This line translates to "then he hid himself in the fire that refines them", taken from Dante's Purgatorio, in which Dante observes a group of souls guilty of lust trapped in a 'cleansing fire'. It is interesting that in a stanza so filled with imagery of water, the speaker sits on the shore, fishes, and mentions London Bridge, which contains water below, there is a line about fire. After four lines about water, Eliot puts in the quote meaning "then he hid himself in the fire that refines them", once again putting opposites in close proximity. Further, by ending the poem in this way, Eliot suggests this poem takes place in a sort of middle-ground between opposing ideas, and at the conclusion, fire wins and the speaker returns to reside in the fire. I also found it interesting that Eliot chose a quote coming from the Canto about souls that committed the sin of lust: the excess of desire. Is this a commentary on how society has an excess of desire and ambition to the point where it destroys itself by fire? Yet, because the fire is being described as purifying, is this fire of desire a good thing?

I am still not exactly sure what Eliot means by 'dry' bones here, but I see a connection to the Dracula source here with the subject conquering fear. Harker, in the beginning of the passage, says "I shall not fear to sleep in any place where he is not". The idea of being trapped/imprisoned is present in both: being imprisoned by one's body and physical form versus being trapped by another. Further, by taking power away from bones that are dry, Eliot is explaining that water causes harm.

Eliot mentions another cycle in this section: the cycle of rain. The cycle of rain is unpredictable: too much rain is harmful to the land, and too little rain causes drought. Balance is key in this cycle. This cycle is interconnected with seasons and the cycle of life, as each season is characterized by a specific type of weather. If the rain cycle is not optimal for the season, the rain cannot nourish the land and crops will not be produced. The Right of Thunder describes the people worshipping thunder because it is a symbol of the immortal god Zeus and a physical representation of his power. Yet, Eliot here is describing the thunder as sterile, possibly commentating on immortality and critiquing the idea of religion. Is Eliot voicing an opinion on religion and how it contradicts the natural cycles of life?

The Phoenician Sailor proves to be an integral part of TWL, as the character has not only reappeared three times in various sections of the poem, but Eliot also references this character in his poem "Mr. Apollinax". Eliot references this character that is constructed out of a possibly made-up tarot card and a reference to Shakespeare's The Tempest to Mr. Apollinax's laughter, describing it as, "submarine and profound Like the old man of the sea’s Hidden under coral islands Where worried bodies of drowned men drift down in the green silence, Dropping from fingers of surf." (Eliot, 8-12) Phlebas is depicted as one of the many dead bodies drifting in the sea, categorized into a clump of floating, useless matter. However, in the poem, Eliot describes the drowned sailor as having "pearls that were his eyes"(Eliot, 48). This evokes imagery of creating beauty, pearls, out of dead matter, his body. Also, with the allusion to Shakespeare, this description provides undertones of deception, as Ferdinand was tricked into believing his father was dead with this line. In this sea of connections with TWL, Eliot's other work, tarot, and Shakespeare, I am stuck trying to blend together all of these texts to extract a deeper significance of the character of Phlebas. Is Eliot, in Mr. Apollinax, referencing mass death and destruction of WWI with his description of a mathematical genius's laugh? This connection leads to an interesting analysis of the character of Mr. Apollinax, who represents Bertrand Russell, to whom modern symbolic logic is credited. Eliot stresses the importance of his work on literature, but could this effect be a negative one? Is Eliot relating logic to the destruction of literature?

Eliot evokes feelings of heat in the water, as sweating is a reaction to a hot surrounding environment. In TWL, water has been associated with desolation: the ocean does not bring Isolde and Tristan together and causes death, and even water cannot bring life to a wasteland. In The Fire Sermon, Buddhism explains that imagining fire is the answer; if you allow all your senses to simply burn, you will achieve the goal of Buddhism. Traditionally, fire is a death-bringing substance, while water is a life-bringing substance, but Eliot reverses them here.

