician, who has died, apparently by drowning.
In death he has forgotten his worldly cares as the creatures of the sea have picked his body apart.
The narrator asks his reader to consider Phlebas and recall his or her own mortality.

14. V. What the Thunder Said (1/2)
One poem: line
Builds to an apocalyptic climax, as suffering people become "hooded hordes swarming" and the "unreal" cities of Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna, and London are destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again.
The scene then shifts to the Ganges, half a world away from Europe, where thunder rumbles.
The final section of The Waste Land is dramatic in both its imagery and its events.
The first half of the section builds to an apocalyptic climax, as suffering people become "hooded hordes swarming" and the "unreal" cities of Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna, and London are destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again. A decaying chapel is described, which suggests the chapel in the legend of the Holy Grail. Atop the chapel, a cock crows, and the rains come, relieving the drought and bringing life back to the land. Curiously, no heroic figure has appeared to claim the Grail; the renewal has come seemingly at random, gratuitously.
The scene then shifts to the Ganges, half a world away from Europe, where thunder rumbles. Eliot draws on the traditional interpretation of "what the thunder says," as taken from the Upanishads (Hindu fables). According to these fables, the thunder "gives," "sympathizes," and "controls" through its "speech"; Eliot launches into a meditation on each of these aspects of the thunder's power. The meditations seem to bring about some sort of reconciliation, as a Fisher King-type figure is shown sitting on the shore preparing to put his lands in order, a sign of his imminent death or at least abdication.

15. V. What the Thunder Said (2/2)
Finale: line
Ends with a series of disparate fragments from a children's song, from Dante, and from Elizabethan drama, leading up to a final chant of “Shantih shantih shantih.”
The poem ends with a series of disparate fragments from a children's song, from Dante, and from Elizabethan drama, leading up to a final chant of "Shantih shantih shantih"--the traditional ending to an Upanishad. Eliot, in his notes to the poem, translates this chant as "the peace which passeth understanding," the expression of ultimate resignation.

16. Theme
source

17. I. The Burial of the Dead Theme
Inhabitants in the Waste Land live a hopeless life. People can usually obtain salvation (rebirth) from the burial of the dead, but inhabitants in the Waste Land are afraid of rebirth.

18. II. A Game of Chess
Theme
The community's impotence and degradation, sex and spirit, is conveyed.

19. III. The Fire Sermon Theme
Eliot uses St. Augustine and Buddha’s thoughts to teach man to keep away from decay.

20. IV. Death by Water
Theme
There will be no revival or resurrection after the Phoenician’s death. Misunderstanding of greed and values have buried human beings deeper as a whole into the whirlpool.

21. V. What the Thunder Said Theme
The thunder said human beings could be saved through three verbs--give, sympathize, and control.

22. Analysis (1/2) A modern myth that world moving toward crisis and chaos
Eliot uses
A modern myth that world moving toward crisis and chaos
Multiple narrators: to see from different angles
Dramatic monologue: to convey the characters’ stream of unconsciousness and psychological condition.
Fragmentation: fragmentation of modern life, lack of integration in the modern experience

23. Analysis (2/2) Allusion to plays, and myths:
To compare and contrast the present and the past
To produce the dramatic irony
(Myths exists in fertility rites and a universal subconscious. Eliot uses myths to produce sympathy. )
Biblical references:
severed from the system of belief that gave them coherence and meaning.

24. Techniques in Text Dramatic monologue (L8—18, L25—30)
Allusions to the Bible (L20), plays (The Tempest, The Devil’s Law Case), and myths (The Fisher King, Inferno)
Fragmentary forms—Ex. broken image (L22)(L428-30)
Symbols of water, hyacinth, the Tarot pack of cards, the drowned Phoenician Sailor, the Hanged God.
Compare and Contrast---Mylae War is compared to the World War I.
Quotations—Paradise Lost9 (IV, 140), The Devil’s Law Case (III,ii,162), The White Devil (V,6, ), Confession…
 pun—jug (L103)

25. Epigraph to express the subject
Sibyl in the Satyricon (myth) , a woman with prophetic power and long life, grows old, but cannot die. She is yearning to die.
The Sibyl's condition suggests Eliot lives in a culture that has decayed and withered but will not end.

26. Quotation And Interpretation
L1-7
APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding …Winter kept us warm, covering …
(The Waste Land opens with a compare to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. April is not the painful month for pilgrimages and storytelling.)
L30
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
(How dry and fearful the Waste Land it is. )

27. Quotation And Interpretation
L55
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
(The death and rebirth of a god –Rebirth comes after the death. And water suggests spiritual renewal.)

28. Quotation And Interpretation
L99-103
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king…'Jug Jug' to dirty ears.
(People only can hear the sex and violence in the myth but not appreciate a myth.)
L126
'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?'
(Inhabitants in the Waste Land are without thoughts—spiritual dryness.)

29. Quotation And Interpretation
L48
Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!
L257
‘This music crept by me upon the waters’
(Quoted from Shakespeare’s The Tempest— sea-change is the symbol of refreshment and purification. And the Waste Land is a place that is lack of water.)

30. Quotation And Interpretation
L We who were living are now dying
(People have no belief. Religion doesn't exist for them.)
L I sat upon the shore …Shall I at least set my lands in order?
(In the myth of the Fisher King, the king is impotent and the land is barren; society waits for salvation in the person of a knight (looking for the Holy Grail) who will come and ask the right question and bring the much-needed rain.)

31. Study Questions
What is the function of the epigraph in the beginning to the poem?
Is the downward motion significant in the first section?
What does the thunder say? What is happening to the waste land?
What is the "Waste Land" Eliot describes?

32. Study Questions
Why T.S. Eliot chose the “A Game of Chess” as the title of the second part of the work? What’s the connection of this section with previous one?
What the representative meaning of “water” in the fourth part of the work?

33. References
“Dr. Fidel Fajardo-Acosta's World Literature Website.” 1 Dec <
Eliot, Thomas Stearns. "The Waste Land." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. 7th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton,
Modernist Poetry in English. 4 Dec <
Parker, Rickard A. Exploring The Waste Land. 29 Sep Dec < thewasteland/explore.html>.
SparkNotes: Eliot’s Poetry. 1 Dec <
“The Waste Land.” 1 Dec < Athens/Olympus/5599/literature/wasteland.html>.
“The Waste Land Interpretation.” 5 Dec < telandindex.htm>.