1.WRITE A PLOT OVERVIEW AND THEMES IN THE WASTELAND BY T.S ELIOT.
ANS- Thomas Stearns Eliot OM was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary
critic and editor. Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central
figure in English-language Modernist poetry.  was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and
Born: 26 September 1888, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Died: 4 January 1965, London, United Kingdom.
The Waste Land is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important
poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Originally
published: December 1922.
SUMMARY
The poem begins with a section entitled "The Burial of the Dead." In it, the narrator --
perhaps a representation of Eliot himself -- describes the seasons. Spring brings
"memory and desire," and so the narrator's memory drifts back to times in Munich, to
childhood sled rides, and to a possible romance with a "hyacinth girl." The memories
only go so far, however. The narrator is now surrounded by a desolate land full of
"stony rubbish."
He remembers a fortune-teller named Madame Sosostris who said he was "the drowned
Phoenician Sailor" and that he should "fear death by water." Next he finds himself on
London Bridge, surrounded by a crowd of people. He spots a friend of his from
wartime, and calls out to him.
The next section, "A Game of Chess," transports the reader abruptly from the streets of
London to a gilded drawing room, in which sits a rich, jewel-bedecked lady who
complains about her nerves and wonders what to do. The poem drifts again, this time
to a pub at closing time in which two Cockney women gossip. Within a few stanzas, we
have moved from the upper crust of society to London's low-life.
The Fire Sermon" opens with an image of a river. The narrator sits on the banks and
muses on the deplorable state of the world. As Tiresias, he sees a young "carbuncular"
man hop into bed with a lonely female typist, only to aggressively make love to her and
then leave without hesitation. The poem returns to the river, where maidens sing a song
of lament, one of them crying over her loss of innocence to a similarly lustful man.
"Death by Water," the fourth section of the poem, describes a dead Phoenician lying in
the water -- perhaps the same drowned sailor of whom Madame Sosostris spoke. "What
the Thunder Said" shifts locales from the sea to rocks and mountains. The narrator
cries for rain, and it finally comes. The thunder that accompanies it ushers in the
three-pronged dictum sprung from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: "Datta, dayadhvam,
damyata": to give, to sympathize, to control. With these commandments, benediction is
possible, despite the collapse of civilization that is under way -- "London bridge is
falling down falling down falling down."
CHARACTER LIST:-
The Narrator
The most difficult to describe of the poem's characters, he assumes many different
shapes and guises. At times the Narrator seems to be Eliot himself; at other times he
stands in for all humanity. In "The Fire Sermon" he is at one point the Fisher King of the
Grail legend, at another the blind prophet Tiresias. When he seems to reflect Eliot, the
extent to which his ruminations are autobiographical is ambiguous.
Madame Sosostris
A famous clairvoyant referred to in Aldous Huxley's novel Crome Yellow and borrowed
by Eliot for the Tarot card episode. She suffers from a bad cold, but is nonetheless
"known to be the wisest woman in Europe, / With a wicked pack of cards."
Stetson
A friend of the Narrator's, who fought in the war with him. Which war? It is unclear.
Perhaps the Punic War or World War I, or both, or neither.
The Rich Lady
Never referred to by name, she sits in the resplendent drawing room of "A Game of
Chess." She seems to be surrounded by luxury, but unable to appreciate or enjoy it.
She might allude to Eliot's wife Vivienne.
Philomela
A character from Ovid's Metamorphoses. She was raped by Tereus, then, after taking
her vengeance with her sister, morphed into a nightingale.
A Typist
Lonely, a creature of the modern world. She is visited by a "young man carbuncular,"
who sleeps with her. She is left alone again, accompanied by just her mirror and a
gramophone.
Mr. Eugenides
A merchant from Smyrna (now Izmir, in Turkey). Probably the one-eyed merchant to
whom Madame Sosostris refers.
Phlebas
A Phoenician merchant who is described lying dead in the water in "Death by Water."
Perhaps the same drowned Phoenician sailor to whom Madame Sosostris refers.
THEMES:-
Death
Two of the poem’s sections -- “The Burial of the Dead” and “Death by Water” --refer
specifically to this theme. What complicates matters is that death can mean life; in
other words, by dying, a being can pave the way for new lives.  wonders and make it appear at an arm's reach. This is why it
Rebirth
The Christ images in the poem, along with the many other religious metaphors, posit
rebirth and resurrection as central themes. The Waste Land lies fallow and the Fisher
King is impotent; what is needed is a new beginning.
