T. S.

Eliot's 'The Waste Land'

Author(s): R. J. OWENS
Source: Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 1/2 (March/June 1963), pp. 3-10
Published by: University of the West Indies and Caribbean Quarterly
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 T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land/
R. J. OWENS

IT IS over40 yearssinceThe WasteLand appearedand whatonce

seemedto be a bafflingpoem is so no longer. Partlythroughthe
passage of timeand partlythrougha growingfamiliarity withEliot's
subsequent poetrymuchof the originalobscurity has disappeared.Yet,
althoughgenerallyrecognisedto be a landmarkin Englishpoetry,a
seminalinfluence on muchof the versewrittenduringthe last three
decades- Mr.DerekWalcott,to cite a local example,owes muchto
Mr.Eliot- The WasteLand continuesto providedifficulties* formany
educatedreaders. Thereis stillroom,it seems,forsomeexplanatory
comment, particularlyperhapsin the West Indies,whereEliot has
begunto figurein the syllabusesat teachers'trainingcolleges.
The firstimpressionof The Waste Land is of multiplicity, of
plurality.The readeris aware of,and respondsto, the variousparts
of the poem,but he feelsthat the parts are separate,unconnected,
and lackingin any cohesion. Repeatedreadingmakesit fairlyclear,
however, that this breakingup of the moreusual modesof discourse
'f intendedto reflectthe chaos of moderncivilization.Further,the
fragmentation is onlyapparent,forunderlying it thereis an artistic
unity. Eliot'spoemis concernedwithhis experienceof a civilization
whichis confusedand chaotic,but it is also a meansof orderingand
harmonizinghis experiences.The means by which this order is
achievedare complexly relatedand interdependent, but they are by
now fairlyclear. There is, first,a poeticanalogyto the composer's
use of motifand themeto relatethe separatepartsof a composition;
secondly, the use of psychologicalassociationderivingfromthe poet's
insightintothe complexstructure of our feelingsby whichapparently
opposed feelingsare connectedor apparentlysimilar feelingsare
opposed;and thirdly, the unifying effectof what he has called the
mythic method. The significance ofmythin Eliot'spoetryis overriding.
Centralto the poem is the feelingof dissatisfaction signifiedby
the barrenland whereall life dies forlack of water. The poet is
sickenedby the realitiesof his timeand yearnsto escape fromthem,
but at the same timehe thirstsfora renewalof life. Together, these
attitudesproducethe essentialfeelingswhichunderlieall the varia-
tionsin the poem. For Eliot examinesnot onlythe presentbut his
own reactionto it in the lightof a widercontext.He findshis own
stateofmindand feelingparallelto thatof othermenin the past,and
mirrored, too,in thoseprimitiveritesthroughwhichearliermenfound
relieffortheiranguishat nature'sdeath in the drytimeof the year
and theirlongingforthe returnof Spring. The idea of incorporating
the primitive riteintothe poemwas suggestedby a studyof
fertility
the historyof religionwhichsuggesteda new interpretation of the
Grail legend.1

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 In the mediaeval legend of the Grail the hero comes to a waste
land which is visited by a whole series of evils. It is barren through
long years of drought,or it has been devastated by war; the crops do
not grow,both man and beast have lost their powers of propagation,
and all this stands in a mysteriousrelation to the fact that the ruler
of the land, the fisherman- King, has lost his virility. Miss Weston
seeks to explain certain elements in the saga by reference to old
fertilitycults. The common elements in the archaic and primitive
magical and religious rites of the old agricultural cults - the idea,
namely,of a vegetationspiritwhich yearlydies and is later resurrected
- should be found still present in the ground motifof the saga. The
situation correspondsto one of the critical stages in the performance
of the rites: the death of the God of growthand fruitfulness.
The literary principle motivating the fusion of a complex of
elements frompast traditionin a poem dealing with the present has
been characterised by Eliot himself,in a critique of James Joyce's
method,as the mythicmethod: the using of a runningparallel between
the past and the present. The method is common to the two authors.
Eliot without doubt has been aided by Joyce's work: several chapters
of Ulysses were firstpublished in periodicals2 and its influenceon the
developmentof literaturebegan long before the complete work came
out in book formin the same year that The Waste Land was published.
Joyce used the parallel with the Odyssey as an ironic contrast to
Bloom's none too heroic goose-chases in Dublin, but by lettingthe un-
importantadvertisingsolicitorplay the role of a revenant of Odysseus
he liftshim at the same time into a large perspective. Such a two-fold
lighting is just what the myth can give us. The Homeric prototype
has also however its limitations, because it can scarcely lend any
increased reasonance to the tragedyin Ulysses,to the broodingand the
feeling of loneliness.
In The Waste Land the connectionbetween myth and the topical
is more immediate and more intensive. On both planes the psycho-
logical situations are of the same kind: a transitionperiod in which
the basic needs are not satisfied: in which man is shown to live in a
mixtureof "memoryand desire" - to cite a formulawhich opens the
poem and is one of its key expressions. This negative experiencewhich
is directlyexpressedin the poem is not of itselfsufficient:it gets mean-
ing only throughbeing apprehendedin relation to its positiveopposite.
The primitiverite contained both these "moments"- both the death
of the god of fertilityand his resurrection. When Eliot chose it for his
mythicunderstructurehe therebyalso gave an indirect expression to
his own anguish in the face of the uncertaintyof that later completing
moment: is a new life possible even for us? The hope of a new fruit-
fulness is given its accentuation through being intimated at the
beginningand towardthe end of the poem. The title of the firstpart,
"The burial of the dead," alludes to the god of fertility("the hanged

