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.
April is the cruellest month,breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land,mixing
Memory and desire,stirring
Dull roots with spring rain .
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow,feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
The poem starts with generalisation
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“The poem is about a consciousness full of fragments of past significance which haunt it like ghosts, perplexing,confusing,perhaps holding out the hope of somethinh to pursue”(Scottfield ,130).
The poem is not the romanticisation of the past but the poet wants us to feel the loss of intensity of life which is culturallly and traditionally barren .There is a decay of faith and religion and men has lost passion and emotion which has made the society a unfit place to live as everything has become mechanical. Even sex relationship does not give any pleasure sex is commmercialised as it is very evident in the relationship between typist and clerk. Every emotion has become artifical and Eliot has compared humans to animals. Lust and sexuality are dominating men’s life
But, how it changed the beliefs, values, behavior and attitudes about male dominance figure point in society overall. The co-authors Mary Lamanna, Agnes Riedman and Susan Stewart in “FSW 261, Miami University” shows how early America patriarchal society mindset has changed due to the progression of sexual freedoms and liberties equalities for all genders and races in America. The Sexual Revolution movement in the 1960’s proved how expressive sexuality among the genders to express emotional feelings and not solely based on biological factors to reproduce and have offspring but to enjoy it and build their intimacy between two people. (p. 86-86) The movement from conservative style of choice of sexuality to freedom of choice among society has brought severe consequences with them as well for the individual, couples, and families overall.
For example, he describes its gloominess as a “fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat,” which demonstrates a dismal feel in an ironic fashion through the contrasting imagery associated with growth and freshness. This tone is further expressed by the “ashes grow[ing] like wheat into ridges… and grotesque gardens,” which adds to the dreariness of
Alfred Prufrock are an echo of To His Coy Mistress’ “Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball” (41-42). Here an allusion is made to bring forth that contrast between the two characters. With only two lines, Eliot is able to draw a potent connection between the difference in the characters. The inclusion of this allusion can also be interpreted in a myriad of ways that is dependent on the reader and their understanding of the source alluded to. Eliot may not have wanted to address a certain issue directly so he shifted the responsibility of interpretation to the
Imagine spending one year of your life living in a dumpster. Not just the average, everyday dumpster, but a customized dumpster suited to meet all of the essential needs for one to live in. Professor Jeff Wilson, also referred to as “Professor Dumpster,” is engaged in a one year project in which he will be sleeping in a dumpster every night. His future plans consist of making the dumpster even more appealing by adding a toilet, solar panels, a second floor, and several other amenities. Wilson says in the article, “‘We could end up with a house under $10,000 that could be placed anywhere in the world, fueled by sunlight and surface water, and people could have a pretty good life’”
In a sense, Eliot threw in subtle hints of Marxism. Marxism is the idea of social class. Marxism is when you are in a certain “class” and that is where you stay in your life; it has already been predetermined. With Prufrock being average, and the woman being more than average; Prufrock is not allowed to advance or overstep his social standing. The Marxist theory is basically that you know place on the social ladder and stay there.
Eliot are distinctly dissimilar, the messages expressed through these two excerpts are the same. Lines 203-212 in act V scene i. of Hamlet and Lines 66-75 in section I of The Wasteland both reflect the idea of the speakers that our actions in life are futile. This universal theme that is expressed in both works tells us that we are all connected through
Wasteland is a documentary by Lucy Walker that depicts the lives of selected garbage pickers in Jardim Gramacho – a massive dumpsite found in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. The film is about Vik Muniz’s 2-year journey back to his home country seeking to give back to an impoverished community through making images out of an unusual material – trash. The film featured 7 garbage pickers from the landfill, and each has a story that brought them to their current places. One unique thing about the whole creative process is that the pickers themselves became part of it. Vik imagined that as they work on their own and each other’s images, the pickers will not only show themselves to a broader world that is for now comfortably oblivious of their existence, but also see themselves differently (Fuchs, 2010).
Unfortunately, tragic events in his life also brought a sense of disillusionment to his later poems. The contrast within Byron’s romantic and cynical style adds a unique touch that separates him from other Romantic poets. His work, which stood out even in his own time, remains a reminder of the fragility of the idealized idea of
Also in line 19, the word “autumn” appears, and it gives the image of the fall of life, and a time that is near death. Even more, “shroud” which is used to describe people’s heart, originally means a piece
In the third line he states “spring summer autumn winter” and in line 11 “autumn winter spring summer”. Cummings switches the order of the months a third time in the last stanza creating the idea that time runs on an endless cycle. Cummings implements this change in the seasons order at random times in the poem to remind readers of the infinite quality of
Alfred Prufrock” was and still is a popular poem of T.S. Eliot’s, his most well known work is The Waste Land, which epitomizes the modern era. He uses the poetic elements of fragmentation and allusions to depict an image of the modern world through perspective of a man finding himself hopeless and confused about the condition of the society (Rhee 4). This poem also does not continue in a linear direction; although it may seem disjointed, these elements coherently communicate what modern society ultimately believes. This pattern is easily found in every aspect of the poem. The Waste Land itself is divided into four sections, so by glancing over the poem, a reader sees that the whole is already broken into smaller pieces.
The poem 's content points not to just a single memory, but an entire sexual affair from the speaker’s youth—chronicling the erotic encounters that would eventually lead to his lover’s “footfall light” and both of them “silent as a stone”. Thus the memory is also clouded by the nature of erotic
Eliot twists the expected symbolism of water which is life, but Eliot uses water to show there is no life. As this is done, Eliot tries to connect with water throughout The Wasteland. Eliot’s message by seeking water, but there is none shows that The Wasteland seeks a living source but a living object cannot make it through The Wasteland. Since there is no
Eliot uses tradition and personal innovation, combined with the revitalization of the twentieth-century British poetry, which leads to poems full of vitality. Based on the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” this paper explores the poet 's exploration and innovation in the aspects of poetic skills and content. The early works of Eliot are in a low tone, and he often uses association, metaphor, and suggestion to express modern people 's depression. The famous poem “The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock" uses the inner monolog of the protagonist’s desire to love and fear of the contradictory attitude of love to illustrate modern emptiness and cowardice. From the content, the reader gradually learns the poem is about a middle-aged man.
Poet Robert Hayden, in his work, “Those Winter Sundays”, composed a poem that makes the reader feel as if they are a part of the story, by using imagery and diction. In this poem, diction and imagery are connected. Robert Hayden in the poem "Those Winter Sundays' uses imagery and diction to create a heart wrenching response in the reader, as the speaker in the poem reflects on the youthful memories he has of his father . It is the word choice that really makes the poem as visual as it is. In this poem there is a child and a father.