he Waste Land | Plot Summary

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Part 1: The Burial of the Dead

The speaker opens the poem by noting that "April is the cruelest month" and pointing out how,
paradoxically, life grows out of death. The narration then shifts to a scene at Starnbergersee, a lake near
Munich, Germany, and to a speaker identified as Marie. She tells of being surprised by the arrival of
summer, of enjoying coffee and conversation, and then of a childhood memory of sledding in the
mountains.

Abruptly, the perspective shifts back to a description of the clutching and decrepit plant life in this dry
environment. Here, the sun is unmerciful and the trees provide no shelter. There is no water.

The perspective changes once again—this time to a dialogue in which someone describes being given
hyacinths. Another voice notes that upon returning from the "Hyacinth garden," she was blind and could
not speak.

Next, the speaker introduces Madame Sosostris, a clairvoyant who has a pack of tarot cards and lays them
out, one after the other. She turns over a card for the speaker; it is "the drowned Phoenician Sailor" with
pearls for his eyes. The speaker says that she sees people walking in a circle.
Finally, the speaker describes a winter day in London and a long procession of people walking over
London Bridge. The speaker then meets a man the speaker knows and asks him a series of strange
questions about a "corpse ... planted last year" in the man's garden. "Will it bloom this year?" the speaker
asks.

Part 2: A Game of Chess

A woman sits on a chair that looks like a "burnished throne." It is elaborately designed. In this room there
are "jewels" and perfumes, strange patterns on the ceiling, strange odors, ornate artwork, sculptures, and
furniture. Abruptly, the woman's hair spreads out in flames, which form into words.

Someone begins to talk about bad "nerves," asking someone else to stay and "Speak to me. Why do you
never speak. Speak ... I never know what you are thinking. Think." And the person responds, "I think we
are in rats' alley / Where the dead men lost their bones."

And the conversation continues. The first speaker wants to go for a walk and then play a game of chess.
They are preparing for a "knock upon the door."

Then another conversation begins between the speaker and someone named Lil, whose husband Albert had
been in the war. The discussion includes warnings about Lil's declining looks and finances. Lil has had
many children by Albert, but she tells the speaker that she's taken pills in order to have an abortion. Finally,
Albert arrives home, and the speaker gives farewells.

Part 3: The Fire Sermon

The speaker describes a "broken" landscape. Everyone has left. Even the Thames River shows no signs of
activity. The speaker then describes how they "sat down and wept," with the sound of rattling bones nearby.
A "rat crept softly through the vegetation / Dragging its slimy belly on the bank" while the speaker was
fishing. In an abrupt shift, the speaker breaks into song.

The speaker next tells of Mr. Eugenides, a fig merchant from Smyrna who asks the speaker to lunch.
And then the speaker abruptly identifies himself as Tiresias, who can "see" the lives of people, including a
sailor and a typist drying her undergarments. Tiresias, too, will await an "expected guest"—who turns out
to be a pimply agent's clerk. The clerk sexually assaults the typist. Tiresias explains that he has
"foresuffered" this experience. The agent's clerk then departs. The woman is relieved that the ordeal is over,
and she "puts a record on the gramophone."
The speaker describes mandolin music he hears "beside a public bar on Lower Thames Street." Fishermen
lounge near a beautiful church along the river.

After that, readers hear a series of songs about the river and nautical life, drifting boats, church bells, and,
finally, a "dusty" urban landscape. The part ends with what sounds like a prayer or a sermon.

Part 4: Death by Water

In this short part the speaker tells of Phlebas the Phoenician, who, "a fortnight dead, / Forgot the cry of
gulls, and the deep sea swell / And the profit and loss." His drowned body is decomposing. The speaker
asks, "you who turn the wheel" to "consider Plebas, who was once handsome and tall as you."

Part 5: What the Thunder Said

The speaker refers to what has come before, including fire, icy "silence," and "stony" places, and notes that
this is a place with only rocks and no water. And "there is not even silence" only "dry sterile thunder
without rain."

Referring to someone wrapped in a cloak, the speaker wonders about a "third" person "that walks beside
you?" "When I count, there are only you and I together / But when I look ahead ... / There is always another
one walking beside you," the speaker says.

The speaker describes the "Falling towers" of "Jerusalem Athens Alexandria / Vienna London." And he
concludes, "Unreal."

Shifting again, the speaker describes a woman with long hair who "fiddled whisper music on those strings,"
and, bats, and towers with tolling bells. The speaker then describes "tumbled graves" and an "empty
chapel."

The scene shifts to the Ganges River and the sound of thunder. In a chanting tone the speaker repeats a
series of almost fable-like verses about the thunder, which leads to a sequence spoken by someone fishing.
It includes songs, poetry in English, Italian, and French, and a final chant-like closing.