The Waste Land

“Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together But when I look ahead up the white road there is always another one walking beside you. Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded, I do not know whether a man or a woman —But who is that on the other side of you?”

“My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me. Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak. What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? I never know what you are thinking. Think.”

My final book of 2017 and it's T.S Eliot! The Waste Land is a beautiful poem! The poem has five sections. Each section explores a unique theme and what can I say abot Eliot, he is the master of modern poetry! The concluding chapter, What the Thunder Said, is my personal favourite. The last line of the poem ends with the holy mantra, “Shantih shantih shantih”
Just like I wanted the year to end!

Surely worth reading!

There are some incredible passages in “The Waste Land” that make it a poem everyone should read. The first few lines beginning with “April is the cruelest month...” (which is one reason the book club chose it for April's book) and on to the excellently rendered Game of Chess (section 2) throw off fantastic images juxtaposed with dead-on conversation snippits that pop up in your mind after you've put the text down.

Our group had an interesting discussion about references to other works we've read (“Paradise Lost,” “The Odyssey,” etc.). There was some controversy about whether Eliot truly believed in hope through resurrection (I came out on the “no” side due to the first few lines and the following:

He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience

Daffodils! Tulips! Fluffy little chicks! That's more Wordsworth's speed, no? “The Waste Land” presents a bleak, post World-War-1, post Spanish Influenza melange. Of course, T.S. was in the middle of a nervous breakdown and trouble with wifey (the latter an inspiration for section 3) on top of external factors. It's hard to believe the author also the author of “Old Possums Book of Practical Cats,” the inspiration for the long-running musical, “Cats.”

I do think that the deluge of literary references only a handful of people in the world could understand detract from what is certainly a work of art. The Norton critical edition is recommended for those who want to delve further behind the curtain: it is chock-full of both source material and criticism (positive and negative) that fleshes out the poem for the great unwashed.