THE WASTE LAND - T.S.ELIOT

If I thought understanding Walt Whitman was going to be my hardest task this semester, I thought wrong. Hello T.S. Eliot.

This is only the second time I’ve attempted to read it,  so I don’t feel too bad that I’m struggling to understand it.

I want so badly to understand this poem and I think it will take at least another 20 reads to grasp it.

I got the post WWI theme that is present throughout the poem and the move towards the apocalyptic end of the world.

There is a blend of high society and low class culture. This is in the second section with the high-class woman sitting on the throne, and then the women in the bar-“In rats’ alley.”

There seems to be many emerging themes that are constantly being tested.  Aside from the obvious them of death, there is also a theme of resurrection and the cycle of life.

This is seen in the references to decay. Especially in the last 8 lines of section one, where the speaker asks,

“That corpse you planted last year in your garden, has it begun to sprout?”

With this line in mind, and the opening line, 

“April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land.”

These two references to death and gardens, brings to mind the cycle of life and decomposition. We all die and we all become dirt. This can seem cruel – breed as lilacs.

The poem’s form is also hard to pinpoint. It seems to slip in and out of various styles. There is free verse, iambic pentameter, end rhyme, couplets, repetition, and so much more.

I think Eliot uses these different forms to his advantage. Rather than having one solid form throughout the entire poem, he changes the form to match the tone of the action. (Or that is my theory at least.)

The more times I read this poem, the more I understand it. Or the more I think I understand it. Can’t wait for class discussion. 

Thursday's Blog

Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River, draws the reader in, and just when your hooked, it's over.

Things I liked:

The narrative structure - I believe there are only two instances where there is dialogue. I felt that this type of structure worked well with the overall theme of the story. Which leads me to the next point, the theme.

The theme seemed to be about human interaction with nature and how how even though the town had burned and the luxury of convenience was gone, one could survive off the land.

Things that were curious:


On page 981:  "Nick's heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling" (981).

I felt a tension between Nick and the river at this instance, but the story gives no clue as to what the old feeling is.

A paragraph later we find out that "Nick felt happy. He left everything behind, the need for thinking, the need to write, other needs..."(981).

It doesn't seem to matter that the town of Seney is burnt, Nick is more focused on what isn't burnt, the river.

I guess my question is: Is this just a story about a guy going fishing, or is Hemingway asking the reader to read between the lines?


I also find it interesting that Nick is so damn happy. He gets off a train at a burnt town, has to haul his heavy baggage up hill in the heat, camp along the river, and he is happy. Even when he burns his tongue, he is happy!

When Nick starts to remember his friend Hopkins, there seems to be another glimpse of tension. Nick's reminiscence of the Black River trip seems to be important to him and maybe it is part of the old feeling that he brings up in previous thought.

This is the only real reference to a past. The rest of the story or narration is of life in the moment. All the action takes place second to second. Hemingway also emphasizes to great detail the small, fleeting moments, for example:

"Then he walked up to the tent. The hoppers were already jumping stiffly in the grass. In the bottle, warmed by the sun, they were jumping in a mass. Nick put in a pine stick as a cork. It plugged the mouth of the bottle enough so the hoppers could not get out and left plenty of air passage" (986).

This is just a small example but the entire short story is filled with these small moments in great detail. Even the dew on the grass seems significant.

Just as I began to think this really was just a story about fish, the last line:

"There were plenty of days coming, where he could fish the swamp" (992).

This last line leads me to conclude that this is more than a fishing trip. I think Nick is escaping his past, finds solitude in the peaceful river, the swamp is a metaphor for his past, and there will be plenty of time to deal with that..in the future?  Maybe..... This scenario even seems too simple.

What am I missing? IS THIS STORY ABOUT FISH?