Thinking Activity : The Wasteland

                         THE WASTELAND 


                            The Waste Land is a long poem by T. S. Eliot. It is widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. It is published in 1922.

1.)   What are your views on the following image after reading 'The Waste Land'? Do you think that Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzche's views? or Has Eliot achieved universality of thought by recalling mytho-historical answer to the contemporary malaise?


                                   T.S.Eliot and Friedrich Nietzsche are quite different in their thinking.Nietzsche had proclaimed “God is Dead”; he doesn’t believe in any power like God. He believed in “Superhuman”, who believes in his own self and has great will power; While T.S.Eliot believes in spirituality and religion.

                                 I disagree that Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzsche’s view. Eliot goes into the past but he is very much in present also. He uses many references from the past, different myths, religions etc. to give a message of peace to the whole mankind. Of course this poem was written for the European civilization, but it is connected with the past and the present of all the civilizations. Eliot achieves universality.
Thus, Eliot keeps balance between progress and regress like a ‘Swing’.

                               Friedrich Nietzsche is progressive and forward looking where as T. S. Eliot seems like regressive because both have totally different sights and beliefs. Friedrich has the idea of 'Superman' who believes in faith and Self only. Superman has quality that he only believes in this life rather than after the death of life. Means, he has no belief in any mysticism. Super human is the creator of own life and values. He has his own motifs and will power. He thinks that the self is more important than anything else and there is nothing beyond the self. 

Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future,

And time future contained in time past.

If all time is eternally present

All time is unredeemable.

What might have been is an abstraction

Remaining a perpetual possibility

Only in a world of speculation.

What might have been and what has been

Point to one end, which is always present.

Footfalls echo in the memory

Down the passage which we did not take

Towards the door we never opened

Into the rose-garden. My words echo

Thus, in your mind.

                                  The poem – The Waste Land provides the modern reader with both a glimpse of the collective psyche. 

                            Somehow Freud's point of view is parallel and both are totally against to T. S . Eliot. Fragmented parts are there in each poem which must be connected. The fragments the broken images are the remains of something that is once, presumably, solid but is now ruins. 

                         The Waste land presents the remains of the culture and the world it describes are only the remains of a culture and of a world not a whole as it is. And The Hollow Men also support this argument and line suggests that.......


"This is the dead land

This is cactus land

Here the stone images

Are raised....."

                                The waste Land is also referred as 'dead land'. Mentioning only Indian thoughts which are used by Eliot in his poem, he reflects his reliance in Indic philosophy to come out from the agony. He uses 'Upanishads philosophy' which shows the path of living life. He uses that time where in poems , there is no calmness and no hope for bright future. He describes the way of living life through 'Sanatan Dharama'. There is the concept of ' Life in Death & Death in Life '. In poems, Inner turmoil of human begins visibly described. It is struggle not against any material things or outer enemies but struggle from the self. Being is not there. Existential anxiety are there . How to survive in this thorny state of affairs? Spiritual lack is also there and how to get the peace of heart. Human despair, spiritual draught exist there but the kingdom has no bright future.

"A dead sound on the final stroke of nine."

                                   Above line is direct connected with death God- Christ. Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzsche’s views because Eliot goes back into past. Eliot uses the mythos and historical settings to convey his messages at different level. Because Our behaviours and culture is constructed by myths. with the references of myths, poet is able to explain some moral lessons. Present and past is always connected because roots are always in past. His vision of the future is connected to past.

"How can rootlessness be repaired?"

                      From there the quest of T. S. Eliot to find out the way - how to be out from this Waste Land of the world of the early 20th century. 


2.) Prior to the speech, Gustaf Hellström of the Swedish Academy made these remarks:


                                   What are your views regarding these comments? Is it true that giving free vent to the repressed 'primitive instinct' lead us to happy and satisfied life? or do you agree with Eliot's view that 'salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition'?

                               It is true that free vent to the repressed ‘primitive instincts’ lead us to happy and satisfied life’ but this depends on how much space you give to the instincts. If you press a spring and then if you just leave it, it will fall anywhere. This ‘Primitive instincts’ may bring chaos in the society.


