born in 1888; he was an essayist, poet, literary and social critic and is viewed as one of the greatest modernist writers of his time. His poem, “The Wasteland” is considered to be one of the most important modernist poems of the twentieth century and reflects the supposedly fragile psychological state of humanity in this time. Eliot wrote “The Wasteland” during an era in human history that was unlike any other that had come before. World War 1, also known as the Great War was one of the most devastating
intellect, industry and individualism. The Wasteland contains five spasmodic divisions designed each in separate sections combining multiple voices, literary characters, historical allusions, quotations and glimpses into contemporary life through absurd images, myths, and legends. The reader becomes lost in a maze of past literature swarming into a piece of its own. The poem is a collage of writing; within every collage is fragments of other material, in The Wasteland 's case these bits consist of stanzas
the ideas of progression. This revolt and constant clinginess to history and the previous era is evident in his works. In this paper, we are looking at how Eliot projected time and history in his renowned poem “The Wasteland”. Key Words: Modernism, Anti-Modernism, T.S Eliot, Wasteland, Time, History “Time is the moving image of eternity - (Plato)” In the beginning of twentieth century “Modernism” started as a movement/revolt against the past, it dreams of moving forward towards development. But
of death is formed through the literary allusions to great extent in this stanza. The first line is adapted from “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell and interpenetrated with the gloomy atmosphere of the wasteland in a sharp contrast (Rainey 185). The ugliness, dullness and torpidness of the river does not match up with the “Sweet Thames” of Spenser’s time. The only sound heard is the rattle of the bones and the only alive thing is the rat in the wasteland whereas the sound of chariots comes to
Concept of Time and history in The Wasteland In Eliot’s poem The Wasteland past is an integral dimension which he uses as to make a stark difference between understanding of time and his idea of temporality.The poem is a vision of sterility in human and natural life.In the poem Eliot connects the glories of the past with the degenerate contemporary society.Eliot experiments with the idea of time. The first seven lines indicates how Eliot has used present and past to represent the human conditons
‘The Wasteland’ by T. S. Eliot Some critics regard Thomas Sterns Eliot as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century because of his extensive contributions when it comes to poetry, drama, and prose. T. S. Eliot is an American-English author who was one of the prominent poets writing in the 20th century. He is one of the seminal critics, an interesting playwright, and an editor and publisher (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2004). One of his works entitled ‘The Wasteland’ became
my dialectical method, as I understand it , is a constant building up and breaking up and breaking down of the images that come out of the central seed, which is itself destructive and constructive at the same time… Out of the inevitable conflict of images—inevitable because of the creative, re creative, destructive and contradictory nature of the motivating centre, the womb of war—I try to make that momentary peace which is a poem. (Dylan Thomas, Letter to Treece 157-158) The whole passage
characterize modernism for a novice reader. Modernism was a metaphysical and cultural movement that emanated from an immense transformation in Western society in the late ninetieth and early twenty centuries, and it is accepted that T.S Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’ was the dawn of Modernist poetry and literature. Modernism was a contemporary approach of thinking, a regeneration of the psyche, an advanced –ism that was the result of urbanisation, technological and economic
reconstructing and restructrung of language, use of allusions, and of the free verse. Poems are composed from personal experiences, expressing the poet’s concerns about humans’ purpose of existence and urging readers to grasp their different points of view. T.S Elliot's The Waste Land, Preludes and The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, are examples of modernist poetry through which the poet intends to mirror the feeling of disillusionment
(the reader) are presented with many allusions, one of these being the bible. Atwood uses specific parts of the bible that glorifies marriage, convict women but absolve men of adultery for the purpose of childbirth to make the law’s in Gilead. Other Bible references that focus on meekness and humility has been used to dictate the handmaid’s behavior. Despite the fact that bible references usually don’t fit into a dystopian society, Margaret Atwood uses allusions to the bible as a foundation for the