T.S.Eliot (1888-1965) The Waste Land Achievement T. S. Eliot was the most dominant literary figure between the two world wars. Poet William Carlos Williams describes the effect of The Waste Land as that of an atom bomb. As an influential literary critic, Eliot describes his aesthetics in the famous essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent." He conceives a poem as an object, an organic thing in itself, demanding a fusion and concentration of intellect, feeling, and experience. He suggests that, through cultural memory, a poet unconsciously continues the tradition of his culture. His poetry presents difficulties of numerous allusions, use of foreign language, use of metaphysical conceit, and an absence of obvious narrative structure. The Waste Land, considered to be a remarkable and extraordinary achievement, deals with the failure of Western civilization as shown by World War I. Primary Works Prufrock and Other Observations, 1917; The Sacred Wood, 1920; The Waste Land, 1922; Four Quartets, 1936-43; Murder in the Cathedral, 1935; The Family Reunion, 1939; The Cocktail Party, 1950; The Confidential Clerk, 《机 要 秘 书 》1954; The Elder Statesman, 《政界长老》1958. 1. In "The Love Song ...," how does Prufrock deal with the world around him? What does he mean when he asks, "Do I dare / Disturb the universe?" and "How should I begin?" Discuss the recurrent phrase, "decisions and revisions", in relation to Prufrock's nature? 2. How is the city portrayed in "The Love Song ...,"? Does this sense of the city bear any relation to Prufrock's character and his dilemma? What is the picture of modern life given in the poem? 3. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is an interior, dramatic monologue. Is it a love song in any traditional sense? In any modern sense? Also comment on the use of "we" in the last three lines. Do they suggest an attempt by Eliot to demonstrate the universal quality of Prufrock's existence, to suggest that all live lives without meaning and confront death without dignity? 4.What words or phrases can immediately evoke feelings of desperation in the first canto of The Waste Land? 5. What images does the first canto show us? 6. What are two repeated allusions in The Waste Land ? 7. How do you know explain the theme of “death without rebirth” in The Waste Land? 8. Is there any hope to save the waste land and the people on it? 9. How does the poet indicate what he calls the “disassociation of sensibilities” in The Waste Land? 10.What is the modern city like to Eliot? 11. What are the lives of Eliot’s city dwellers? Information about The Waste Land: 1.Writing background: (1)Eliot was ill and feared psychological collapse in 1921. (2)Unstable situation: chaos in Western politics, economy and cultures, unemployment and poverty facing the soldiers retired from World War I; government incompetent worsen the chaos. (3)In May, 1921 visiting a churchyard reminded him of Thomas Grey’s “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard”; (4) Perusal of “Ulysses” by Joyce—completely new artistic method: construction or integration of fragments with allusions, quotations and imitation, producing a ironic and dramatic structure; conscious of the disintegration of the traditional myths, legends and rituals; attempt to re-build the spiritual home of the modern man. (5)In the summer of 1921, Stravinsky’s ballet Le Sacre du printemps ( “Sacrificial Rites for Spring” ), exciting, confirmed the ideal in poetry or art Eliot attempted to reach—to infuse or merge the chaotic , confused, complicated and disintegrated existence of the modern society into a organic unity and order. The artistic effect of vision produced by primitive music makes everything reveal its inherent significance. 2. Ezra Pound revised and deleted the draft. (Imagism: “To use the language of common speech … to employ always the exact word. … To create new rhythms…. To present an image… poetry should render particulars exactly and not deal in vague generalities…. To produce poetry that is hard and clear….concentration is of the very essence of poetry”. 3. Urban setting. In the poetry of the 19th century the commonest source of imagery had been nature. 20th, two liabilities: (1)The imagery of nature isolated poetry from the the contemporary urban milieu and therefore made it seem escapist. (2) because nature was felt to be refreshing, consoling, or beautiful, it imposed these qualities upon poetry, and thus limited the range of emotion poetry could express. 