Page 408 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

Unit 31: Hughes and T.S. Eliot

DA Notes
Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prison
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison
Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours
Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus
DA
Damyata: The boat responded
Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar
The sea was calm, your heart would have responded
Gaily, when invited, beating obedient
To controlling hands

I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my lands in order?

London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down

Poi s’ascose nel foco che gli affina
Quando fiam ceu chelidon—O swallow swallow
Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie
These fragments I have shored against my ruins
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Shantih shantih shantih
“The Waste Land” is not quite the poem Eliot originally drafted. Eliot’s close friend and colleague,
Ezra Pound, significantly revised the poem, suggesting major cuts and compressions. Thanks to
Pound’s heavy editing, as well as suggestions (specifically about scenes relevant to their stormy,
hostile marriage) from Haigh-Wood, “The Waste Land” defined Modernist poetry and became
possibly the most influential poem of the century. Devoid of a single speaker’s voice, the poem
ceaselessly shifts its tone and form, instead grafting together numerous allusive voices from Eliot’s
substantial poetic repertoire; Dante shares the stage with nonsense sounds (a technique that also
showcases Eliot’s dry wit). Believing this style best represented the fragmentation of the modern
world, Eliot focused on the sterility of modern culture and its lack of tradition and ritual.

Despite this pessimistic viewpoint, many find its mythical, religious ending hopeful
about humanity’s chance for renewal.

Pound’s influence on the final version of “The Waste Land” is significant. At the time of the poem’s
composition, Eliot was ill, struggling to recover from his nervous breakdown and languishing

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