T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) | Analysis and Centennial Tribute

Comments · 35

• CH

  @chadoulisafia · 1 month ago

  Thank you for approaching this immortal poem. The first time I came in contact with this poem was during my 4'th year at university in 2006 when studying modernist literature. I still remember our teacher approaching it the way you do. You have made me going back to the sweet past sitting at the classroom learning Anglo-Saxon literature ❤.from Algeria

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• DO

  @dodiad · 1 year ago (edited)

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gIGP1aaeac&amp;t=2174">36:14</a> “This music crept by me upon the waters” is from Shakespeare’s <i>The Tempest.</i> Ferdinand, the shipwrecked prince, has been led astray by the sprite Ariel, singing to him in the voice of a sea nymph.

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• DO

  @dodiad · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gIGP1aaeac&amp;t=2668">44:28</a> “Then a damp gust bringing rain”: Hearkens back to the opening passage, “stirring dull roots with spring rain,” “coming over the Starnbergersee with a shower of rain.”

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• TR

  @travelthroughstories · 3 years ago

  Wow, Jorge! This is a gift to booktube. I&apos;ve never really wrapped my head around The Wasteland, but I&apos;ve always been drawn to it especially because of its links to Arthuriana. I&apos;m looking forward to watching this over the next few days! Happy Holidays!

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• DO

  @dodiad · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gIGP1aaeac&amp;t=1888">31:28</a> “By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept” echoes Psalm 137, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.”

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• DO

  @dodiad · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gIGP1aaeac&amp;t=2088">34:48</a> “the sailor home from sea”: Like our friend Albert from back in <i>A Game of Chess,</i> home from four years in the army.

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• DO

  @dodiad · 1 year ago (edited)

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gIGP1aaeac&amp;t=1410">23:30</a> Worth noting that the Punic Wars, including the battle of Mylae, were fought between Rome and Carthage. Carthage was a Phoenician colony on the North African coast. (Etymologically, <i>Punic</i> = Phoenician.) So this may be referring to Phlebas, the drowned Phoenician sailor.

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• HA

  @hans-georg6091 · 3 years ago

  Jorge, you are now probably my favourite booktuber. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 🎄🎁🎆

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• DE

  @dennismiller9714 · 3 months ago

  I think it&apos;s more likely that the &quot;heart of light&quot; alludes to Dryden, &quot;Thy throne is darkness in th&apos; abyss of light, A blaze of glory that forbids the sight&quot;

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• GM

  @gms4635 · 3 years ago

  That was a quite original approach, and I&apos; m looking forward to read this poem. Sadly, I have read only some essays by Eliot and not his lyrical stuff. It was a nice presentation Jorge, how many interpretations and hidden meanings one can find in a poem like that! By the way also, congatulations for albiceleste!

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• DO

  @dodiad · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gIGP1aaeac&amp;t=1155">19:15</a> The “heart of light” is echoed in the first movement of <i>Burnt Norton:</i> <br><br>Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,<br>And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,<br>And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,<br>The surface glittered out of heart of light,<br>And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.<br><br>Water and dry stone are, of course, a central image/theme/symbol in <i>The Waste Land.</i> That “neither . . . nor” construction (“I was neither living nor dead”) is also a recurring motif in the <i>Four Quartets,</i> evoking eternity, the “moment in and out of time.”

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• PA

  @patriciacollins253 · 1 year ago

  I enjoyed your overview. I’ve loved The Waste Land for 40 years. I &nbsp;would love to hear you do a deeper exploration of the poem, examining all the rich interactions between the characters we are shown in fragments. Their “ vignettes” deepen the entire sense of &nbsp;despair, disconnection and breakdown between human beings in a dying society. And the surrender at the end, as well, that enables the possibility of salvation from this broken world we made.

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