I believe this line and passage to be an allusion to Psalm 63. Psalm 63 says "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is". both mention lack of water and dry land. The line "The road winding above among the mountains" leads me to believe it is a literal representation of a road to God because it says a road above the mountains.

all the sources deal with some version of loss at sea which points to the title of Death by water. specifically the Dante's excerpt deals with the specific instance of celebrating because they sea the land, but immediately after they get swallowed up by the sea. This idea relates back to the poem as a whole because the people are celebrating that the war is over, but not realizing that they are being swallowed up by the destroyed land and environment.

This line is caught my attention because it says the has no trash in it which goes against the idea that the area has become a wasteland due to the industrialization and the humans and war ruining the land. This image gives the idea that the river is clean and everything is well, but if we go down to later lines in the poem it says he hears the sound of horns and motors which brings negative human effect back into our view.

this allusion to Ophelia in Hamlet is interesting because in hamlet Ophelia goes mad and ends up committing suicide by drowning herself which plays back to the drowned Phoenician soldier in line 46. This line also says are you alive or not which reminds me of the sybil because she wishes to be dead and the Hyacinth girl because the hyacinth represents Hyacinthus who is dead being imortalized.

all the jewels and riches spoken about in this passage are examples of the envy, evil, and human desires that comes after the story of Adam and Eve that is told in Paradise lost. the story of adam and eve also relates to the waste land because they lose the garden of eden after trying the forbidden fruit just as the waste land deals with the issues of lost fertility in the land in England due to industrialization.

This line is taken from the preface of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal which is a early 20th century work that discusses the rapidly industrializing world at that time. Elliot alludes to this work because he as well is writing a little bit about how the industrialization of London has turned it into something of a wasteland. This line translates to hypocrite reader - my fellow, - my brother. This line that breaks the fourth wall is a way to connect with the reader and say that everybody is connected and feels the same way. He is calling out the reader who says that the industrialization is bad, but doesn't do anything about it.

The Lempriere document tells the story of hyacinthus and his relationship with apollo and how the hyacinth flower came to be. In that document we see that Apollo uses the hyacinth is used to immortalize hyacinthus due to how much he cared for him. Similarly Elliot says in a later line the hyacinth girl is neither living nor dead just as Hyacinthus was neither living nor dead because of Apollo's caring and loving act.

Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales uses the same starting Idea about April bringing the flowers, but has a completely opposite opinion about the month. Chaucer uses April to convey good times and the bringing of new and good, whereas Eliot views it as the worst time because it is causing the dead land to grow. He also says "winter kept us warm, covering / Earth in forgetful snow" which is the exact opposite of what you would imagine winter would do for you which is why I think this is a very interesting view. I think this opposite view of winter and april relates to the burial of the dead because the burial of the dead was in november and eliot views the winter has covering the ground and protecting it while the spring is bringing flowers out of the literal "dead land" that holds the bodies. I think that Eliot views it opposite to what you'd expect because of the recent war and all the death and hard times.

When comparing this version of the Waste Land to He Do the Police in Different Voices, it is obvious to the reader that this version is much darker and is more eery. This line as well as the opening line are blunt statements that induce a slight uneasiness. The later lines regarding the Tarot cards use the drowned Phoenician Sailor and the Hanged Man which are darker images. The original opening contrasts the final version because it introduces people and has a much warmer tone throughout which doesn't cause as much of a feeling of uneasiness.

The title The Waste Land is interesting because the poem has seasonal elements in it as we can see in the first lines of the poem. The seasons bring both growth and decay, but the title only focuses on the latter. The gods that we read about in the golden bough have similar elements to this poem with osiris being celebrated with sorrow and joy.