The Allusions in the Waste Land
The Allusions in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land
The Waste Land is an important poem. It has something important to say and it should have an important effect on the reader. But it is not easy.
In Eliot's own words:
"We can say that it appears likely that poets in our civilization as it exists at present, must be difficult. Our civilization comprehends great variety and complexity, and this variety and complexity, playing upon a refined sensibility, must produce various and complex results. The poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate if necessary, language into its meaning."
"Tradition cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour."
Eliot is dealing with the loss of meaning and significance of many things, and so he continually contrasts the present with the past, often using literary allusions to help to arouse in the reader the response he wants. For this reason he gives some of these allusions in a set of notes. However, he merely says where they come from or gives them in the original Italian or French or German.
These notes give the actual allusions, translated into English where necessary, and printed in such a way that the reader can see the allusion and the relevant passage in the poem at the same time.
For instance, a passage from the poem is on page 3 and the allusions to it are on page 2.
The notes have also amplified Eliot's notes in some cases, with valuable help from three excellent books: Stephen Coote: The Waste Land in Penguin Master Studies 1985
B C Southam: A Student's Guide to the Selected Poems of T S Eliot
Faber and Faber, 1968
George Williamson: A reader's Guide to T S Eliot
Thames and Hudson, Second Edition, 1967
It is a pleasure to thank Sheila Davies for her translation of Baudelaire's Au Lecteur
Allusion are numbered and you will seldom have to scroll down more than a page to find the comment on the allusion
The
The Waste Land is an important poem. It has something important to say and it should have an important effect on the reader. But it is not easy.
In Eliot's own words:
"We can say that it appears likely that poets in our civilization as it exists at present, must be difficult. Our civilization comprehends great variety and complexity, and this variety and complexity, playing upon a refined sensibility, must produce various and complex results. The poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate if necessary, language into its meaning."
"Tradition cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour."
Eliot is dealing with the loss of meaning and significance of many things, and so he continually contrasts the present with the past, often using literary allusions to help to arouse in the reader the response he wants. For this reason he gives some of these allusions in a set of notes. However, he merely says where they come from or gives them in the original Italian or French or German.
These notes give the actual allusions, translated into English where necessary, and printed in such a way that the reader can see the allusion and the relevant passage in the poem at the same time.
For instance, a passage from the poem is on page 3 and the allusions to it are on page 2.
The notes have also amplified Eliot's notes in some cases, with valuable help from three excellent books: Stephen Coote: The Waste Land in Penguin Master Studies 1985
B C Southam: A Student's Guide to the Selected Poems of T S Eliot
Faber and Faber, 1968
George Williamson: A reader's Guide to T S Eliot
Thames and Hudson, Second Edition, 1967
It is a pleasure to thank Sheila Davies for her translation of Baudelaire's Au Lecteur
Allusion are numbered and you will seldom have to scroll down more than a page to find the comment on the allusion
The