1 AlthoughEliot has poohpoohedthe significanceof his Notes to The Waste Land,

FromRitualto Romancestillseemsrelevantto an understanding
Miss J. L. Western's
of the poem.
2 Hie Egoist,1919,(of whichT.S.E. was an editor),and the LittleReview.

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one") who,in the naturecult,is sacrificedonlyto comeback to life
in a renewedform. And when the hangedgod forthe secondtime
returnsas thecrucified
Christtheidea of resurrection
is again implied.
"The dead" are at the same time inhabitantsof the modern
metropolis whichforEliot has becomethe epitomeof the desolation
ofthetime. The sterility in men'srelationsone to anotheris perceived
not least in the lifeof love whichis one of the dominating themesof
the poem. When,in one of the centralscenes,the seductionof a
typistby a book-keeper is sketched,the act of love is apathetic:and
we see the same typeof relationin the seriesof femininesilhouettes
whichEliot calls the daughtersof Thames. But even whenmen are
not excludedfromlove relationships whichhave real importance for
theirlives,the experience, as Eliotsees it, is in the end negative. In
his leading motifhe opposes two contrasting"moments"in the
relationship betweenman and woman. The one whichstatesa positive
possibility,is the episodewiththe hyacinthgirl in the firstpart,a
settingforthof the ecstasyof younglove. In the othera man and
womanmeetagain,but thistimeneitherof themfeelsmorethan his
own isolatinglifelessness("A Game of Chess"). This significance
of contrasting motivesforthe poet'scritiqueof lifeis underscored and
furtherexplainedwhen it is taken up for the last time: when the
thunderspeaks,and as the conditionforlife'sfruitfulness postulates
community and sympathy.Eliot'shumanbeingmustanswerthat he
lacks the abilityto realizethe termsof the charge. Communion he
has experiencedonly once, "in the terrifying daringof a moment's
self-abandonment."What is left has becomeonly one continuing
certainty:that everyone of us is immuredin the prisonof his own
personality, like Dante's Ugolinoin the towerof hunger.
The commondissatisfaction whichis symbolized in the dryland's
longingafterrain is expressedin the individual 's longingfor "life"
in contrastto impotence and emotionalimpoverishment. But another
streamof feeling,that death-wish, whichis the life-hunger's psycho-
logical complement, likewisegoes throughthe poem frombeginning
to end. The emotionalambivalence- the contradictionbetween
desireon the one hand and fearof strongvitalcontactson the other
hand- is just as essentialforthestructure of the poemas the mythic
method. The poem is enclosedbetweentwo citationswhichgive a
strongemphasisto thisdeathwish. One,Eliothas takenas his motto:
the age-oldsybil,shrunkento homunculus-proportions, has onlyone
wish - to die. And then this wish is echoedin that last wordof
Orientalnihilismwhichis also the poet's- shantihshantihshantih.
Eliothas the greatpoet'sabilityto findsymbolswhichbringto a
concentratedexpressionthe buried connectionsin his experience.
Thè WasteLand is fromone pointof viewthe end piece whichrounds
out late romanticism's greatGrail cycle. That Eliot abstainedfrom
usingthe wholeapparatusof the Grail symbolism is to be takenas a
criticism;it is also a measurewhichagain indicatesthat he is above
othersthepoetof implication.Noteventhe chiefsymbolis here; the
Grail is nevermentionedby name. When Eliot insteadlets water
itselfstand forthas the principleof life,he has not onlyfreedhis
poemfroma romanticcliché; he has made a positiveadvanceforit:
5

