Hello everyone, I'm a student of the Department of English,M.K.B.U. This blog is based on T. S. Eliot's one famous poem ' The West Land' ,this blog is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir.
The West Land as a Pandemic Poem :-
This is a modern epic poem, written by T.S. Eliot. This a very famous poem , in this poem Eliot comprises various different Images from the other writers works.
points to Ponder :-
Introduction
Historical Background of the Poem
About The Poet
About The Poem
Introductory Pptx and Video based on this Poem
'The West Land' as a modern epic poem
Elements of the poem
Themes of the Poem
'The West Land' as a pandemic poem
Conclusion
Introduction :-
'The West Land' ,modern epic poem written by T.S. Eliot. In this poem,Eliot comprises different Images from the other writers' works. This poem is written in 434 lines. Tiresia is the protagonist of this poem.
The poem itself was heavily edited by Ezra Pound, another American expatriate poet living in London at this time. Eliot gave Pound a copy of the 1922 edition with a handwritten dedication to ‘il miglior fabbro’ – Italian for ‘the better craftsman’ – and added it to the 1925 printed edition in his Poems 1909–1925.
The Waste Land was first published in 1922 in Criterion, a magazine edited by Eliot, then a few days later in the magazine The Dial, and later that year, as a book by Boni & Liveright in New York. This latter edition included ‘Notes’ explaining some of the vast range of references contained in the poem, and its particular basis on the legend of the Holy Grail, and the vegetation ceremonies in The Golden Bough (1890; expanded 1906–1915), a comparative study of world mythology by J G Frazer. However, in ‘The Frontiers of Criticism’, in 1956, Eliot described these notes as ‘a remarkable exposition of bogus scholarship’, which he had only written to make the text long enough for book publication.
Historical Background of The Poem :-
This poem is written after the First World War. This poem is one of the famous work of the 20th Century literature. In this poem ,we find several images of Pendemic because it was a time of Influenza pandemic, Spanish Flue and Plague Virus.
About The Poet :-
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry.
Eliot first attracted widespread attention for his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in 1915, which, at the time of its publication, was considered outlandish. It was followed by "The Waste Land" (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1943). He was also known for seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry". He married two times, his wives names are Spouse Vivienne HHaigh-Wood(m. 1915; sep. 1932)) Esmé Valerie Fletcher(m. 1957).
About the Poem :-
For Original Poem …Click Here
The Waste Land is a poem by T. S. Eliot,widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry, published in 1922, the 434-lines. Poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of Eliot's The Criterion and in the United States in the November issue of The Dial. It was published in book form in December 1922. Among its famous phrases are "April is the cruellest month", "I will show you fear in a handful of dust", and the Sanskrit mantra "Shantih shantih shantih".
Eliot's poem combines the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King with vignettes of contemporary British society. Eliot employs many literary and cultural allusions from the Western canon such as Ovid's Metamorphoses and Dante's Divine Comedy, as well as Shakespeare, Buddhism, and the Hindu Upanishads. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, and time and conjuring a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.
The poem is divided into five sections. The first, "The Burial of the Dead", introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair.
The second, "A Game of Chess", employs alternating narrations, in which vignettes of several characters address those themes experientially.
"The Fire Sermon", the third section, offers a philosophical meditation in relation to the imagery of death and views of self-denial in juxtaposition, influenced by Augustine of Hippo and Eastern religions.
After a fourth section, "Death by Water", which includes a brief lyrical petition.
The culminating fifth section, "What the Thunder Said", concludes with an image of judgement.
The last words of this poem "Shantih,Shantih,Shantih" which conveys the message of this poem, which means 'peace that passes all understanding.'
Introductory Pptx and Video based on this Poem :-
'The West Land' as a modern epic poem :-
Modern poetry is mostly written in free verse and prose (the prose poem). Ambiguity: Most of modern poetry is ambiguous for many reasons. Interest in myth and especially Greek myth. Interest in the problems of the average man and the lower classes of society.
This poem is also based on Greek myths and it also comprises various stories and also describes the problem of that time. For e.g., The Influenza pandemic,and the Spanish Flu, Inter war period. So , we can say that it is a modern poem as per its characteristics.
Epic poems comprise thousands of lines and it is based on one particular hero's life or one particular incident but here, this poem is written in only hundreds of lines(written in 434 lines) that's why we can not consider this poem as an epic poem and it also comprises the characteristics of modern poem that's why this poem is known as 'The Modern Epic Poem'.
For Elements of the poem …Click Here
Themes of the Poem :-
There are so many themes in this poem. Like.,
Sexual Perversion
Spiritual Degradation
Fragmentation and decay
Death
Of all the above themes, the first two themes are the main ones. That's why I am describing only two themes here in this blog.
Sexual Perversion
Sexual Perversion means Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviours, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything other than a consenting human partner.