4. The sights and sounds of the modern city—honking automobiles, barges on the polluted river, a crowd of people crossing London Bridge on their way to work– were far from unprecedented but still very unusual in English or American poetry. 5.Eliot presents the urban milieu with imaginative power–- and to use it to express a vision of life, resembling documentary film as it cuts from one shot of the city to another— phantasmagoric (unreal,dreamlike and changeable) and inexpressibly doleful (mournful;dismal). 6. The lives of Eliot’s city dwellers are sordid, empty, incoherent, and meaningless. 7. The poem interfuses allusions to the historical past and to the literature, art, and myths of many languages and culture –6 language, 35 writers and 56 pieces of works with lots of footnotes by the author. 8. The allusions present parallels and contrasts to the contemporary material. The effect of the allusions is to place the present moment within a vast temporal perspective, extending to ancient India and the prehistoric world. The poem invokes or call upon the vegetation myths in the prehistoric world for help. The panoramic effect of the allusions is powerful. 9. Many of these allusions are brief quotations, often in the original language. 10. One strand of allusions refers to primitive vegetation myths, which explained the annual withering of nature in the fall and its revival in spring as the death and rebirth of a god or gods. Following sources he indicated in his footnotes, Eliot conflated these myths with the medieval legends of the quest for the Holy Grail. According to the composite myth invoked in the poem, the land is waste ( a desert) because its king is ill or dead. If he can be restored, the rain will return to the land and it will again be fertile. The myth of the dead and resurrected king also alludes to Christ. 11. Both the imagery of being in a desert and that of the modern city express the psychological and spiritual state that is the poem’s subject. But the symbolism of the desert additionally suggests at least the possibility of relief from this condition. Relief would be obtained through finding a spring of water or by the 12. Eliot’s style in the Waste Land was deliberately impersonal, concrete, fragmentary, and discontinuous. (1) Impersonality means that an author does not express his own experience and emotion. At least, he does not voice it as his own, but describes things, invents, characters, or creates dramatic scenes, and thus embodies emotion objectively in the particulars he renders. (2) These particulars are concrete in the sense that they render sensations and actions as opposed to general ideas. (3) But in the Waste Land such concrete particulars are only fragments. The poem does not give complete descriptions, quotations, conversations, or actions, but only bits and pieces of them. The words of Marie, for example, at the start of the poem are clearly part of a longer conversation, but we cannot know the context of this conversation or anything else about Marie. (4)Such fragments are juxtaposed in unpredictable ways, and since each presents a different voice, action, emotion, and style, their sequence is at first disorienting (confusing). Gradually one finds interrelations within this discontinuity, but the interrelation is by leimotifs (主旋律). This term,which is borrowed from the musical theories of Richard Wagner, refers to the use in separate passages of a poem of the same or similar images, allusions, or themes. Because we associate the different contexts in which a leitmotif appears, a web of leitmotifs throughout a work helps us to sense that it is an interconnected whole. In The Waste Land the images of water and of a desert are leitmotifs. Among the many more particular ones are the several allusions to Shakespeare’s the Tempest. In the course of the poem a leitmotif acquires a dense cluster of associations and becomes a symbol. Land I saw Epigraph: “ For with The my Waste own eyes the Sibyl hanging in a jar at Cumae, and "NAM Cuimis whenSibyl, the boys saidsibyllam to her,quidem “Sibyl, Whategō The a famous prophetess, had ipse meis“I vidi in ampulla do you want?”immoral Sheoculis relied, want to been granted life by the god pendere,et cum illi dicerent: die”” The quotation from thepueri Apollo. But she had is forgotten to ask for Σιβνλλατιθελειζ; repondebat Satyricon of Retronius century illa: immortal youth; hence(first she aged εινθελ ω." was A.D.). 