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the Grailhas beensufficientto symbolize the soul'ssalvationand the
powersof lifeat the same time,but the symbolof waterhas an even
richerimport:it carriesthe idea of the waterof life,but overand
abovethat it has an altogetherdifferentaspectwhichappearsin the
new leadingmotif,"death throughwater." Here it becomesevident
the wateris apprehendedas botha life givingand a lethalelement.
So, as the motifis developedin the poem,it testifiesto the same
essentialcleavagewhichvwehave alreadynoted:man is drawnto life
but fearsit and is drawnto death but fearsit.
Eliot achievesa highconcentration whenhe borrowsa line from
The Tempest,bringing it in as a variantof the drowning motif,death
throughwater. "Those are pearlsthat werehis eyes"bringswithit
the mood of Ariel'ssong with its suggestionof cradlingrhythm, of
waveswhichlull the drowning one to peace. At the same timethe
wordsbecomea formula whichcoversone morefoundational contradic-
tionin the poem- the contrastbetweenthe necessaryimperfection
whichcharacterizes livingbeingsand the dead object'spure beauty:
betweeneyes and pearls. In its simplestformthis contradiction is
givenus whenthe churchinterior's"gleamof Ionic whiteand gold"
is set overagainstthe city'srumbling and clatterin the Thames-side
proletarianquarters.The same treatmentis evidentwhen the foul
(one is temptedto say "desecrated")riverof Part III is associated
withthe Renaissancepoem "SweetThames,"and when the Thames
daughters'degradedloveslead the thoughts to Elizabethand Leicester,
and v/henthe vulgarstreet-song's unbeautifulMrs.Porteris destroyed
by a line fromVerlaine'sParsifalpoem. Eliot's backwardglances
always gives us somethingof this conflictof interestsbetweenthe
soiledactualityof our dailylivingand memory's transfigured vision.
Anotherconcentrated symbolhas a close connection withthe one
just stated. The ravishedPhilomelawhois changedintoa nightingale
is a variationof the eyes whichare changedinto pearls: still an
expression of thesame deathwish,thesame longingto get awayfrom
the wasteland's soiledworld. The poet has forages been likenedto
the nightingale, and Philomela'sinviolablestrainsare his creationof
beauty,his conversion of lifeto "a costlytreasure," in orderagain to
linkit to Ariel'ssongand the refugeto whichit invites. But memory
preserves also thepictureof the hyacinthgirlwhichincludesa longing
fcrcommunion witha livingperson,one who will not pass overinto
the realmof poeticbeauty:and thereagain we have the psychological
ground-conflict of the poemin anothermodulation.Philomelahas a
moregeneralimportthan this: she is the desecratedand ruinedlife
in a mythicalform. Apart fromthe transformation, Philomelais
suffering mankindin general,and suffering womankind in particular.
Philomelawalks again in the typist,in the Thames' daughters,in
womenwho are exclusivelymeans to sexual enjoyment:they are
violated,theirfeelingsdesecrated.
Some of the threadswhich,in this complexwork,lead between
its lifeand its deathmysticism, have beenpointedout. The greatness
of such a poemas The WasteLand does not howeverlie in the fact
thatit is complexbutin the factthatit givesat oncea forceful and a
subtle expressionof somethingthat is centrallyhuman. Eliot's

