A Selection From T.S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland'

[jennakearns]

In choosing to write about T.S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland', I decided to choose one selection from the poem. Because the poem is lengthy as well as very descriptive, I thought it would be best to focus on one part and look at it closely

Comments

Confusion!

[shali1]

Hey Jenna,
This poem, although amazing in its message, it is still very complex and difficult to read through. Reminds me of the Iliad:). Nonetheless, this poem carries a lot of imagery and scenery that helps simplify the complex content. However, the various languages do pose a problem. Translation Dictionary Anyone?
Shali

[noellemorris]

"THE WASTELAND" is such a piece of art because it makes allusions to everything. Someone once called it "the most acclaimed work of plagiarism in the history of plagiarism" because it contained so many separate elements that Eliot strung together. I am amazed by Eliot's grasp of multiple languages; he writes in German, and takes aspects from French and the Hindu Upanishads. (among other languages.)

On the subject of French, how did you interpret the narrator's accusation of "Hypocrite lecteur!"? Is he antagonizing the reader or prodding them?

I think the seasons play such an importance because they go through the continual cycles of birth, death, rebirth, redeath, etc. Eliot wrote this poem after the First World War in a time when they were rebuilding and mourning. I could draw a correlation there, but like any other interpretation I have of this poem, I could be wrong. Eliot was very ambiguous in "The Wasteland", but I actually appreciate that about his poem.

[beth_may]

Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images

I thought that this insertion in the poem is very interesting. It exemplifies exactly what this poem is. It is an assemblage of broken images. Only by considering them together can meaning be derived form this poem. There are so many different fragments occurring and I think that what Eliot says about this is very profound. Maybe this is all that we know.

Seasons

[amymc1986]

I think that it's quite interesting how poets and authors alike seem to use the seasons as a point of reference as well as a way to convey emotion. just think about how many stories we know and the numerous amounts of rhyme that circle around the life and death of nature...