The good thing about being ahead in readings is that when confusion arises as to which text is supposed to read next week and which text after, you don’t care because you’ve already read both. Ha.
Anyway, I was rather surprised when I opened The Waste Land to find 20 pages of poem and 276 pages of other stuff that was not the poem. Was I a bit pissed at buying a book that I haven’t read nor intend to read a quarter of? Yes. Do I understand why they told us to buy this version? Yes. This poem is heavily layered with references to the point that you’d need a small library of books just to know where they all came from, and to those who like to go on wild goose chases (Eliot’s words, not mine) for deep inter-literary symbolism, this much is necessary. In my opinion, however, this is not necessary. What Eliot calls “incidental symbolism” is exactly that—incidental symbolism. You do not need to get the references in order to understand and interpret the poem. In fact, one might say that being too caught-up in the references will result in said references burying the point (and probably your sanity in the process). I have not read most of the texts that Eliot cites from; however, I have my own interpretation of the world Eliot has built in this poem. It is not disconnected. It is not nonsensical. It is a strongly coherent and masterfully woven allegory of human nature—whatever that nature may be. Honestly, I do not yet have a full grasp on the poem (having only read it about five times), but I know that a vision is there. Not a very reassuring vision, per say, but a vision nonetheless.
So…two hundred words to go. Okay. Originally, I was planning to just post a bunch of notes I wrote for this poem rather than a proper blog, but after looking them over and seeing how confusing they would be to anyone but me (because I wrote them, not because they’re particularly complex), I decided to save everyone the headache. Instead of that, then, I will give some tips on how to read this poem coherently without having to read a small library worth of texts beforehand:
- Focus on the imagery. Imagine you’re watching an experimental movie or something and enjoy the pretty pictures. Ignore all that symbolism and allusion jargon until you feel you’re ready for it.
- Take note of repeated words. There are a lot—a LOT—of key terms that show up throughout the poem, giving you hints as to where the connections are. My personal favourite is the transition from the repetition of “rat” to the use of “bat”; the word “wing” also shows up in-between, as if Eliot actually wants to make it easy for you.
- Keep lines 1-18 in mind as you read. I am a strong believer in making a poem’s first few lines reflect the overall theme, and I believe Eliot utilizes that technique here. The not necessarily linear changing of seasons is a very interesting thing to keep note of as you read.
Have fun~