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endeavour has been to state wholly his life's experience without
emphasizing any one conflictor falsifyingany element. The feelings
which belonged to himselfand his time have been the materials which
he, as a poet, has had to utilize whether they won his admiration or
not.
Formlessis the last adjective one can apply to the poem. It is not
by accident that it remindsus, in its complexlyinterweldedstructure,
of a musical composition. At the same time that Eliot and Joyce
developedthe utmostconsequencesof the breakingaway by romanticism
fromclassical formsof rhetoric- to the benefitof a freerand more
psychological exposition - they strove, too, for a formal classical
structure:and so they sought an alliance with the aesthetic of music.
In spite of theiropposed direction- Joycetoward expansion, and Eliot
toward the greatest concentration- they exhibit in common this will
to form. The inner monologuein Ulysses seems to be a stream of free
associations and is intendedso to seem; reallyit is a weaving of return-
ing leit-motifs. If we followthe course of the presentationa shortway,
and trace out how differentitems stand in juxtaposition, we may
possiblymake the unity of the whole much more perceptible.
The firsttheme to be sounded is composed of the two aspects of
the life-motif: Spring awakens the memoryof life and desire after
life: but it is cruel; fear before life awakens as well. So the thought
glides over to the lethargyof winter; in this contra-themeis expressed
the longing for passivityand oblivionwhich is an aspect of the death
motif. Lethargyis a state not far removed fromdeath, there is in it
only "a spark of life" but that is enough to ward offannihilationwhich
is death's other, feared aspect. The tone is bitter,firstbecause a
minimumof life is unsatisfactory,and secondlyin the insightwhich it
seems to gain into what makes resignationalluring: the deep satisfac-
tion which must be given by the dream of a conditionthat is free from
conflict.
A remarkablething about Eliot's managementof his themesis that
he often works with alternations of mood. The Spring theme is suc-
ceeded without transitionby a "Summer" theme with a motif out of
tourist life which has no reference,to speak of, to anything in this
section: all one is remindedof fromother sections are some meaning-
less bits of reparteetraversingthe passages of desolation. The contrast
in moods has its rhythmiccounterpart. The Spring theme's tense,
arrested, but still forward-pressingrhythm suggesting both impulse
and its checking,forced to desire and forced to renounce,is loosened
suddenly,and moves in a swifterbut looser time which characterisesthe
tourists' small-talk. Just as suddenly is stated the next theme, the
first picture of the desert; the solemn tone links it to the Spring
theme's reality in contradistinctionto the trivialityof summer. It is
the sufferingpoet's vain protestagainst the realitywhich tortureshim;
a word from Hezekiah presses home the impotence of the man who
lacks the prophet's calling; he seeks a refugebut finds none. But he
findsa shadow under the red cliff- and over this dark association of
ideas the thoughtis led furthertoward the refugewhich is found,in
spite of all, and which has already been adumbrated in the lethargy
of the Winter theme. Here the thought ends in the fear of death;

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that aspect of death which was only intimated in the Winter theme
is now explicitlystated.
The 'hyacinthgirl' in the next part ties in naturally to the Spring
theme. With the aid of a quotation fromWagner there are intimated
here both the unconscious yearning which is present before the
moment of firstlove and the new feeling of loneliness which is left
after it. In the desolation of the sea at the end of the tragedy of
Tristan, there is an echo of the death theme. When Madame
Sosostris,the contemporarydegenerate sybil,followsthe hyacinth girl
the contrast is at once cutting and subtle. This fortuneteller repre-
sents several of the soiled characters of the Summer theme in com-
parison with the youthfulnessof the Spring theme and of the hyacinth
girl. At the same time, however,she is a mouthpiece for something
essential, for a deeper insight. It is through her mouth that we are
introducedto the motifof death throughwater as a new variation of
the death theme.
The last section in the firstpart gives a wider variation of the
death theme in a new leit-motif,the unrealityof the great metropolis,
introduced in two quotations from Dante's Inferno and ended by a
reference to a poem of Baudelaire's dealing with the modern city
dweller'sfalseness - his lukewarm,inhibiteddesire finds no outlet in
action but only in the formof degrading daydreams. Eliot represents
this type by Stetson,who has buried,but only in fantasy,a body in his
garden - in a more heroic time one really dared to do things: "thou
who wast with me when we strove at Mylae!" This voice is of the
1920's rather than the 1950's but not even now should Baudelaire's
Pharisaical readers lack brothers among civilized mankind, in this
epoch of inescapable war.
In their seeking for a formwhich is both that of musical and of
psychological organization, Eliot and Joyce have been able to avail
themselvesof both the practical and the philosophicaltheoryof French
symbolism. Paul Valéry had been engrossed in the problem of the
taking over by poetryof richer possibilitiesof expressionthrough the
utilization of musical aesthetic. But before that, Mallarmé's The
Afternoonof a Faun tried to carrythrougha poetic counterpartto the
fugue. Such an experimenthas been significantnot only for Eliot:
one chapter in Ulyssesis built upon a "fugue per canon." The distance
fromliterarysymbolismto Bergson's philosophyis, in this connection,
a shortone. Bergson'smain idea - duration- is at once that of time
and that of the psychic. To visualize his conceptionof the psychiche
constantlyuses musical analogies. He compares the single feeling to
a single tone in a melodywhen he is tryingto prove that states of the
soul are not sharply separated but invade one another,interpenetrate
one another, just as a succession of tones is an indivisible organic
whole whose elementswould not be the same if they were apprehended
separately.
A similar idea we find again in Eliot. He writes,of Baudelaire's
use of contrasts of feeling,that with this writerevery new mood is
prepared for and implicated in the preceding mood, a sign that the
poet's experience has unity and interconnectedness.Of another poet