                     As Matthew Arnold also said in his essay ‘Culture and Anarchy’:-
Doing as one likes may bring chaos in the society”.

                          When there is Chaos in the culture, the solution can also be found in the preservation of culture.Thus, T.S.Eliot and Freud are correct in their perspective, but anything in excessive amount is always dangerous.


3.)  Write about allusions to the Indian thoughts in 'The Waste Land'. (Where, How and Why are the Indian thoughts referred?)

                             T.S.Eliot brings Universality in the poem ‘The Wasteland’. He uses many references like Buddhism, Christianity, Indian myths and many more for the solution of sexual perversion and spiritual degradation prevalent at that time in European civilization.

                         Eliot goes Out of the box to solve the problems. He makes use of Indian allusions.

                            The title of the last part ‘WHAT THE THUNDER SAID’ is from Upanishad – Prajapati spoke in thunder akashwani – to devotees are pointed out the way of salvation. Eliot shows the way of spiritual re-birth on the basis of wisdom of India.
We can also find reference of ‘Ganga’,’Himavat’ in this part. Eliot refers to Wisdom of India for spiritual salvation of modern humanity.

                          Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves Waited for rain, while the black clouds Gathered far distant, over Himavant.The jungle crouched, humped in silence.

Eliot uses the three “Da” taken from “Brihadaranyaka Upanishad".

1.)     Datta – giver
2.)     Dayadhvam – compassion
3.)     Damyata – self-control

First DA:

Datta: What have we given?
My friend blood shaking my heart
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed
Which is not to be found in our obituraies
or in memories draped by the beneficient spider Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
In our empty rooms.

Second DA:

Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prision
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison
Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours
Revive for a moment a broken coriolanus.

Third DA:

Damyata: The boat responded
Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar
The sea was calm, your heart would have
responded
Gaily, when invited, beating obedient
To controlling hands
I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my lands in order?"

At last he uses
Shantih shantih shantih


                                 The word " Shantih" suggests the ' The peace which passeth understanding'. So the poem ends with a solution and a ray of hope to upgrade the degrading spirituality.

                      INTRODUCTION 

                      Thomas Stearns Eliot OM (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry.


                                          Born in St.Louis, Missouri, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family, he moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25 and went on to settle, work, and marry there.He became a British citizen in 1927 at the age of 39, subsequently renouncing his American citizenship.

                                 Eliot first attracted widespread attention for his poem "The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock" in 1915, which was received as a modernist masterpiece. It was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including "The Waste Land" (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1943).He was also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".

                        ABOUT POEM

                        The Waste Land is a poem by T.S.Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry.Published in 1922, the 434-line.poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of Eliot's The Criterion and in the United States in the November issue of The Dial. It was published in book form in December 1922. Among its famous phrases are "April is the cruellest month", "I will show you fear in a handful of dust", and the mantra in the Sanskrit language "Shantih shantih shantih"

                            Eliot's poem combines the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King with vignettes of contemporary British society. Eliot employs many literary and cultural allusions from the Western canon such as Dante's Divine Comedy and Shakespeare, Buddhism, and the Hindu Upanishads. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, and time and conjuring a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.

                      The poem is divided into five sections. The first, "The Burial of the Dead", introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair. The second, "A Game of Chess", employs alternating narrations, in which vignettes of several characters address those themes experientially. "The Fire Sermon", the third section, offers a philosophical meditation in relation to the imagery of death and views of self-denial in juxtaposition influenced by Augustine of Hippo and eastern religions. After a fourth section, "Death by Water", which includes a brief lyrical petition, the culminating fifth section, "What the Thunder Said", concludes with an image of judgment.

                     Death

Two of the poem’s sections -- “The Burial of the Dead” and “Death by Water” --refer specifically to this theme. What complicates matters is that death can mean life; in other words, by dying, a being can pave the way for new lives. Eliot asks his friend Stetson: “That corpse you planted last year in your garden, / Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?” Similarly, Christ, by “dying,” redeemed humanity and thereby gave new life. The ambiguous passage between life and death finds an echo in the frequent allusions to Dante, particularly in the Limbo-like vision of the men flowing across London Bridge and through the modern city.

