Book: The Wasteland./ Author: Thomas Stearns Eliot./ Genre: Poetry./ Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1987.

If you haven't read T.S.Eliot's Wasteland, or haven't attempted to, or think it's too baffling, too pretentious, too obscure or too anything; you are missing out on a text that is among the 'books to be read before you die'. Every book has its reading strategy, of course you cannot plunge into Eliot's poetry and expect yourself to sail through it without asking for a life jacket. Much the same with almost all the modernist writers who have used 'objective co relatives' in their works. If you read them once, or have someone read it to you, you will know the dimensions poetry can achieve.

The Wasteland is a seminal poem. You'll find a reference to it everywhere and anywhere. Its most quoted lines "April is the cruelest month" , "I will show you fear in a handful of dust", have almost become a mantra of the modern times.Written by 1948 Nobel Laureate T.S.Eliot, It is, simply put, a poem about the spiritual, mental, sexual and moral decay of the modern civilization that has made the fertile land of the past, a Wasteland. Eliot brings the theme of futility, frustration, spiritual and physical barrenness into poetry with the use of varied symbols, myths, allusions, and imagery. It is not just the theme of death-in-life but its mode of representation that makes the poem a masterpiece.

Often called as a 'heap of broken images' for its fragmented narration, the poem has allusions ranging from Christian to Greek to hindu mythology, which are presented with the help of symbols. It is the abundant and obscure references that make the poem a difficult read. But once the references are clear, the poem becomes both entertaining and enlightening.

The two basic influences on the work are Jessie.L.Weston's From Ritual to Romance and Frazer's Golden Bough. Myths of Philomela, sybll at Cumae have been taken from Greek mythology while there are constant references to the Holy Grail legend from the Christian Mythology. Eliot brings the chaos of the modern civilization into his narrative structure, but he also shows a ray of hope to come out of the decay. The protagonist of the poem, Tiersias is a soothsayer from Greek legend, who narrates to the readers the situation of the Wasteland. he is the grail bearer who can rescue the wastelanders from the moral, spiritual, sexual decay they are going through.

The poem is divided into five sections where each section presents with a different kind of degradation. The epigraph of the poem, which i loved the best, sets the theme of the poem. It goes

For Once i saw with my own eyes the Sibyl at Cumae near Naples hanging in a cage, and when the children said to her, 'Sibyl, what do you wish?' she answered, 'I wish to die'.

In Greek mythology and literature the Sibyls were women who had prophetic powers. The Cumaen Sybll was the beloved of Apollo and she asked him to give her as many years of life as she had grains in her hand. but, forgot to ask for youth. she grew older and withered but could not die. The epigraph points to the a longing for death. For Sibyl life is a horror because it can never regain meaning. similarly, for characters in the poem are the people of modern wasteland who, like Sibyl are spiritually and morally dead, they have a strange longing for actual death.

The poem is full of such amazing myths, juxtaposed to highlight the condition of modern man. The title of the poem has several metaphorical connotations- it is the wasteland of religion where faith gives no relief, where people no more believe in God. The opening lines set this theme- April is the cruelest month, for modern man April, the season of spring, of fertility, of the time of Christ's resurrection, is cruel. Eliot calls this month of joy and rejuvenation as cruel because for spiritually sterile people the idea of rejuvenation is painful. Similarly, it could be wasteland of relationships, where bonds and commitments have become an unnecessary burden, where nothing excites either mind or body. the episode in the Game of Chess brings this theme clearly. The couple is exhausted of their relationship, for them communication hold no meaning, words no relief.

'My nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. Stay with/  me./ Speak to me. why you never speak. Speak./ What are you thinking of? What thinking?/ What?/  I never know what are you thinking. Think.' ( A Game of Chess, 111-116)

The title also can be taken as the wasteland of self, where man has become mechanical to his needs. there are constant references to incest, homosexuality, flesh trade, adultery, sexual perversion. It is a wasteland where everything has lost its meaning. there are no values, no code of conducts, no hope, no escape. The picture of nullity, nothingness, death in life, meaninglessness and aimlessness can be read in these lines-

'What shall i do now? What shall i do?/ I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street/ with my hair down, so. what shall we do/ tomorrow?/what shall we ever do?'/the hot water at ten/ and if it rains a closed car at four/ and we shall play a game of chess, / pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon/ the door. (A Game of Chess, 131-140)

It is in this situation, the protagonist of the poem, Tiersias, asks the readers a rhetorical question

What are the roots that clutch, what branches /grow /out of this stony rubbish?, son of man. (The Burial of the Dead, 18-20)

Can anything come from such a sterility of mind, body and belief. Eliot says yes. Eliot goes on to show a way out of this Wasteland. Here we have allusions to Gautam Buddha's sermons, St. Augustine's preaching, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, The Bible, among many others. For Eliot the only way to come out of the sterility is to become conscious of it. Eliot ends the poem on a positive note. Its closure is akin to the formal ending of the Upanishad. Eliot gives three mantras to bring back the fertility to the Wasteland. " Datta. Dayadhavam. Damyata./ Shantih shantih shantih" (Give, Be compassionate, Control/ Peace.)

Read the poem online at: http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

Enjoy T.S.Eliot reading The Wasteland at: http://town.hall.org/radio/HarperAudio/011894_harp_ITH.html

For more information on the subject click here: http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/thewasteland/exlinks.html