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he saysthat"a changein themoodis rathera regrouping of the same
elementsin a new moodthat hithertowas subordinatethan a sub-
stitutionforone moodof an altogetherdifferent one." The analysis
ofthemedevelopment in thefirstpartof The WasteLand as attempted
above,oughtto have shownthat in the abovequotationEliothas also
writtenof his ownwork.
Anotherfeaturethat may be spokenof in connectionwith the
musical technique,is Eliot's way of using literaryquotationsand
allusions. The resultingeffectbecomessometimesa poetic corres-
pondenceto musical counterpoint.The poems Eliot plays upon or
are melodiesto accompanyhis own melody. The song of
travesties,
the Thames' daughtersis accompaniedcontrapuntally by that of
Wagner'sRhine daughters;and when in the Summertheme he
celebratesthe pollutedThames, he permitsSpenser'spastorals to
becomea disharmonie accompaniment to his own ironicwriting.For
the rest,the chiefmyth- fertility ritesand the Grail motif- is a
contrapuntalthemewhichplaysoverthewholeofthemodernpresenta-
tion.
The mythicmethodhas finally,when lookedat as a hypothesis
in the historyof ideas,an all-embracingconception of traditionwhich
can be joined with a methodof observation not unusualin modern
ethnology,psychology, and culture-philosophy, and which is most
cogently expressedin the words,"the livingpast": the idea that every
momentin the historicalprogression preservesall the past. This idea
is metwithin otherformsthanBergson's, forinstancein the thought
of certainpsychoanalysts whosay theydiscoverin the unconscious of
the individuala collectionof the essential"moments"in the psycho-
logicalhistoryof the race. According to the idea whichEliot himself
has set fortha poetbecomestraditional, in the bestsenseof the word,
throughthe ability to separate the continuallyliving, essential
ingredients in traditionand to experiencethemas an organicunity.
The inter-warperiod'swasteland in his poemis also filledwiththe
livingpast whichthrustsitselfintothe present.
In one respectthereis a greatdifference betweenEliot and such
philosophers of evolutionas Bergsonand Croce. Eliotneversubscribes
to the idea that evolutionas such has worth,whetheronce and for
all thisidea is boundin withthebeliefin a steadilyforwardmovement
or whetherit simplyappearsas a thesisthatevolution impliesincreas-
ing valuesjust becauseeverymomentin the presentcontainswithin
itselfall the foregoingmomentsand consequently somethingmore
that hithertohad neverexisted. Eliot does not see mankindas a
reservoirof endless possibilities,he emphasizesrather mankind's
limitedness.Whathas value forEliot is not the evolutionary process
itselfbut certaindefinitehumanstatesof beingwhichare lackingin
our timebut couldbe realizedin the futureeven as theyhave been
a realityin thepast. In his poetrytheidea of evolutionseemsoftener
than not to be conceivedas runninga cyclicalcoursein whichpro-
ductiveand sterileperiodsof respectively similarcharacterssucceed
one another:the twilight motifat the end of the poemcan verywell
pointto the possibility of an approachingregeneration.

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 Perhaps one can find in this poem an agreementwith a teaching
which in its long historyhas most often been stated in terms of con-
tradictionto "creative evolution,"the teaching of "the eternal return."
Even if one disregardsNietzsche'sidea of a cosmic eternal return,which
afterall does not have immediateimportanceforEliot,one can advance
literaryparallels, first,of course, Ulysses.Joycehas gone so far in his
speculation on the question that in plain terms he has taken up such
a variant of the thoughtas transmigrationand made it a leit-motifin
his book: Mr. Bloom is Odysseus. Both with Eliot and Joyceresurrec-
tion more or less exactly understood,becomes an expression for the
feelingthat nothing is new under the sun, and, taken more generally,
becomes a point of view fromwhich to observethe problemof what is
lasting and what is accidental in man's time-and-space-dictatedper-
sonality. The intentionof the myth and of the many citations is, in
the end, to reveal and concretelyembodya human communitythrough
the ages. All the people who appear in The Waste Land are, says the
author, a single human being.

10

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