T.S.Eliot's The Wasteland

[logophile]

I searched the boards and didn't find anything relating to this work, but if it does already have a thread, feel free to correct me. I came across this poem while studying Sarah Kane's play Crave (which references The Wasteland at several points) and was instantly enchanted by it. It felt the same way as I did when I began reading Paradise Lost (which I have to confess I've not yet completed): I knew that there was so much which was beyond my knowledge, but still found myself overwhelmed by it. I am currently making an attempt to commit the full poem to memory and then intend to read all of the books which it references (a couple of which I have already read). So what do you all think of it?

[King Mob]

The same happened with me. I read the poem like 2 years ago and I really liked it, but I knew that many things were beyond my understanding. Still the images were very powerful, and the whole musicality of it. This part on particular blew my mind:

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

Recently I've read the poem a few times again, along with rereading The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Hollow Men (those are now some of my favourite poems ever).

I've been watching this Yale free open course on modern english poetry which is very good:
http://oyc.yale.edu/english/modern-poetry/content/class-sessions

There are three classes on Eliot. The first one is more about Prufrock while the other two delve into The Wasteland.

[StephenDaedalus]

Eliot's own notes on the poem are extensive enough for a first approach.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land/Notes_on_The_Waste_Land

[AjaxAscendant]

I don't know how far I can advise you as to your reading (having not read Waste Land yet), but have you considered reading some of the works Eliot references?

[monty321989]

Eliot's own notes on the poem are extensive enough for a first approach.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land/Notes_on_The_Waste_Land

Love the explanation of line 68 of "Burial of the Dead" --> "Phenomenon which I have often noticed".

Btw, I've read (or, let's say, had a look at) the Waste Land and must say that although it may be a masterpiece, I surely don't enjoy it much. But well, I guess taste is not to be discussed here.

[Themistocles18]

It's not my favorite Eliot. I prefer the less allusive and, I think, more confident late Eliot of Ash Wednesday and The Four Quartets (Little Gidding is the highlight of the sequence). But The Wasteland is a stupendous poem nonetheless. It's oddly approachable because the rhythms and the weight of individual lines give you a good sense of meaning even when you don't quite catch all the references.

My favorite bit, right now, is the beginning of "What the Thunder Said".

After the torchlight red on sweaty faces
After the frosty silence in the gardens
After the agony in stony places
The shouting and the crying
Prison and palace and reverberation
Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience

Exquisite.