Analysis of the Poem The Waste Land by T S Eliot - Essay Example

July 20 Analysis of the Poem, “The Waste Land” by T S Eliot T S Eliot, winner of the coveted Nobel Prize in 1927, is one the most controversial and acclaimed poets of the twentieth century. The publication of The Waste Land (1922), an allusive and obscure poem, which symbolizes the disappointment and disgust of the post war generation, has made him a celebrity. In this work, he treats the horrors of a civilization in spiritual drought with a poetic insight and using a different style. The poem is considered as the Bible of the lost generation of the twentieth century. Deeply influenced by the Hindu scriptures, Eliot believes that the salvation of humanity ruined, by madness of WW II, lies in the teachings of Buddha and Gita. The poem combines a number of sources ranging from the fertility rituals, the Grail legends, the Tarot cards, St. Augustine and the Bible. It also collects materials from Buddhism and Hinduism and hence the poem can be considered as an international poem. The Waste Land by T S Eliot is a highly symbolic international poem which depicts the spiritual bareness of twentieth century, based on the theory of New Criticism. The poem portrays the experiences of life arising out of different kinds of waste lands: the waste land of religion, the waste land of spirit from which all the moral values have dried up, the waste land of instinct for fertility where sex has become a mechanical activity and a means of animal satisfaction than a life giving source for regeneration. The poem relates to the theme of barrenness of the twentieth century western civilization. While analyzing the poem based on the theory of New Criticism, only less importance is given to the biographical details of the poet T S Eliot but gives emphasis on the symbols, imagery and the style of the poem. New criticism eschews traditional styles of explaining the author’s biography and the social condition of the work. It concentrates on the work as an independent entity. In T S Eliot’s words, a poem should be treated “primarily as poetry and not another thing” (Abrams 181). The term ‘New Criticism’ came to be applied as a literary theory after the publication of John Crowe Ransom’s ‘The New Criticism’ in 1941. New critics warn the readers against the critical practices which divert their attention from the poem. In analyzing and evaluating a work, the New Critics avoid reference to the biography and mood of the author. It tends to focus on the literary work in isolation as an organic unity of symbols, images, figures of speech etc. The Waste Land is such an organic unity, which connects the past and the present, fertility and bareness, life and death, which the poet presents symbolically. The scenes in the poem are symbolic of the frustrations of the protagonist’s journeys, the imperfection of man’s quest and the failure of his visions. The epigraph of the poem is symbolic of the theme of decay and death. The Sybil of Cumae is shown as hanging in a cage and expressing her innermost wish that she wants to die. This is suggestive of the death wish of the modern western civilization. The poem is symbolically the myth of the waste land as illustrated by Jessie Weston, in her book “From Ritual to Romance.” The author “deals with the legend of the quest for the Holy Grail which depicts a region as having been destroyed by a cruel curse. Nothing can grow on this land and the land has lost its fertility” (Eliot 117). In the poem, “The Waste Land,” this legend of physical barrenness is presented as the spiritual barrenness of the Fisher King, represented in the Tarot pack of cards. The poem is dived into five parts which makes use of images that represents this spiritual barrenness. The protagonist, Tiresias, identified as the impotent Fisher King, is the mouth piece of the poet who is in fact the person who visualizes the waste land. The poet makes use of many images in the poem to deal with the theme of death and decay. The image of spring season is used to subvert the conventional description of spring as the season of joy. “April is the cruelest month…..” (Eliot 1-7) is the image that introduces the awareness of pain and suffering in the human existence. Water imagery is used to suggest death by water which gathers up the motif of death by drowning in water. The image of a woman with “her long black hair out tight” (Line 377) is suggestive of modern civilization. In the section of fire sermon the poet gives a series of images which are suggestive of death, decay, and lust. The imagery used in descriptions like, “The river bears no empty bottles,” “At my back from time to time” etc are the images which parallel to the poems of Spencer and Andrew Marvell. The style of the poem focuses on visualization of the images presented. It is highly allusive and has a lot of mythical references. It makes use of many images and the vocabulary is modern. The main theme and the sub themes of the poem are presented as a series of images that fade and dissolve into one another. Eliot ends the poem with the use “Shantih shantih shantih” (Line 433) from the Upanishads which suggests that European civilization needs a spiritual revival and to achieve this, they have to look beyond their tradition for a spiritual overhauling. He makes use of the Sanskrit word to remind the twentieth century generation about their need for a spiritual regeneration. Eliot also makes use of the literary reference from around the world to make the poem appeal to a universal mass and to render it more effective to the readers, in presenting the main theme of spiritual emptiness. With the use of symbols and images the poem commands a status as a significant work based on modernism. Work Cited Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms Seventh Edition. Earl Mc Peek.2003. Eliot, T.S. The Waste Land. Tripod. 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