T.S. Eliot - "The Waste Land"

This post covers sections I and II of "The Waste Land."  The remainder of the poem will be covered in another post.

Section I. "The Burial of the Dead"

At times, Eliot's poetry is verbal collage.  It is as if Eliot collected clippings from old books, periodicals, personal correspondences, and personal memoirs for use in his work.  In the first stanza alone (18 lines), Eliot references "Satyricon" by Petronius, Dante's "Purgatorio," Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," the personal memoirs of an Austrian countess, and the Bible.  The poem is written in a semi stream of consciousness style in which several conversations and other events blend together in a dream-like sequence.   The first two stanzas speak to the title and follow the seasons and cycles of the natural world with intermittent memories and a lament to desolation. The third stanza introduces a card reader called Madame Sosostris and her cards are described as if laid out for a reading given the audience by the clairvoyant.  The reading is a bit grim but redeeming in its references to cycles and therefore to rebirth and renewal.  The fourth stanza takes the audience to London's financial district where the speaker encounters an old shipmate.  The reference here to Mylae is anachronistic.  Eliot's poetry renders a world in which chronological time is meaningless.  All times and places are here and now.  Lines 71-76 detail the words or thoughts which the encounter with the old shipmate inspires.  The imagery is macabre.  We see a corpse buried and either nurturing and sprouting new life or disinterred by a "Dog" with a capitol "D."  Perhaps this "Dog" alludes to Anubis, Opener of the Ways into the ancient Egyptian underworld.  

Section II.  "A Game of Chess"

The first stanza of section II begins with the 77th line of the poem.  Here we find a Cleopatra-like woman enthroned.  We know that she is a lavish and luxurious woman from the vivid depictions of her finery and the palatial throne room in which she sits.  The depiction of the woman in her throne room is interspersed with uneasy words such as "strange," "synthetic," "troubled," "confused," "drowned," "sad."  These words nuance the scene with a sinister and a desolate feeling.  The woman is compared to Ovid's Philomela who transformed into a nightingale after her brother-in-law King Terseus raped her.  Stanza 7 brings the audience into a nervous conversation.  Perhaps it takes place between two lovers.  One is shaken and nervous and the other implores to know his/her thoughts and complains that "I never know what you are thinking. Think." (Line 114).  Line 139 begins the 13th stanza and carries the audience back into the present era.  A very contemporary scenario is depicted through conversational ramblings. Eliot introduces new characters such as "poor" Albert, George, and Lou.  What is conveyed is a sense of discontent with the goings-on of life for the young English who's lives are overtaken with war (presumably WWI) and with the activities of off-duty soldiers.  "HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME" is the refrain repeated five times within this stanza.  This is the closing time call of the English pub.