With lilacs, put memories and desires
Together, let the spring rain
The second section of those prosaic root bud poems is urged to use abstract and solemn sentences to point out the theme: Europe is in ruins, the land is dry and the plants are withered, which vividly shows the decline of the whole western civilization. At the same time, this symbolic image also implies that Europeans indulge their selfish desires and lose their religious beliefs, leading to spiritual and spiritual emptiness; Those who violate God's precepts and forget the existence of God will be in big trouble.
Chapter II "Games". Through the description of women from several different social classes, the post-war social atmosphere is truly reproduced, which seems to show the degeneration of women, but in essence reflects the degeneration of the whole human nature and civilization: in addition to luxury and enjoyment, there are gaps that cannot be filled, or boring topics such as "wearing dentures". In short, there is only ugliness, not beauty. The second upper-class woman is a whiny and bossy woman. A few words about her in the poem are extremely vivid: I am in a bad mood tonight. Yes, not good. Stay with me.
Talk to me. Why do you always keep silent? Say it.
What are you thinking about? Think about what? What?
I never know what you are thinking. Think about it. At the end of Hamlet, Sanfilia's crazy farewell to life before drowning was slightly changed, which made the extremely sad words become the spoken words of ordinary citizens, thus implicitly expressing the poet's sad and desperate mood.
Chapter III "Fire Commandment". Extend the theme of the second chapter: the fire of desire burns in every corner of the world. Throughout the article, we use the comparison between the past and the present to expose the evils of modern times. At first, I quoted a poem from Spencer's Wedding Song, describing the fairy swimming in the Thames, singing the beautiful scenery of nature and happy mood. Then, the poet wrote about the vulgar and obscene lives of various characters in London. The poet borrowed Tiresias, a blind man who can predict the future, from Ovid's Metamorphosis as a bystander. Finally, I quote Sakyamuni's fire commandment and St. Augustine's confession. The ascetic monks in both the East and the West are opposed to the fire of lust. They all emphasize the need to burn out the fire of human desire with the sacred flame, so that human beings can be reborn and return to simplicity. This poem strongly reflects Eliot's desire to seek spiritual export from religion and save human society.
The fourth chapter "Death in Water" is very short, with only ten lines in total. Still use the allusions in the Confessions of Saint Augustine. Through the story of Phoenician sailor Philippas indulging in drowning in the sea, people are warned not to repeat the same mistakes, suggesting that only by converting to religion and God can they be saved.
The fifth chapter is "the words of thunder". At the beginning, the story of Jesus' crucifixion in the Bible and the New Testament is implicitly used, and it is still repeatedly emphasized that modern Europeans have lost their religious beliefs and are in a state of "death despite life" and "life is death". Then, the poem writes that the whole of Europe is a wasteland, "there is no water here, only rocks" and "people here can neither stand, lie nor sit". There is a dying picture everywhere: "There is no silence on the mountain/only thunder and rain/no loneliness on the mountain/only a blushing gloomy face sneering and growling/appearing at the door of a house with cracks in the mud."
The poet finally pinned his hopes on religion. According to this poem, thunder and lightning, rain from the sky. Thunder is talking. Its voice is: "Dana, Dayada, Dayata." This is not only an onomatopoeic word describing thunder, but also three Sanskrit words quoted from the Vedas: "giving, compassion and restraint". Eliot believes that only by adhering to this doctrine can mankind be saved. The reading guide "The Waste Land" expresses the disillusionment of a whole generation in the West after World War I, highly summarizes the common mental diseases in the West after World War II, and advocates that only by converting to religion and following the admonition of "giving, sympathy and restraint" can spiritual salvation be obtained. After the publication of the long poem, the word "wasteland" itself became a symbol of the decline of western civilization and became a famous "wasteland view" in the western world.
Eliot claimed that the title, structure and symbolic meaning of The Waste Land were mostly inspired by the works of two anthropologists, namely, From Sacrifice to Myth by Ms. Wei Stern and Golden Branches by Fraser.
Because of obscure and suggestive symbols and too many quotations and allusions, The Waste Land is difficult to understand. Many poems would be almost incomprehensible if the author had not made many comments himself. In this 433-line poem, only the poet himself added 52 notes. Therefore, after The Waste Land was published, it caused a heated debate. Admirers certainly admire it, while opponents criticize it as confusing and obscure. In all fairness, The Waste Land, after careful reading, chewing and pondering, has achieved far more achievements in thought and art than other contemporary poems, which can be called a milestone of western modernist poetry.