The Seasons
"The Waste Land" opens with an invocation of April, “the cruellest month.”
History
History, Eliot suggests, is a repeating cycle. When he calls to Stetson, the Punic War
stands in for World War I; this substitution is crucial because it is shocking. At the time
Eliot wrote "The Waste Land," the First World War was definitively a first - the "Great
War" for those who had witnessed it.
Love
The references to Tristan und Isolde in “The Burial of the Dead,” to Cleopatra in “A
Game of Chess,” and to the story of Tereus and Philomela suggest that love, in "The
Waste Land," is often destructive.
2. WRITE AN ESSAY ADAM'S CURSE.
ANS- William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer
and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He
became a pillar of the Irish literary establishment who helped
to found the Abbey Theatre. Born: 13 June 1865, Sandymount,
Ireland
Died: 28 January 1939, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
Adam's Curse" is a poem written by William Butler Yeats. In
the poem, Yeats describes the difficulty of creating something
beautiful. The title alludes to the Book of Genesis, evoking the
fall of man and the separation of work and pleasure. Adam's
Curse" appeared in William Butler Yeats's collection In the
Seven Woods: Being Poems Chiefly of the Irish Heroic Age,
published in 1903.
ESSAY
William Butler Yeats is an Irish dramatist, author, and poet
whose works are primarily classified as lyric and nearly
belonging to the age of the English romantics. He was a Nobel
Prize recipient and among the founders of the Irish Literary
Revival. His works are the utmost expressions of his feelings
and opinions and for such they are renowned. They have
actually made Yeats the most influential English-writing poet
of the twentieth century ("William Butler Yeats"). In his work,
"Adam's Curse", which was released in 1902, Yeats exposed
to his audience the depths of his mind. He spoke of his beliefs
in appeal, how it may truly be seen, and accomplished. More
importantly it discussed how appeal is truly comprehended
and appreciated. Normal with Yeats other works, the poem
has a constant rhyme and meter. For every stanza, there is a
definitive sound that connects all the lines together and
makes the lyric piece progress smoothly to its significance.
The rhymes are external mainly by the end of each line and
the perspective used is first individual. This means that the
speaker of the poem is present as the story of the piece
unfolds. The speaker is the one who experienced a troubling
incident. Likewise the speaker is the one suggesting on the
given occurrence, the one communicating the author's
message. The initial clue as provided by the speaker of the
poem remains in the first verse, where the speaker was
relatively dissatisfied by individuals s understanding of true
appeal. He stated that he, together with the object of his
affection is talking about poetry, and how appeal is created in
problem. The dissatisfaction set in when he specified that
there are people who think that they know appeal and yet they
find artists and poets as lazy people. They do not see the
labor that is poured into by creators in their works, yet they
claim to know how to value real beauty (Yeats). In the second
stanza, the object of the speaker's affection agreed with the
speaker in saying that beauty needs to be labored upon.
Merely admiration is not the basis for knowing true beauty,
nor is merely reciting a beautiful poem. This is supported by
the succeeding lines where the speaker further pointed that
after Adam's fall, there had not been anything beautiful that
was not a result of hard labor. In the example which was given
in the poem, the beautiful feeling of love. The speaker
indicated that love is beautiful and it is not easily earned. A
man needs to work to achieve the love of a woman. Merely
knowing the feeling of love and not taking action upon it is not
the true way of appreciating love. Lovers who work for their
feelings are the good laborers, while those who keep their
emotions are idlers. In the case of artists and poets, which
seems to be the trade of the speaker, he who creates beauty
by combining words to create an image that can convey a
message are the true laborers. The businessmen and
merchants who claim that they are lazy have no right to claim
that they know the beauty in poetry or in paintings and many
other forms of art. They have no right to attest that a work is
of beauty because they do not accept the labor that is behind
it. They fail to accept that the secret of beauty is that it never
looks like it has been labored upon. Its power is to trap life's
is relaxing and comforting. This is the message that the poem
tries to convey. The writer is telling that artists and poets are
not idlers. In fact, they have what may be considered as the
biggest burden of all. They are to contemplate
imagine, and create a work that can console a sorrowing
heart, or bring excitement to a bored soul. Their task is
difficult as they are to hide hardships in their works. It is even
worse than computing for the day's sale. There is nothing
routine in it, for routine can destroy its essence. Adam's curse
that made laboring necessary is a curse that is heaviest on an
artist's shoulder and this is what Yeats conveyed in his poetry.