Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song. The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers, Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.
The evidence of what once was has left, but in a cruel manner.
I think we are in rats’ alley Where the dead men lost their bones.
A feeling of being amongst death
April is the cruellest month
I always saw April as one of the more beautiful months. But sometimes beauty is the greatest cause of pain for those who can't relate to it.
London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down
I find this reference to the London bridge interesting here. The last time it was mentioned in the poem was the end of the first book. This seems to bring the poem full circle by having the first and last book end with a similar mention while also referencing death
Burning burning burning burning
This book is called The Fire Sermon, but is only here at the end that we get fire. This book, like much of the poem, has a motif of water. In this book specifically, we have the Thames, damp ground, the sailor home from sea, fisherman, the river, barges, and more. There is little to do with heat or flames. In a piece with so little to do with fire, it makes us ask the question: why is this section called The Fire Sermon? It is followed by a reference to the Lord. Is the poem referencing Hell?
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. Oed’ und leer das Meer.
This directly links to the epigraph included at the beginning of the poem. It's about Cumaean Sibyl, an oracle and prophetess for Apollo, who made her immortal. In that piece, she is saying all she wants is to die, and I find this section of the poem to directly relate to that. She is neither living nor dead since she was immortal, and the heart of the light could be Apollo as he is the god of the sun and light. The last piece translates to "empty and desolate as the sea," which supports the contrast of life and death we see in the poem. This section can be so strongly connected to that opening piece, I don't see how it could be anything other than intentional.
Entering the whirlpool.
White bodies naked on the low damp ground
Are the bodies being considered as angels?
O you
This feels like a direct address to the reader. It feels didactic and adds to the overall sense of a religious sermon or teaching that comes from the section as a whole. It implicates the reader in the poem and asks the reader to address their own mortality.
Here is no water but only rock
This obsession with "rock" and "water" can be tied to images of nature and a state of constant flow to dry and cracked. If this section or book lacks water, then it lacks flow and a substance it needs for survival in a natural sense. Again, we are faced with imagery of death in a metaphor.
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.
A reference to the cards that were drawn within the first book, as well as the line implying that great things that once were, are fading,
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
Here we see the theme of death again, but this time describing how mountains are dead without water just like humans would be.
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Death seems to have surprised man people and made them question the reality of its coming.
April is the cruellest month
It's ironic that "April is the cruelest month", because April usually represents spring, birth, rejuvenation, etc. This suggests that death is present in the "waste land". Even though spring brings life, it also brings death; whatever is born must die.
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock,
This part of the poem is creating a contrast with nature because we usually see objects of nature as something lively, but here they are being represented as something lifeless.
He passed the stages of his age and youth Entering the whirlpool.
The brain/human trying to make sense of his life before it's too late. This is the time when people decide to take stock of their lives and really take account of themselves. Death is a great motivator!
He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying
These two lines indicate that the wheels are always turning. The circle of life. The only thing constant is change!
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Changing over the years, these different stages he encountered are his memories from his past. Up and down and back and forth. Ultimately ending in death.
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
I believe this is our drown Phoenician that was referenced in the tarot reading from the first book. The cards in a tarot reading will usually indicate your current position in life and future paths, and I feel like this whole book is a sort of warning that the recipient of the tarot reading was supposed to get. When we look to the last line of the book, it's ominous and warns caution.
I think we are in rats’ alley Where the dead men lost their bones.
This is about modernity and how we inherit this world where the past remains and death residents in the slums of the streets. It's the grit and the grime, it's the hustle and bustle, it's the city life at its rawest form.
He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying
Things that were ruined are regaining life, while the things that were alive are now being ruined by those things regaining life. Nature was ruined by man and revives, and now man is ruined by nature, because he no longer knows how to live within it.
Entering the whirlpool
reminds me of graveyard poets in England, reflecting the idea that in the end, everyone dies just the same. He can be anyone and this is a realization often reached when close to death
“That corpse you planted last year in your garden, “Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
these lines of dramatic dialogue insinuate many things, such as: death being serious and sad while at the same time being obscured and normal, the dialogue suggests several speakers, at least two and adds to the context of book 1. The last stanza opens with "unreal city" so to ask about a corpse planted in a garden is justifiable in regards to the current conditions
He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying
The circle of life, revolves around death and life but also the in-between and what we don't know about the after life is a big mystery, which takes us back to the unseen, the living dead, or just the dead. It reminds me of the lilacs that bloom from dead land, which could possibly signify that even though we lose people, we also gain new life.
