In T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land you perceive many images from the
writing style he uses. In lines 386 – 399 he writes:
In this decayed hole among the mountains
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
There is the empty chapel, only the wind’s home.
It has no windows, and the door swings,
Dry bones can harm no one.
Only a cock stood on the rooftree
Co co rico co co rico
In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust
Bringing rain
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.
In these lines he seems to tell of a graveyard near a chapel in an upcoming
storm. Different images can be seen from the decayed hole in the moonlight,
the empty chapel without windows, and the rooster’s crows as the lightning
and black clouds arrive.
In line 386, “In this decayed hole among the mountains,” probably
refers to an empty grave that brings images of death and the end of life,
or possibly the beginning of a new life to mind. The grave is lit by
moonlight, possibly referring to the white light many people see when they
have near-death experiences. You get a creepy feeling when the wind blows
and makes the “grass sing” in line 387. In these first three lines it
talks of tumbled graves, possibly disturbed by nature, which could tell of
troubled lives, or a troubled second life.
The empty chapel without windows is nearby, as you perceive from
lines 389 and 390:
There is the empty chapel, only the wind’s home.
It has no windows, and the door swings
It’s image makes you shiver. It could possibly represent itself, in the
sense that many people die there, as in baptism, as well as dying, where
this place may be the starting point for a second, never-ending life. The
chapel has no windows, maybe so that the people inside would not loose
The Power of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land
The Power of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land
T. S. Eliot, perhaps one of the most controversial poets of modern
times, wrote what many critics consider the most controversial poem of all,
The Waste Land. The Waste Land was written using a fragmented style. This
is a style that is evident in all of Eliot’s writings. There are several
reasons for his using this approach, from a feeling of being isolated, to a
problem articulating thoughts (Bergonzi 18, Cuddy 13, Mack 1745, Martin
102).
What influenced Eliot the most in writing poetry was a book he read
written by the English critic, Arthur Symon, titled The Symbolist Movement
in Literature. This book is about French symbolist writers of the 19th
century. From this book, the author who had the greatest influence on
Eliot is by far Jules Laforgue. Laforgue’s influence is evident in many
of Eliot’s poems, sometimes to the point of plagiarism. Like Laforgue,
Eliot uses dialogue between men and women that doesn’t seem to communicate
a thing. Other author’s had an influence on Eliot as well, like Henry
James and Joseph Conrad. All of these poet’s had the common themes of
estrangement from people and the world, isolationism, and the feeling that
they were failing to articulate their thoughts (Bergonzi 7, 50, Cuddy 30,
Mack 1743, Martin 41, Unger 8).
Henry James influence on Eliot’s poetry is evident in the Jamesian
qualities he uses. For example, the opening verse of The Waste Land ends
with the Jamesian note, “I read, much of the night, and go south in the
winter” (Mack, 1751). Although Lafourge, Conrad, and James were used as
sources…
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real influence on mankind’s morals, but he certainly impacted modern
literature (Unger 36).
Works Cited
Bergenzi, Bernard. T. S. Eliot, Collier Books, New York New York, 1972
Cuddy, Lois A., and David H. Hirsch, eds. Critical Essays on T. S. Eliot,
The Waste Land. G. K. Hall