The Waste Land Part 3...

When continued research into The Waste Land I learned that Greek Mythology was one of the key driving forces behind the poem. I was thinking maybe that these stories were doors that extended the poem more into forbidden love tragedies. In class today we were told about the story of the blinding of Tiresias. We learned that he became woman, then transformed back into a man, and later received power to know the future to help ease the blinding. Maybe the key that Eliot wanted us to get from this story is the art of transformation in society. The modern culture and how he viewed it seemed to increasingly become important as I researched the poem. In culture there are different social classes and Ancient Greece during the sixth century BC had a hand in the formation of the different classes. Early in the sixth century struggle for power between the aristocrats and the people resulted in the appointment of a citizen called Solon. He was a politician and poet that acted as chief magistrate with powers to settle the differences. This person helped show the importance of wealth from birth. This ideal person in Eliot's eyes could have been the cause of the so called waste land. Wealth shouldn't be the main driving element in a person's life it should be knowledge, kindness, and understanding.

But I view another important part into the understanding of this poem is what it did for the culture of poetry. This was one of the first steps into modernism. A revolt against all the poetics of its time, and everything before it; a step into a new world of poetry that would speak to the coming generations.

Modernism was defined from Dictionary of Poetic Terms as a period commonly thought to begin with World War I (1914), offering a dazzling array of invention in both English and American literature and criticism. It is said that it began with Ezra Pound, funny we see his name here because he was the mentor and editor of this piece of literature. By stepping away from traditional writing styles of this time T.S. Eliot approached areas of poetry undiscovered. He did however seemed to show he was from this time by adding a lot of history, and elements of this time within the scope of his poem. One part of the poem that stands out to me is The Fire Sermon, which was a sermon given from Buddha and encourages his followers to give up earthly possessions. He wanted them to seek freedom from traditional items of this time. He spoke of counting your breath, and being one with nature maybe this is represented in the poem. The worldly things are given up, and forbidden love is matured. Today we also learned that all the women in this poem are one woman and all the men are one man. Maybe these ties back in Greek Mythology I am not sure.

Also around the second section of the poem the tarot cards are used to represent the character's identity, but the identity into what? Society? To me this would reflect back into the modern culture and the way Eliot believed that modern culture is in a downward spiral from the past. Everything goes into the person's worldly possessions and not the soul of the individual. Whatever the case maybe the timeline including World War I is important to understanding this pieces, as well as the stories of Tiresias since it is included throughout the entire poem. More to come later.