In this poem also we find several relationships which we can consider as a sexual Perversion. That are like.,
Queen Elizabeth + Earl of Leicester
Typist Girl + Her boyfriend
Three Daughters of Thames ( mechanical sex)
Mr. Eugenides (homosexual relationship)
Lil and Albert's relationship
This poem describes the relationship between Queen Elizabeth,who is a last Tudor Monarch of England and Earl of Leicester . Another refference is about Typist Girl and Her boyfriend, that is a time of mechanisation they both are being tyred from there works and after that both are micanically involved in each-other(love making act),their is no happyness in their relationship they lead their relationship as their responsibility towards their partners. Three Daughters of Thames ( mechanical sex) , here through the river poet describes the condition of that women who are continuously molested by people. Mr. Eugenides (homosexual relationship) in this scene poet describes the homosexual refference of our protagonists (Tiresias) and Mr. Eugenides relationship. Lil and Albert's relationship ,in this story Albert is a soldier and here poet is making a pun on soldier's duty. Poet describes that how the wives of soldier are behaving during the absence of soldier.
So these are the refferences comes in this poem that's why we can considered this theme as a major and an important theme of this poem.
Spiritual Degradation
Spiritual Degradations are we can find in the following myths.,
Vegetation (cycle of the seasons)
The Fisher Man (The Grail legend , The sick humanity)
Phlebas ( lack of spirituality, self-ego)
Tiresias ( blindness)
Sibyl ( spiritual dryness of the post-war generation)
Holy Grail (sexual symbols)
In the first part of the poem or we can say at the starting of the poem there is a refference of the month that "April is the crualest Month" . At this point we can find the cycle of the seasons,here April month is discribs as a crualest month . The Fisher Man (The Grail legend , The sick humanity) through this myth ,poet describes lack of spirituality. Connected people with spirituality like Prist and Father they are not allowed to marry. So , they uses or abuses nun and girls for their physical needs. That's why we can see mostly nun's and childrens are mostly abused in the charch and other spiritual places. Phlebas ( lack of spirituality, self-ego) it is a story of the phoenician sailors, they are most faithful about their works as a fisherman, that's why sometimes even they die because of a heavy flow of the water in the sea. Tiresias ( blindness) who is a protagonist of the poem, who is blind but she can see everything what is going to be happen. Sibyl ( spiritual dryness of the post-war generation) ,silence is a what they have donat that time. They are blindly trusted on the God. Holy Grail (sexual symbols) ,these is a holy river which is symbolises a spiritual degradations in this poem. Holy Grail is a holy river which we considers as a goddess but here in this poem it is taken as a sexuallity ,because fisherman or seaman are devided the riverbanks for their own business that's why it is considered like this. So, we can say that this is also a major and important theme of this poem.
'The West Land' as a pandemic poem :-
This poem is written during the first world war and at that time people also suffering feom the Influenza pandemic and Spanish Flu. In this poem we can see verious works are taken which are based on Pendemic.
Iconic Elements of The West Land :-
Sense of Innervation (weekness)
Deliriam(extreme restlessness)
Fragmentation (breaking or being broken)
Valnerable bodies (attacked or harmed)
In this poem , there are several refferences which are represents Pendemic time.
Like.,
The Grim Reeper (Part :- 1)
Rat (Part :- 3)
Silent (Part :- 5)
Death(Part :- 5)
In the first part The Grim Reeper,a kind of scissors,which is used to cut the grass, here in this poem it is used as a personification of death in the form of a cloaked skeleton wielding a large scythe. In this poem The Grim Reeper is symbolises 'The Spanish Flu'. Through that grim reeper poet tries to saw the image of the dead bodies and the mentality of the people of that time. How people were dying for the pending and how people trites dead bodies.
In the third part of this poem there is a refference of Rat which symbolises The Plague Pendemic. Plague virus is to spread by Rat, here in this poem Rat represents tragic condition during the time of Plague.
In the fifth or last part of this poem there is a refference of silent or blined trust on religion which symbolises forgetting the past and trust on God. At that time people believes in God blinedly,they doesn't have any queries about the religious practices, they follows the tradition blinedly,they doesn't thinks that they are right or wrong, according to them their God is always right and they should not have doubts on them.
In the last or fifth part there is a refference of Death , death symbolises the end. Through the holy river-bank Ganga ,poet tries to define the original behaviour of the poeple towards the other people. The Holy River Ganga was sunken, this refference is taken from Indian Mythology. The holy river Ganga was sunken which represents the cruelty of people, and it also defines the reason why they are facing this kind of situations in their lives.
We can connect this poem with our contemporary corona Pendemic time,because whenever we read this poem we also imagine the scenes which we shown during the Pendemic time.In the Corona Pendemic time also lots of people were died ,people were facing the same problem which is describes here in this poem that dead bodies are thrown into a farm and to bury the dead bodies into farms. People doesn't allows the others religions people to use their graveyard for bury or burn the dead bodies. Lots of people were died in this Pendemic also same like the earlier pendemics.
Conclusion :-
It was a time of Influenza pandemic,and we find verious images which represents the Pendemic time in this poem that's why we can consider this poem as a Pendemic poem.
Word Count :- 2,152
Images :- 04
Videos :- 01
Pptx :- 01
Thanks for Visiting………….
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