This poem confused the Hell out of me when I first read it. The dark depressing imagery had no real rhyme or reason to it, and I found myself floating in a real sea of sad confusion. However, I went back and re-read it, as well as the introduction, Eliot’s notes, and many of the notes on context, and I truly was fascinated by it! The poem paints the dreary picture of life as we know it, and reading it within the context intended truly enlightened me and made me feel so scholarly and intelligent that I actually comprehended what was happening, to an extent. I was still confused at many points, but far less than I was during the first reading.
Perhaps the segment that I loved the most was in “The Fire Sermon.” The connection that Eliot makes to Buddha through this passage really gives one a lot to think about. “The Fire Sermon” discusses humanity’s need to give up earthly pleasures, to turn towards the spiritual. This is seen through this section, where at the beginning, we meet this image of the Earth, rotting, decrepit, and revolting, just as earthly pleasures may rot the soul. However, it ends with religious chants and phrases, symbolizing this turning from Earth to the divine. I suppose that maybe Eliot is trying to urge us to fall from this waste land of ours to turn towards the more idylic spiritual life.
In this passage, Eliot mentions Tiresias as well. At first, I was assuming that he simply meant something regarding Tiresias’ sight, according with the idea of spiritual versus Earthly pleasures. However, I read Eliot’s notes, and he states that Tiresias was actually one of, if not the most, central figures in the entire poem. I read the context, and I learned of Tiresias being forced to live seven years as a woman as a form of punishment. Apparently, Tiresias is supposed to symbol a universal joining of males and females, young and old, and intended to serve as sort of a universal representation of humanity. This fits well into the rest of the imagery of the poem, and I really appreciated that Tiresias serves more as a representation of the human, regardless of gender, forced to live in this waste land.
I know this is kind of a rant about reading context, but holy, I never thought that I would learn so much from a few extra pages of reading.