诗歌卷首的引语源于公元1世纪古罗马 perpetually and her áπóθαν shriveled form 佩特罗尼乌斯的小说《萨蒂利孔》。 kept in a jar in the temple of Hercules at Cumae. The Epigraph sets the (“是的,我自己亲眼看见古 keynote for the whole poem and implies 米的西比尔吊在一个笼子里。孩 Sibyl’s living 子们在 state is问她:西比尔,你要什么 similar to that of the contemporary man. 的时候,她回答说,我要死。”) The For firstEzra of many Poundreferences to flowers 一、死者葬礼 throughout this fabbro. section, and the poem as il miglior a whole. Lilacs (and later on in the 四月是最残忍的一个月,荒地上 (献给埃兹拉·庞德 section, hyacinths) are associated with I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD Dedication: Ezra Pound helped 长着丁香,把回忆和欲望 最卓越的匠人) desire, romantic promise, and Eliot参合在一起,又让春雨 revise The Waste Land. The The reference in the titlehow, of this first rejuvenation. Note also in these APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding phrase in Italian means “the 催促那些迟钝的根芽。 section of the poem isa to the Anglican opening lines, this is mixture of Lilacs out冬天使我们温暖,大地 ofcraftsman” the dead land,and mixing better is a service the dead.with It isdeath highlyand that imageryfor associated quotation from Dante’s Purgatorio, Memory and desire, stirring 给助人遗忘的雪覆盖着,又叫 appropriate allusion both in itsdespair. associated with life, hope and XXXVI. Dante meets the poet 枯干的球根提供少许生命。 Dull with spring rain. encapsulation (cover) of the for theme This,roots in turn, sets the terms the of poem Guido Guinizelli, who tells Dante death which pervades this section Winter kept usand warm, 5 (and as a whole itscovering ultimately inconclusive that the Provencal(法:普罗旺斯) the poem as asnow, whole) andofalso the (缺乏决定性的) promise the for possibility Earthpoet in forgetful feeding Arnaut Daniel was a better intimation(implication暗示) of salvation of regeneration and the fulfilment of A little life with dried tubers. craftsman than himself. and the resurrection. 1 romantic promise. Eliot probably is conscious of the parallels with the opening of Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, (Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote / ... Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.") and the beginning of the season of Easter and pilgrimage and, therefore, spiritual optimism. There are also, of course, the traditional associations of April as the season of Spring and Rebirth. Here, however, April is not a time for a "new start", but rather a savage re-initiation of the cycle of life-from-death. In the Notes to the poem Eliot comments on his indebted to the tradition of vegetation and fertility myths, and this would bring additional significance to the importance of the underlying notions of the seasonal cycles of Birth and Death. I. The Burial of the Dead: the title Structure: five juxtaposed tableaus Theme: Life from death and decay Erroneous argument (perversion): spring—death; winter—life. This perversion shows the sense or state of living dead in the waste land, corresponding to the state or sense of Sibyl, becoming the central symbol of the canto. The reference in the title of this first section of the poem is to the Anglican service for the dead. It is highly appropriate allusion both in its encapsulation (cover) of the theme of death which pervades this section (and the poem as a whole) and also for the intimation of salvation and the resurrection. 1.Starnbergersee—talk with Marie( Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Lithuania) --homeless 2.the description of the waste land (modern world after World War I)) –barren, stony land,scorching sun, dead tree, no water, implying people living in a vanity, unseay, vular and filthy world—valueless , without anything to wish for or depend on; hopeless, meaningless, lifeless but only desperation. 3. The futile love with hyacinth girl.(Germany) desperate or hopeless love—emotional desperation. 4. Madame Sosostris tells fortune (France). 5. Unreal city (England). 26 Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, 夏天来得出人意外,在下阵雨的时候 Starnbergersee: a resort lake near Munich, And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, 来到了斯丹卜基西;我们在柱廊下躲避, 10 incoffee, southern Germany. And drank and talked for an hour. 等太阳出来又进了霍夫加登, Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt eutsch. Hofgarten: coourt garden (German). A 喝咖啡,闲谈了一个小时。 