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T.S. Eliot's THE WASTE LAND in 999 Words
Provocative, pithy analysis of THE WASTE LAND for snack-sized, enjoyable reading. From the author's introduction:
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) could not have dreamt that you and I would be reading The Waste Land. He was writing for his age – not for us. The ideal reader of The Waste Land will be a man who has had a classical education and been on the Grand Tour, then lived through the First World War. The four-language dedication to Ezra Pound (called “the better craftsman” – though Eliot says it in fourteenth century Italian) sets the intellectual tone. This is a difficult poem, and deliberately so. Allusions to European literature of all periods abound, jostling with classical mythology, Bible references and a keen observation of the minutiae of London life in the post-war years. The seventeen-page poem was published with its own seven pages of “explanatory” notes from Eliot. The notes are frequently not helpful; indeed many are more obscure than the matters they claim to elucidate. Eliot makes no concessions whatsoever to his readers. If you are not male, classically educated and part of the inter-war generation – well, tough!
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) could not have dreamt that you and I would be reading The Waste Land. He was writing for his age – not for us. The ideal reader of The Waste Land will be a man who has had a classical education and been on the Grand Tour, then lived through the First World War. The four-language dedication to Ezra Pound (called “the better craftsman” – though Eliot says it in fourteenth century Italian) sets the intellectual tone. This is a difficult poem, and deliberately so. Allusions to European literature of all periods abound, jostling with classical mythology, Bible references and a keen observation of the minutiae of London life in the post-war years. The seventeen-page poem was published with its own seven pages of “explanatory” notes from Eliot. The notes are frequently not helpful; indeed many are more obscure than the matters they claim to elucidate. Eliot makes no concessions whatsoever to his readers. If you are not male, classically educated and part of the inter-war generation – well, tough!
15 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 27, 2010
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About the author
Graeme Davis
32 booksDr. Graeme J. Davis (born 1965) is an English linguist at the University of Buckingham. He holds a PhD in Anglo-Saxon from the University of St Andrews. He has lectured at the Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Northumbria and the Open University.
He is tutor for the University of Buckingham’s Stonehenge MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) and is editor of The Buckingham Journal of Language and Linguistics, which has developed from earlier journals edited by Dr. Davis, including Journal of Language and Linguistics and Lingua et Linguistica. He is series editor of two Peter Lang monograph series, Contemporary Studies in Descriptive Linguistics and Studies in Historical Linguistics. He is also academic advisor to the Fara Heim project for academic research around the history and archaeology of Hudson Bay and the Canadian Arctic.
His research interests include the mediaeval Germanic languages and cultures of the North Atlantic region. His book Contemporary Studies in Old English and Old Icelandic was supported by a British Academy research grant and by the University of Iceland. The Early English Settlement of Orkney and Shetland examines the cultural and linguistic background of the Northern Isles, while Vikings in America sets out the story of the Norse discovery and settlement of North America. Lexicographic work includes Dictionary of Surrey English, while the discipline of surname study has been developed in Research Your Surname and Your Family Tree. An author of more than two dozen books and dozens of articles, Dr. Davis has produced both primary research and popular accounts which seek to make scholarship accessible to a wide audience.
He is tutor for the University of Buckingham’s Stonehenge MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) and is editor of The Buckingham Journal of Language and Linguistics, which has developed from earlier journals edited by Dr. Davis, including Journal of Language and Linguistics and Lingua et Linguistica. He is series editor of two Peter Lang monograph series, Contemporary Studies in Descriptive Linguistics and Studies in Historical Linguistics. He is also academic advisor to the Fara Heim project for academic research around the history and archaeology of Hudson Bay and the Canadian Arctic.
His research interests include the mediaeval Germanic languages and cultures of the North Atlantic region. His book Contemporary Studies in Old English and Old Icelandic was supported by a British Academy research grant and by the University of Iceland. The Early English Settlement of Orkney and Shetland examines the cultural and linguistic background of the Northern Isles, while Vikings in America sets out the story of the Norse discovery and settlement of North America. Lexicographic work includes Dictionary of Surrey English, while the discipline of surname study has been developed in Research Your Surname and Your Family Tree. An author of more than two dozen books and dozens of articles, Dr. Davis has produced both primary research and popular accounts which seek to make scholarship accessible to a wide audience.
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October 30, 2016
A beginning of a beginning
This is at least a starting point in understanding Eliot's dark masterpiece. There are detailed commentaries, of course, to assist us, but the journey is our own.
This is at least a starting point in understanding Eliot's dark masterpiece. There are detailed commentaries, of course, to assist us, but the journey is our own.
Displaying 1 of 1 review