Hello friends, here I am writing a blog on 'The Waste Land' by T.S. Eliot.
∆ About the Poet :
T.S. Eliot -Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888–January 4, 1965) was an American-born poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, and critic. One of the most eminent modernists, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 “for his outstanding, pioneer contributions to present-day poetry.”
∆ Notable Works:
'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' (1915)
'The Waste Land' (1922)
'The Hollow Men' (1925)
'Ash Wednesday' (1930)
'Four Quartets' (1943)
'Murder in the Cathedral' (1935)
'The Cocktail Party' (1949)
∆ About the Poem:
The poem is, a mixture of many styles like narrative, dramatic, lyric & allusive. Eliot gives his impressions about the modern people through a protagonist of the poem named Tiresias. He is a spectator of all the events occurring in the poem and a kind of all knowing universal person who belongs to the past as well as the present.
T. S. Eliot has divided The Waste Land into five sections under the following titles:
1)The Burial of the Dead,
2) A Game of Chess,
3) The fire Sermon,
4) Death by water,
5) What the Thunder Said
∆ The Burial of the Dead :
The first section, The Burial of the Dead, reveals the degeneration and rootlessness of the modern man and his civilization. The modern man has lost faith in moral spiritual values. His rebirth is possible only through the revival of spiritual and moral values.
∆ A Game of Chess :
In the second section, A Game of Chess, the poet indicates the failure of sex-relationship in the modern world. This perversion of sex has made modern life utterly unproductive and desolate.
∆ The Fire Sermon :
The third section, The Fire Sermon, shows that lust and rape are responsible for the decay of modern society. And this kind of degeneration prevails in all classes of modern society. The poet prays to God to save the modern civilization from lust and spiritual degeneration.
∆ Death by Water :
In the fourth section, Death by Water, the poet has suggested the significance of water as a means of purification and rebirth. He has also made two associations there. The first one is from Shakespeare’s The Tempest while the other one is from the ancient Egyptian myth of the god of fertility.
∆ What the Thunder Said :
The fifth section, entitled What the Thunder Said, suggests that there is a need of effort for the realization of the spiritual goal. The poet gives his own personal impression here. He says that it is impossible to reform the whole world and wonders where the change should begin from. Then he says that he must start with himself.
1) What are your views on the following image after reading 'The Waste Land'? Do you think that Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzche's views? or Has Eliot achieved universality of thought by recalling mytho-historical answer to the contemporary malaise?
Eliot believes in Regressive, backward looking as it tries to find answers of contemporary malaise in Upanishad, Buddhism and Christianity.While, on the other side Nietzche believes in progressive and forward looking, in giving solutions to the problem of contemporary crises in faith and self.
In comparison to Neitzche's thought, Eliot is regressive but it doesn't mean that he only raises questions on his contemporary society, he also tries to give a way of solution rather than the answers. Cycle of time is always moving and when History starts repeating one must have to look back and try to learn that. It is certain and right that new questions's answer we couldn't find in Upanishad, Buddhism and christianity.
2)Prior to the speech, Gustaf Hellström of the Swedish Academy made these remarks:
What are your views regarding these comments? Is it true that giving free vent to the repressed 'primitive instinct' lead us to happy and satisfied life? or do you agree with Eliot's view that 'salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition'?
Yes, it is truth that giving free vent to the repressed primitive instinct' can lead us to happy and satisfied life, but individually, things and happiness which is satisfying us can harm others and which give pleasure to others can harm us. But as per Eliot views if all follow such culture, tradition and belief in such lifestyle and moralities, a network of understanding can be created human live peacefully.
3) Write about allusions to the Indian thoughts in 'The Waste Land'.
The Waste Land is an Modern Epic poem revolves around the major idea of Spiritual Degradation and Sexual Perversion. The plot of the poem is allusive and elliptical but at the same time flooded with richness of different references. Where Eliot makes the use of different images, symbols and references from Christianity, Biblical significance, Use of Indian philosophy from Buddhism to Upanishads. Use of Greek Mythology to Modern Metaphors helps to establish poem as an Universal peace of writing.
The concept of Fire Sermon is taken from Adittapariyaya Sutta, a sacred book of Buddhism. In which Buddha preaches a sermon called The Fire Sermon. Which taught human beings how to liberate yourself from all these worldly materialistic wants. To liberate self one should avoid all worldly desires and passions.
"Datta, Dayadhvam and Damyata,
Shantih, Shantih, Shantih."
The above mentioned line suggests The Prajapati preaching to his three offspring, Devtas, Danav and Manav. And he gave the shlok of three 'Da' which became Datta for Devta, Dayadhvam for Danav and Damyata for Man. And the meaning of these three Da are respectively Be Giver, Self-sacrifice and Self-control. So, This is the three word formula of Da which is taken from Upanishad, and here Eliot uses it as a solution to heightened the spiritual life of Modern man.
So, These are some of the Indian references from Buddhism and From Upanishad which are used by Eliot to make the juxtaposition between past and present.
4) Is it possible to read 'The Waste Land' as a Pandemic Poem?
T.S Eliot’s modernist masterpiece The Wasteland was written in the aftermath of a devastating world war. The very fabric of it seems traumatised, being as it is ‘a heap of broken images’, or a series of disconnected, disembodied voices. In the fragmentary feel of the poem, we experience the fragmentary state of the traumatised mind, where snatches of thoughts refuse to make sense together. Yet this is more than just a reference to literal shell-shock - we are being painted a picture of a traumatised society.
History may not have been repeating itself, but it sure was rhyming. In 1918 humanity was just staggering out of the horrors of a world war when she was hit with the Spanish Flu. By 1920, 500 million people had been infected and 50 million died. More U.S. soldiers perished from the flu than were killed in the war.
The poem, like the society it reflected, was “a heap of broken images.” Visionary fragments in Italian, Latin, German and French tumbled like a broken kaleidoscope with American slang, Cockney voices and English poets. Allusions to Greek myth, Wagner, Dante, pop songs and yesterday’s newspaper clippings were all jumbled together in a bewildering melange of misery.
Eliot meant The Waste Land to be mystifying. He was holding a mirror to a decadent and lost generation. In his opinion, Western civilization was already worm-eaten with materialistic hedonism, atheism and a weary boredom founded on the yawning pit of nihilism. The poem simply showed the vapid, consumptive face of the European society as it really was.
Eliot meant The Waste Land to be mystifying. He was holding a mirror to a decadent and lost generation. In his opinion, Western civilization was already worm-eaten with materialistic hedonism, atheism and a weary boredom founded on the yawning pit of nihilism. The poem simply showed the vapid, consumptive face of the European society as it really was.
Thank you...
• Word Count : 1307
• Images : 5
