How many sections are there in the poem “The Waste Land?”
How many sections are there in the poem “The Waste Land?” Write their names in the proper order with brief descriptions. [NU: 2017]
T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) published “The Waste Land” in 1922. This long poem is divided into five sections. Each section deals with the barrenness of modern life. Together, they show the spiritual crisis of the post-war world.
The Burial of the Dead: This is the first section. It highlights the contrast between the cruel April and the comforting winter. It speaks of memory, desire, and emptiness. Madame Sosostris appears with her tarot cards. London is often referred to as the “Unreal City” followingly:
A Game of Chess: This is the second section. It portrays a broken love and a meaningless life. One part describes the nervous state of a rich woman. Another part shows Lil’s troubled marriage. Both suggest emptiness of human relations. Here is a quotation to support the point.“Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,”
The Fire Sermon: This is the third section. Tiresias, the blind prophet, narrates this part. He watches a cheap sexual meeting between a clerk and a typist. About this, the poet says,“My nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
Speak to me. Why do you never speak?”
The Thames River is polluted. This section shows corruption and lust.“The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights
Her stove, and lays out food in tins.”
Death by Water: This is the fourth section. It is very short. It tells of Phlebas, a drowned sailor. He forgets youth, profit, and loss. His death shows the cycle of decay and rebirth. The following lines describe this point.
What The Thunder Said: This is the fifth and last section. It presents apocalyptic images of death and destruction. Water is absent, and life is barren. But at the end, thunder speaks the three words: Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata. The poem ends with“Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.”
In short, the poem consists of five sections, each depicting different aspects of the wasteland. They reveal sterility, lust, despair, and faint hope. Eliot uses these divisions to portray the broken spirit of the modern age.“Shantih shantih shantih.”