T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land: Part Two

The first thing that I thought when I read the title of the poem and the time it was written was World War One. The Waste Land made me think of all the destruction of the war and I falsely
assumed that the poem would be a description of the war. This was not the case since Eliot begins with a description of the month April. What I though then was, maybe The Waste Land wasn't literally the Land but the people, the poem never describes anyone doing anything productive so maybe it was the people that were wasting away.

I found several recurring symbols or motifs while I read through all six of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. Time was being constantly referred to but in a very subtle and figurative way. For example he used phrases like "the brown fog of dawn" and "the brown fog of noon" and "the violet hour". Also the repetition of the line "Hurry up please it's time" is telling the reader that his/her time is running out and that they have to act quickly so that they wont be "wasted" any longer. Time was very important in the poem because it made the poem flow because the references to time were in chronological order. The random quotes and references confused the reader easily so at least the reference to time orients the reader.

The color red, water and rocks were also frequently mentioned and may be motifs in the poem. When the author writes that some thing is red I see injury or bloodshed . Blood can be a symbol of misfortune and pain or anger and hate. I found that very contrary to the idea of water . It was continuously written in the form of a river or stream not just water itself but as a body "sweet Thames...". I see water as curing or replenishing, a sign of hope, tranquility. Water may also mean then end because some animals begin and end in the water. When you put red and water together I think that even though there has been misfortune or death in the past as long as there is water there is hope. Water is a sign of life or the life cycle and humans can't survive without it, so it is a very strong, powerful symbol in the poem. Rocks on the other hand are a very puzzling symbol, when i think of rocks i imagine stability and stubbornness but I couldn't appropriately associate it with either water or red. This poem is based on water and has it running through the entire poem, maybe as a sign of hope or of doom.

The author also uses repetition to keep the reader focused and active in the poem. Some of the repetitions are very subtle and you have to pay close attention to the text to recall it. Some, on the other hand, are frequently used, like "hurry up please it's time" and "the Thames" and are even shown differently than the erst of the piece by bolding or placement. I think one of the main reasons for repetition is to link previous sections of the poem together or to keep the reader attentive to a minor but significant detail. A symbol that appears and then reappears in the text is Tarot cards. I wonder if the author uses the symbol for foreshadowing purposes or even to tell the protagonist his or her fate. Divination including Tarot cards symbolize uncertainty and lies which i think is a possible metaphor for life in general, how we never know our fate and are constantly choosing and guessing our path.

I noticed that the titles of each section had little to do with the content of the section in a literal sense since no where in the text did the author tell the reader of a couple playing chess as the second section says. Chess is a very strategic and difficult game which, when looking at the pieces involves life and death. So after reading and noticing that the second section was not going to be about chess i started thinking figuratively what chess could mean in this context. In the end of the section Eliot describes a character who could lose her husband to another woman and that scenario definitely made me think of chess where one person's loss is the other's gain. Other than that, I found the title confusing and misleading.

Lastly at the bottom of my reading there were many sources listed that were quotes that Eliot had used throughout the poem and it seemed to me that the poem was a compilation of different quotes. I don't understand why he would put all kinds of quotes from different sources, time periods, languages and incorporate them into one poem because many of the subjects of the quotes were unknown to me. I found the poem very jumbled and at times incomprehensible, sometimes literally because of a different language or just because of all the different texts. I couldn't find a specific rhythm or rhyme scheme in the poem either which may have helped uncover the more significant parts. It would take me days or even weeks to discover and understand every hidden metaphor in The Waste Land.