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Decaying, passing life, getting older, leading up to death.
And condemned for what? For practicing devotion, For a reverence that was right?”
Antigone is portraying herself as a martyr. She intentionally disobeyed Creon, not only to stay true to her beliefs, but also because she knew she would be put to death. Thus, she would become immortalized as a symbol of rebellion and would expose the corruption and injustice behind Creon and his power. She also seemed to be driven by her own pride and inability to compromise her beliefs and therefore lost her life in return. Antigone then killed herself as another act of pride, so she would be able to be in control of her own demise, rather than be executed by the hands of another. Antigone's actions and motives demonstrate that she too was fighting for power in the situation, whether it be because of her pride or seeing herself as the role of martyr.
The doom in our blood comes back.
In the final pages of the play, doom is really the only word to describe the sequence of events. Antigone kills herself before Creon changes his mind, and as a result, Creon's wife and son both commit suicide as well. By trying to establish order through dictatorial edicts, Creon alienates the people he is trying to protect and ultimately, they turn their back on him. Literally, they would rather die than live another moment in his Thebes. And like all Greek tragedies, this play proved to be incredibly ironic. In trying to keep order, Creon unleashes utter chaos upon Thebes.
"It was Woman, with her sudden fears, her irrational whims, her instinctive fears, her unprovoked bravado, her daring and her delicious delicacy of feeling" Who is speaking in this way? Is it the story's hero, concerned to ignore the castrato concealed beneath the woman? Is it the man Balzac, endowed by his personal experience with a philosophy of Woman?
Interesting that the prompt is gender fluidity.
THE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR / ROLAND BARTHES
Barthes, Roland. 1967. “Death of the Author.” Edited by Brian O’Doherty. Translated by Richard Howard. Aspen 5+6 (Fall/Winter): Item 3. http://www.ubu.com/aspen/aspen5and6/threeEssays.html#barthes.
What happens when your consciousness no longer controls the cells of your body? The bodydisintegrates, the cells separate, and their work for the time being is finished. But do the cells dieor lose consciousness? No, they simply sleep or rest for a period, and after a while unite withother cells and form new combinations, and sooner or later appear in other manifestations of life,-- perhaps mineral, perhaps vegetable, perhaps animal; showing that they still retain their originalconsciousness and but await the action of My Will to join together in a new organism to do thework of the new consciousness through which I desire to manifest.Then apparently this cell consciousness is a consciousness common to all bodies, -- mineral,vegetable, animal, human, -- each cell fitted perhaps by experience for a certain general kind ofwork?Yes, this cell consciousness is common to every cell of every body, no matter what its kind,because it is an Impersonal consciousness, having no purpose other than doing the work allottedit. It lives only to work wherever needed. When through with building one form, it takes up thework of building another, under whatever consciousness I desire it to serve.Thus it is likewise with you
What occurs when the physical body dies.......... cells, energy................
“Speakin’ o’ creeds,” and here old Mrs. Sargent paused in her work, “Elder Ransom from Acreville stopped with us last night, an’ he tells me they recite the Euthanasian Creed every few Sundays in the Episcopal Church. I didn’t want him to know how ignorant I was, but I looked up the word in the dictionary. It means easy death, and I can’t see any sense in that, though it’s a terrible long creed, the Elder says, an’ if it’s any longer ’n ourn, I should think anybody might easy die learnin’ it!” “I think the word is Athanasian,” ventured the minister’s wife.
authoritative source of information
the third who walks always beside you
It may be 'death' or even God that is always with him
We who were living are now dying With a little patience
life equates with death So what is 'living' then? Nothing more?
No joke is funny unless you see the point of it, and sometimes a point has to be explained.
Sounds logical, in the abstract. But the explanation is often known to “kill the joke”, to decrease the humour potential. In some cases, it transforms the explainee into the butt of a new joke. Something similar has been said about hermeneutics and æsthetics. The explanation itself may be a new form of art, but it runs the risk of first destroying the original creation.
river ran red with blood
death in water: river ran red with blood: cf. Aeschylus Persae