Eliot describes the female in a predatory manner: following a sexual act, she is uninterested in her partner. Similar to the way Gourmont describes spiders mating, the female is being placed into the typical role of the male: the female spider is "the larger and stronger". Further, he goes on to illustrate a sense of fear in the male spider. Both of these examples place females in a very masculine role. The female holds the power, and, in TWL, the acts seems focused on the needs of the female instead of the male. Further, by describing this act as a 'meal', it signifies nourishment of the female, again, emphasizing the pleasure of the female. This contradicts the stereotypical female archetype we have studied through figures such as Sybil, Ophelia, and Philomena. I wonder how this role reversal Eliot is playing into relates to cycles of life in a wasteland. By the title of the poem and the heavy imagery of unproductive life cycles in a wasteland, is Eliot criticizing the idea of females having the power and saying that this is unsustainable?

Eliot continues to strip individuals of sound and voice in this section of the poem. Speaking and singing are very human things, singing often symbolizing beauty and emotion. By asking the Thames to "run softly till I end my song", he is alluding to death, as he often does with describing water as a death-bringing substance rather than one of life and hydration. Yet, this speaker seems to only be able to speak while the river flows. We again come to a contradiction: the river is simultaneously bringing death by allowing this person to end their song and allowing the character to speak and continue to live. In Psalm 137:4, the Bible states "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?", which, in conversation with TWL, evokes conversation of a wasteland. The idea that one is unable to speak, to express life, in a wasteland, furthers the desolate nature Eliot describes.

This section along with the segment of Hamlet and the Middleton deals with ideas of time and expiration, especially with women. In chess, each piece serves a purpose. Once their purpose is served and they have made a move to expose themselves, the piece is taken off the board. In the play "A Game at Chess", the Virgin White Queen's Pawn is labeled ignorant and inferior by the Jesuit Black Bishop's Pawn. By placing a story of sexual misconduct, the seduction of the Virgin Queen's Pawn by the Jesuit Bishop's Pawn, inside the framework of a chess game, Middleton equates a woman losing innocence to an object being taken off the board. The piece no longer has a purpose; it simply exists in an adjacent reality. Further, the action of being placed off of a chess board simulates the idea of a wasteland: the piece exists, but is stuck in a space where nothing happens. After the pawn rids the queen's pawn of innocence, she asks of the bishop's pawn, "Then take my life, sir,/ And leave my honour for my guide to heaven"(Middleton, 16). She has no choice but to ask for death, as she has 'expired'. This idea of womanhood needing to be attached to manhood in order for it to be sustainable is also present in Hamlet. After Hamlet discards Ophelia as a lover and kills Ophelia's father, Polonius. Not only is it unclear if Ophelia has lost her virginity to Hamlet and may be 'expired' and 'unpure', but she now has no man to be linked to. When going on a tangent about flowers, Ophelia mentions "I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died". Violets are known to symbolize modesty. Thus, Ophelia's modesty has rotted after Hamlet killed her father, meaning her society has now stripped her of purpose. Ultimately, this leads to Ophelia's suicide. In this line in TWL, any physical signs of old age in women are being depicted as undesirable. Eliot is referencing society's emphasis on women to be 'pure' and 'untouched' because as seen in "A Game of Chess" and Hamlet, once women have served their purpose, they cease to exist.

Furthering the theme of confusing and overlapping the cycle of life, Eliot depicts flames ascending to the world, as if from Hell. Further, Baudelaire depicts the land as "Red, living blood, that the linen drinks up / As greedily as a meadow". The land is described as hungry for blood, as blood is the elixir that fuels the land. Historically, after wars, the economy often is boosted. This is mirrored in the land; after a war, death seeps into the land, nourishing the soil and causing prosperity. Therefore, by Eliot describing flames from hell coming into the world, he is highlighting a contradiction: periods of extreme death and loss bring life. It is interesting that the death and blood that benefits the land is filled with evil, as the imagery of the death has often been linked to individuals going to hell.

