Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) was born in St. Louis, Missouri to middle class parents whose families had ties to the Eastern seaboard. In 1906, Eliot attended Harvard where he studied philosophy and earned his bachelor's degree and his masters. While working on his doctorate, Eliot moved to London where he remained for the rest of his life, eventually becoming a citizen of England and a devoted member of the Anglican Church. In 1915, Eliot married his first wife, Vivien Haigh-Wood, a highly unstable person. Later in life, Eliot would reflect that the marriage was a disaster: "I came to persuade myself that I was in love with Vivienne simply because I wanted to burn my boats and commit myself to staying in England. And she persuaded herself (also under the influence of [Ezra] Pound) that she would save the poet by keeping him in England. To her, the marriage brought no happiness. To me, it brought the state of mind out of which came The Waste Land." Initially unable to support himself or his new wife with the income from his poetry--even such early modernist masterpieces as "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock," Eliot took a job at London's Lloyds Bank in the Colonial and Foreign Department.
Ill and exhausted both from his position at the bank and from Vivienne's physical and mental health issues, Eliot suffered a mental breakdown in 1921. Recuperating at Margate and Lausanne, Eliot completed a draft of The Waste Land (1922), working from fragments that he had been working on since 1918. Eliot sent the draft of the poem to his fellow poet, Ezra Pound. Pound worked to trim the massive 19 page poem down to size and for his work on the poem, Eliot dedicated The Waste Land to Pound and called him "il miglior fabbro" (the better craftsman). Pound was also the better promoter and it was his work as Eliot's agent that helped secure The Waste Land as an emblem of the new modernist movement. Pound ensured that that poem was published internationally and almost simultaneously. The poem first appeared in the October issue of the British magazine The Criterion and a week later in the prestigious American periodical The Dial. A month later, The Waste Land appeared in book form--complete with Eliot's notes--through the American publisher Boni and Liveright.
The poem is deservedly noted for its difficulty. Originally entitled He Do the Police in Different Voices, the poem often shifts speakers without much notice and sometimes within the same stanza. It is also highly allusive, referencing everything from Shakespeare, the Bible, Dante's Inferno, Hindu mythology, Greek tragedy, and popular Tin Pan Alley songs. Eliot's poetry follows the Symbolist tradition in poetry, a tradition that Eliot became acquainted with at Harvard. Beginning in the mid-19th century in France, the Symbolist movement used "structures and conceits. . . built upon grand, illogical, [and] intuitive associations" (Poets.org). Rather than trying to make perfect, rational, intellectual sense of the poem, the goal of the reader in the Symbolist poem is to help the author complete the poem. When reading The Waste Land, I want you to note the different speakers and try not to construct a coherent narrative, but to grasp at the emotional sense of the poem. To do so, you will need to read slowly and carefully, using the footnotes when necessary, and annotating the text as you go. The Waste Land calls for multiple readings.
Reading:
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land, 834-46
The Waste Land script
Directions: Read The Waste Land first in the Norton and then read the script that I have prepared. Remember, that the script is an adaptation of the poem and is therefore an adaptation. While some of the names are taken directly from the poem some are the creation of myself or the online project He Do the Police in Different Voices
Study Question:
1. What recurring themes or images do you see throughout The Waste Land?
2. How does Eliot use montage to suggest meaning?
