Monday, February 14, 2011
The Waste Land
I did a little research on T.S. Eliot's poem and found a few facts I thought everyone might find interesting. It was published in 1922, and is considered "one of the most important poems of the 20th century." Eliot's originally idea for the title was "He do the Police in Different Voices." He eventually decided to go with "The Waste Land" and apparently stressed the importance of the definite article "the" in the title. These were just a few little facts I found intriguing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I believe that Eliot creates juxtapositions throughout “The Waste Land” in order to emphasize the tragic state of his modern society compared to a more pleasant past. Eliot achieves this goal as he contrasts references from ancient literature with fictional accounts about modern times. However, I believe that his more important agenda is to reveal the lack of fertility in modern society as he contrasts barrenness with fecundity. Inevitably, just as Conrad explains that lightness is polluted by darkness in his novella, Eliot reveals that fertility has succumbed to barrenness.
Clearly, I believe that Eliot's decision to revise the title to The Wasteland was a good one. The Wasteland is essentially how Elliot depicts his modern world. In Burial of the Dead, Elliot describes this wasteland as a "heap or broken images" where "the dead tree gives no shelter". Here, he depicts his wasteland as a dry, and barren desert that is unyielding and offers no protection. Later, Elliot also describes the decaying, polluted city: "Unreal City, under the brown fog of a winter dawn". Here, Elliot describes the dismal life in the city. We've all see the depiction of fog before. Like in Love Song of J Alfred Pruffrock, the fog in the city represents the writers' stagnant, polluted society .
I view "The Waste Land" as many pieces to a puzzle. Eliot develops multiple themes throughout his work while alluding to different authors, which allows his work to remain fragmented. These central ideas, however, contribute to the overall idea of cultural disintegration. I feel like the reader is responsible for seeing the trend and putting the puzzle pieces together; the author does not do it for you.
The title of a poem is obviously always important to understand. I think that Eliot's considered and rejected title "He do the Police in Different Voices" definitely gives very direct evidence that the poem has multiple speakers who are connected by a common thread. I think Eliot's chosen title is probably more elegant and memorable, but it definitely doesn't give the reader as much insight into how to interpret the various voices present in the poem. Eliot apparently tried to address this issue in his footnote about Tiresias, but I think that his solution leaves something to be desired.
I really have no idea why Eliot was so insistent upon the definite article "the" in his title. Perhaps he wanted to imply that there is only one wasteland? Such a suggestion would, in turn, reinforce the subtle connections between the poem's many speakers.
Post a Comment