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T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot. “The Waste Land”. The Imagist Movement. A group of poets in London met in London beginning in 1910 Called themselves “Imagists” Sought to transform the tradition of poetry into something startlingly new Lead by American expatriate Ezra Pound. The “ Wordsworthian Tradition”.

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T.S. Eliot

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  1. T.S. Eliot “The Waste Land”

  2. The Imagist Movement • A group of poets in London met in London beginning in 1910 • Called themselves “Imagists” • Sought to transform the tradition of poetry into something startlingly new • Lead by American expatriate Ezra Pound

  3. The “Wordsworthian Tradition” • Lyric emphasis on the meditative reflections of a solitary speaker often drawing on the imagery of nature • The speaker is often the poet himself, speaking about his own personal experiences • Imagists reject this tradition

  4. Why Reform Poetry? • Imagists disliked the poetry society deemed “acceptable” • They felt is was predictably and emotionally dishonest • Poetry had become overly sentimental and merely decorative • This concept isn’t rare. We see it in music all the time

  5. A New Style • Broke with the old conventions of poetry, like standard rhythm and meter (especially iambic pentameter) • Language shouldn’t fit a predetermined pattern • The pattern should fit the language • If there isn’t a pattern already, make your own

  6. Free Verse • No set meter or rhyme scheme • No formal properties at all (like 14-line sonnets) • A poet is free to shift his/her rhythm and rhyme in any way he/she sees fit throughout the poem

  7. Free Verse, cont. • This doesn’t mean that anything goes • Pound says that no verse is free for the poet who really wants to do a good job • All use of form, rhythm, and rhyme should be purposeful and intentional • Poetry is a discipline

  8. Eliot’s Speakers • He’ll create a persona (much like Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues) • Should not be confused with Eliot himself • Links what seem to be disconnected images presented throughout the poem • Reveals a fragmented personality that parallels a fractured world

  9. Speakers of “The Waste Land” • Multiple speakers: male, female, young, old • Multiple styles and/or languages • We often don’t know who’s speaking, we just know it is different from the last one • The voices essentially merge into a “modern consciousness”

  10. “Modern Consciousness” • The universal experience of living in a modern world • The fact that is speaks in different voices emphasizes the fragmentation of the modern world • There is no single authoritative form of expression (like there was in the past)

  11. “The Waste Land” • Most critics interpret the poem as a criticism of the world in which Eliot lived • He claimed it is “just a piece of rhythmical grumbling” • It is a comment on the emptiness many saw in the world following World War I • Modern culture is essentially a “waste land”

  12. “The Waste Land” • Eliot felt that society had lost a sense of community and spirituality • Based on the mythological cycle of infertility, sacrifice, and rebirth (specifically the Fisher King myth) • Modern society is in the infertile stage • All human interactions are meaningless

  13. “The Burial of the Dead” • The voice of a countess • She’s looking back on her youth (pre-WWI) as a better, more romantic time • A description of the present dryness follows • The poem then recounts a love scene of the past (perhaps the countess’s?)

  14. “The Burial of the Dead” • The scene then shifts to a fortune-teller reading tarot cards which warn of death • Finally, the poem presents an image of crowds moving along the busy streets of London • The people are moving blankly, mindlessly, as if dead

  15. “A Game of Chess” • The speaker is a neurotic rich woman • She is irritated by the reserve of her male companion • Next is a conversation in a barroom about a woman who cheated on her husband while he was away at war • She had an abortion so he wouldn’t find out what she’d been up to

  16. “The Fire Sermon” • Switches back and forth between lines from an old marriage song and images of a dirty, polluted Thames • Starting at line 215, Tiresias narrates the story of a secretary seduced by a real estate agent • The relationship is meaningless and without passion • This is followed by images of Queen Elizabeth I and her lover, Leicester

  17. “Death by Water” • The prophecy of the fortune-teller in part I is fulfilled • This section marks death as the end that must precede transformation and rebirth

  18. “What the Thunder Said” • Begins with images of a tedious journey over rocky, barren ground • The thunder is unaccompanied by rain, therefore infertile or sterile • The traveler feels as if he has been visited by some compassionate spirit • Chaotic images of decay follow • In line 393 a cock crows, announcing the coming of rain

  19. “What the Thunder Said” • The ending explores three Hindu terms Datta: to give alms Dayadhvam: to have compassion Damyata: to practice self-control • Then the poem seems to collapse into meaningless phrases but ends in a repetition of these three phrases, followed by “peace” • Are these three activities the answer to finding peace in a world of meaninglessness?

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