This line references the lines in Dante's Inferno that translate to "Unfamiliar tongues, horrendous accents,/ words of suffering, cries of rage, voices/ loud and faint, the sound of slapping hands". In Eliot's imitation of these lines, the crowd of people greets death with much more acceptance. Further, although sighs can be symbols of resentment, one can also sigh in relief. In the Inferno, the sounds seem much more harmful to the ear, but Eliot not only takes all emotion out of the soon-to-be dead, but he also uses the passive voice to take humanity away from them. The large influx of dead people is an obvious reference to WWI, but the additional influence of Dante implies that the soldiers are going to hell. Eliot is emphasizing his critique of the war and showing his disapproval of all who participated.

This line, from Tristan and Iseult, translates to "empty and desolate is the sea". This was said in the context of Tristan hoping for Iseult to arrive by the sea to save him, but she arrives just in time to watch her lover die. In the previous lines, there is heavy imagery of dust and drought as means of desolation, and how nature in this state does not provide its benefits. However, even the addition of water cannot cure the land's infertility, as the water is described as 'desolate'. Even with the fundamental building blocks to produce a crop, it is impossible to produce or enhance life without life itself. This adds to the idea that a Waste Land, land barren of all cycles of life, is inherently incapable of being fertile. In Christianity, water is a common symbol for rebirth, pushing the cycle of life to continue. However, Eliot disagrees, showing that water itself is not the sole catalyst for these cycles. This touches on the conflicting nature of the mythology and religion Eliot touches on in TWL.

In the spring, the plants begin to sprout due to optimal weather conditions. They are only able to grow and obtain nutrients through the soil, which is filled with dead, decomposed matter. Therefore, are plants nothing more than a reincarnation of what lies in the soil below? In “The Burial of the Dead”, Basevi mentions “man is but naked bones, corruption, and food for worms”. This dead matter is recycled into the land, and the outcome is the vegetation of spring. Eliot, when referencing spring being a cruel time, alludes to the fact that plants are simply dead bodies. In the process of being buried, you will be reborn through plants. In a scientific sense, Basevi was not far from the truth, as, through burial, one gains immortality. “The Burial of the Dead” nourishes the soil in order for plants to grow.

In “Heart of Darkness”, Conrad implies that the ‘horror’ Kurtz mentions before his death is life: a grueling journey of searching for purpose and deciphering the puzzles that it brings. Similarly, Sybil, in the Satyricon, regrets her wish for immortality and wishes death upon herself. It seems that Eliot, in the epigraph, depicts the curse of life. One will have regrets no matter what the decision is, and those regrets will define one’s life. It’s interesting that Eliot’s poem places such a large emphasis on these historical works of literature when the poem is preceded by a quote filled with resentment toward the past. However, as Conrad says about his choice to keep living, “The most you can hope from [life] is some knowledge of yourself– that comes too late– a crop of unextinguishable regrets”(Conrad, 5). The knowledge that comes with life is described as a crop, showing that even in this cynical outlook on life, one’s experiences and knowledge provides sustenance and nourishment. Eliot’s takes a more positive read on what Conrad describes as “merciless logic for a futile purpose”. The entire poem, in a sense, is criticizing Conrad’s disapproval of the intellectual journey that life is. Similar to The Rite of Spring ballet, viewers are hesitant to appreciate a work’s beauty because it is difficult to understand. Eliot reveals a hidden gem of life through “The Waste Land”: with enough effort, one can come to appreciate the intellectual side of life that is criticized by Conrad. Is this why Eliot pulls any direct reference to Conrad’s work out of TWL? Does Eliot, through writing the poem, realize he disagrees with Conrad and Kurtz’s interpretation of life?

The title of the poem determines the setting as a ‘Waste Land’, labeling the land as a useless space: there is no purpose or ownership over the land. The poem begins in the month of April, a transitional time between seasons. This barren land belongs to neither winter nor spring and lies in a time when winter has left the land desolate, and the beauty of spring has yet to act on the vegetation. The Golden Bough places emphasis on the importance of fertility in the land, as this is the foundation of human life and must be present for society to “enrich and beautify human life” further (Fraser, 6). The story of Attis ends with his death under a pine tree. As he is dying, his blood seeps into the ground, infiltrating the roots of the vegetation. Not only does the poem take place in a time of transition, but Eliot also writes in the context of a post-WWI time. The soil is filled with the death of the war, causing desolation.