THE WASTE
LAND
-T.S. Eliot (1922)
T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland is one of the most
outstanding poems of the 20th century. It has been hailed as Eliot’s
masterpiece – the supreme triumph of the poetic art in modern times. The
Wasteland is a poem about spiritual dryness, about the kind of existence in
which no regenerating belief gives significance and value to men’s daily
activities, sex brings no fruitfulness, and death heralds no resurrection.
As
affected by WW2, T.S. Eliot has expressed what he felt about his land in The
Wasteland and how people gradually lost faith in god and spiritual decay is
the main theme of the poem as because of it only his land is waste land.
T.S. Eliot poems divide in
the five sections:
1. ‘Burial of the death’
2. ‘A Game of chess’
3. ‘The Fire sermon’
4.
‘Death by Water’
5. ‘What the thunder said’
Eliot’s poem loosely follows the legend of ‘Holy Grail’ and
the ‘fisher king’ combined with
vignettes of the contemporary British society.
T.S.
Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ is by far the most representative poem by the 20th
century. The title of this long epic poem itself suggests the essence of this
poem that what is all about.
‘The Waste Land’ means barren
land. The word “waste” it means nothing, deserted, something is grow and
infertile land and the land here, Eliot talk about the city of London also. In
this poem Eliot talk about the western culture, his location and notion by the
western culture.
He
criticizes sexual perversion, spiritual degradation and dehumanization of
western society. He is showing mirror to the world that they are, rather than
praising his culture, he attacks the rottenness of his culture. It exposes the
very soul of the modern generation with all its horrors moral, spiritual and
intellectual bankruptcy, disillusionment and waste.
The
poem is archetype way. A poem made of the collage of images. The title ‘The
waste Land’ also suggests the image of London. Here, T.S. Eliot also uses the
collage of images in this poem. The poem is written as a tribute to Ezra Pound.
The
poem ‘The Waste Land’ is difficult to understand because it has effect of
fragmented images also this all the poem if not find the clear cut picture of
the poem. Eliot wrote not merely to understand the war but he wanted to show
spiritual degradation through this poem.
The
poem structure is divided into five sections. The first section the burial of
the dead introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair. The
second, the game of chess employs vignette of several characters alternating
narration that addresses those themes experimentally. The fire sermon, the
third section offers a philosophic relation to the imagery of death and use of
self-denial in juxtaposition influenced by Augustine of hippo and eastern
religions. After fourth section that includes a brief lyrical pattern the
terminating fifth section, what the thunder said concludes with an image of
judgment.
Symbolism
is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic
meanings that are different from their literal sense. Sometime an action, an
event or a word spoken by someone may have a symbolic value symbol works two
ways: it is something itself and it also suggests something deeper. Symbols
associate two things, but their meaning is that both figurative and literal.
Some symbols have widespread, commonly accepted values that should recognize.
No symbols have absolute meanings and by their nature we cannot read them at
face value. It is better to think what could the symbol mean or what they have
meant.
No comments:
Post a Comment