And when we were children, staying at the archduke's, palace formerly byfrom King Ludwig 我不是俄国人,我是立陶宛来的,是地道的德国人。 My cousin's, heI’m took outoccupied on aI sled, Bin…deutsch: notme Russian, come II ofGerman”(German) Bavaria on the Starnbergersee. 而且我们小时候住在大公那里 And I was true frightened. Hestands said, Marie, 15 Lithuania, ofwe central Marie, hold onArch-duke: tight. And title down went.European 我表兄家,他带着我出去滑雪橇, In the mountains, thereEliot you said feel free. nobility. the voice speaking 我很害怕。他说,玛丽, I玛丽,牢牢揪住。我们就往下冲。 read, much of theisnight, go south thebeen winter. here that aand woman who in had a countess in the Austro-Hungarian 在山上,那里你觉得自由。 empire, which collapsed at the end of 大半个晚上我看书,冬天我到南方。 the First World War. 2 什么树根在抓紧,什么树根在从 What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow 这堆乱石块里长出?人子啊, Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, 20 你说不出,也猜不到,因为你只知道 You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A一堆破烂的偶像,承受着太阳的鞭打 heap of broken images, where the sun beats, 枯死的树没有遮荫。蟋蟀的声音也不使人放心, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, 焦石间没有流水的声音。只有 And the dry stone no sound of water. Only 这块红石下有影子, There is shadow under this red rock, 25 (请走进这块红石下的影子) (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), 我要指点你一件事,它既不像 And I will show you something different from either 你早起的影子,在你后面迈步; Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or也不像傍晚的,站起身来迎着你; your shadow at evening rising to meet you; 我要给你看恐惧在一把尘土里。 I will show you fear in a handful of dust. 30 风吹得很轻快, Frisch weht der Wind 吹送我回家去, Der Heimat zu. 爱尔兰的小孩, Mein Irisch Kind, 你在哪里逗留? Wo weilest du? “一年前你先给我的是风信子; 'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; 35 他们叫我做风信子的女郎”, 'They——可是等我们回来,晚了,从风信子的园 called me the hyacinth girl.' —Yet里来, when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,你的臂膊抱满,你的头发湿漉,我说不出 Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not 话,眼睛看不见,我既不是 Speak, 活的,也未曾死,我什么都不知道, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living 望着光亮的中心看时,是一片寂静。 nor dead, and I knew nothing, 40 Looking into the heart of light, the silence. 荒凉而空虚是那大海。 Od' und leer das Meer. Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante, Had a bad cold, nevertheless Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, 45 With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she, Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor, (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!) 马丹梭梭屈里士,著名的女相士, 患了重感冒,可仍然是 欧罗巴知名的最有智慧的女人, 带着一副恶毒的纸牌,这里,她说 是你的一张,那淹死了的腓尼基水 手, (这些珍珠就是他的眼睛,看!) 这是贝洛多纳,岩石的女主人 Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, 一个善于应变的女人。 The lady of situations. 50 这人带着三根杖,这是“转轮”, Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel, 这是那独眼商人,这张牌上面 And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card, 一无所有,是他背在背上的一种东西。 Which is blank, is something he carries on his back, 是不准我看见的。我没有找到 Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find “那被绞死的人”。怕水里的死亡。 The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. 55 我看见成群的人,在绕着圈子走。 I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring. 谢谢你。你看见亲爱的爱奎尔太太的时候 Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone, 就说我自己把天宫图给她带去, Tell her I bring the horoscope myself: 这年头人得小心啊。 One must be so careful these days. Unreal City, 60 并无实体的城, 在冬日破晓的黄雾下, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, 一群人鱼贯地流过伦敦桥,人数是那么多, A我没想到死亡毁坏了这许多人。 crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I 叹息,短促而稀少,吐了出来, had not thought death had undone so many. 人人的眼睛都盯住在自己的脚前。 Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, 流上山,流下威廉王大街, 直到圣马利吴尔诺斯教堂,那里报时的钟声 And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. 65 敲着最后的第九下,阴沉的一声。 Flowed up the hill and down King William Street, To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying 'Stetson! 在那里我看见一个熟人,拦住他叫道:“斯代真!” 你从前在迈里的船上是和我在一起的! 'You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! 70 去年你种在你花园里的尸首, 'That corpse you planted last year in your garden, 它发芽了吗?今年会开花吗? 还是忽来严霜捣坏了它的花床? 'Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? 叫这狗熊星走远吧,它是人们的朋友, 'Or不然它会用它的爪子再把它挖掘出来! has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? 'Oh你!虚伪的读者!——我的同类——我的兄弟! keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men, 'Or with his nails he'll dig it up again! 75 'You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!'