In a late-night, sleep deprived state, it seems like there is great meaning in the words, enough for it to act out some purpose, to perform some magic spell. This hope and self-belief is reduced to disappointment when sleep provides reemergence into the real world; into "yellow" cowardice and oppression. Words are reduced to "giberish" without the intoxicant of subjectivity. The early hours of the morning provide the same solace as the woods do in Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods", they are both "lovely dark and deep". Once the morning light returns and the veil is lifted, societies' pressures and the social consciousness of the poet returns. The would-be poet remembers they are deemed mad by society and therefore incapable of anything but "gibberish".

Throughout the text there are numerous allusions to the undead; characters especially seem to all be passing through a liminal phase between life and death. In The Waste Land, death has “undone so many”: the London Bridge crowd “walking round in a ring” like mindless zombies, the husband in A Game of Chess who has been “demobbed” and made unreachable, the “corpse” in The Burial of the Dead which may “bloom this year”, the Fisher King who is a “wreck”, even Tiresias is “throbbing between two lives” in The Fire Sermon. In this section, Phlebas the Phoenician’s journey follows a similar trajectory; he becomes fragmented as he “passed the stages of his age and youth”. However unlike the other figures of Eliot’s poem, he is granted a death without renewal or resurrection. The line “Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall” is written in the past tense; this cautionary tale confirms the prophecy of Madame Sosostris, who previously draws the ‘drowned sailor’ card. This renewal of faith-ability may represent a wider renewal in Eliot’s psyche. In The Waste Land, the characters are not the only aspects trapped in an interim stage; language and mythology too has become “a heap of broken images”, awaiting death or resurrection. Here in Death by Water, through allowing the historical figure of Phlebas to die, Eliot consoles himself in his abilities as a poet to enter the great Western poetic tradition. This section is a turning point in the poem, following after the all-important pre-cursor ‘The Fire Sermon’; where following from the Buddhist ritual of liberation from suffering through sensory detachment Eliot completes the modernist process of ‘cleansing’ and purifying words and language.

lack of communication between wife and disabled husband

these occupants of the waste land seem mindless

"Tell the whole world, and keep nothing back. Raise a signal flag to tell everyone that Babylon will fall! Her images and idols will be shattered" - Jeremiah 50:2

the image of a grate which has been sewn with thread is quite absurd; just like the "voluptuous water" of Williams' poem Stein is violating the boundaries of form and formlessness. By changing the spelling of the words "so great" but not the sounds, Stein questions language and its ability. Using the image of a solid metal grate becoming something that is sewn, Stein is portraying form as something which is perceived as strong and secure, but in actual fact is ineffective and useless. In short language and form cannot contain the transient vessels of meaning which words are.. bla bla...

it seems they are morally corrupted but still have hope aswell as a desire to escape their lives and to imagine a picturesque freedom

the form of the poem is reminiscent of short hand, except for certain details unnecessarily being noted for the intended reader - which does not seem to be us

:'(

repetition to show his reluctance to return to the civilized world of the village, sleep is far away from the dream-like quality of the "lovely, dark and deep" woods

It seems the men in the first stanza are mocking the pretentiousness of the poet in the second stanza, that tries so hard "to be sublime". They're only interests seem to be physical and interpersonal "young blood", "women", "brotherhood". A conflict is drawn out in these two stanzas between the visceral and cerebral experiences of the mind. The purpose of the poet is approached in a cynical manner, with them being designated an outdated and useless role; they are the "clerks of time", carrying out an unending task.

Synesthesia - mixing the senses, she is becoming extremely confused and Gilman is showing this by using this poetic technique

In the same way the image of the barred windows of the nursery suggest entrapment; the image of the peeling wallpaper becomes a metaphor for her mental deterioration

Du Bois has a clear idea of his social responsibility, which he sees as a responsibility to his own race. He fulfills this responsibility through his mentoring of aspiring African-American artists and his founding of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

Here Du Bois presents the problem faced by a black writer or artist; they must attempt to appeal to a black audience who remains oppositional to white society, as well as a white audience who Du Bois feels they can only impress through a display of skill and artistry - being measured to white cultural standards

the outer world of America offers so much opposition and prejudice towards African-Americans that it overwhelms them and prevents them from fostering any sense of self

The Branly coherer is a primitive form of radio signal detector