                    Rebirth

                             The Christ images in the poem, along with the many other religious metaphors, posit rebirth and resurrection as central themes. The Waste Land lies fallow and the Fisher King is impotent; what is needed is a new beginning. Water, for one, can bring about that rebirth, but it can also destroy. What the poet must finally turn to is Heaven, in the climactic exchange with the skies: “Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.” Eliot’s vision is essentially of a world that is neither dying nor living; to break the spell, a profound change, perhaps an ineffable one, is required. Hence the prevalence of Grail imagery in the poem; that holy chalice can restore life and wipe the slate clean; likewise, Eliot refers frequently to baptisms and to rivers – both “life-givers,” in either spiritual or physical ways.

            The Seasons

                        "The Waste Land" opens with an invocation of April, “the cruellest month.” That spring be depicted as cruel is a curious choice on Eliot’s part, but as a paradox it informs the rest of the poem to a great degree. What brings life brings also death; the seasons fluctuate, spinning from one state to another, but, like history, they maintain some sort of stasis; not everything changes. In the end, Eliot’s “waste land” is almost seasonless: devoid of rain, of propagation, of real change. The world hangs in a perpetual limbo, awaiting the dawn of a new season.

                      Lust

                             Perhaps the most famous episode in "The Waste Land" involves a female typist’s liaison with a “carbuncular” man. Eliot depicts the scene as something akin to a rape. This chance sexual encounter carries with it mythological baggage – the violated Philomela, the blind Tiresias who lived for a time as a woman. Sexuality runs through "The Waste Land," taking center stage as a cause of calamity in “The Fire Sermon.” Nonetheless, Eliot defends “a moment’s surrender” as a part of existence in “What the Thunder Said.” Lust may be a sin, and sex may be too easy and too rampant in Eliot’s London, but action is still preferable to inaction. What is needed is sex that produces life, that rejuvenates, that restores – sex, in other words, that is not “sterile.”

                     Love

                       The references to Tristan und Isolde in “The Burial of the Dead,” to Cleopatra in A Game of Chess,” and to the story of Tereus and Philomela suggest that love, in "The Waste Land," is often destructive. Tristan and Cleopatra die, while Tereus rapes Philomela, and even the love for the hyacinth girl leads the poet to see and know “nothing."

                   Water

                       "The Waste Land" lacks water; water promises rebirth. At the same time, however, water can bring about death. Eliot sees the card of the drowned Phoenician sailor and later titles the fourth section of his poem after Madame Sosostris’ mandate that he feardeath by water.” When the rain finally arrives at the close of the poem, it does suggest the cleansing of sins, the washing away of misdeeds, and the start of a new future; however, with it comes thunder, and therefore perhaps lightning. The latter may portend fire; thus, “The Fire Sermon” and What the Thunder Said are not so far removed in imagery, linked by the potentially harmful forces of nature.

                  History

                               History, Eliot suggests, is a repeating cycle. When he calls to Stetson, the Punic War stands in for World War I; this substitution is crucial because it is shocking. At the time Eliot wrote "The Waste Land," the First World War was definitively a first - the "Great War" for those who had witnessed it. There had been none to compare with it in history. The predominant sensibility was one of profound change; the world had been turned upside down and now, with the rapid progress of technology, the movements of societies, and the radical upheavals in the arts, sciences, and philosophy, the history of mankind had reached a turning point.

                              Eliot revises this thesis, arguing that the more things change the more they stay the same. He links a sordid affair between a typist and a young man to Sophocles via the figure of Tiresias; he replaces a line from Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” with “the sound of horns and motors”; he invokes Dante upon the modern-day London Bridge, bustling with commuter traffic; he notices the Ionian columns of a bar on Lower Thames Street teeming with fishermen. The ancient nestles against the medieval, rubs shoulders with the Renaissance, and crosses paths with the centuries to follow. History becomes a blur. Eliot’s poem is like a street in Rome or Athens; one layer of history upon another upon another.

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