T.S ELIOT – THE WASTE LAND (THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD)

Abstract

In the English literature, there are many outstanding writers that have given the best for the English as a world language. This research will examine T.S Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land, specifically the first part of the poem, which is The Burial of the Dead, where the whole focus of this study is to provide a linguistic explanation regarding this poem. The fact that Eliot examined major themes of spiritual emptiness, loneliness, and despair, the main reason why this poem is being analyzed lies in the description of huge losses, including those of World War I, where the war demonstrates the negative aspects, such as the pains and the sufferings that affect every human being. Eliot uses The Waste Land’s fragmented and chaotic structure, in order to illustrate how difficult is to find meaning in the modern world, by sharply contrasting the depictions of contemporary industrial civilization with mythological references. In The Waste Land, at the beginning of the poem, the seasons are described, mentioning that April is the cruelest month, because it crosses a barren landscape, where winter is much kinder. Eliot shifts to what appear to be more precise recollections from this hazy invocation of time and nature. The language used of Eliot’s poem in The Burial of the Dead, which is the first part of the five sections, it is with some major changes, due to some words, but yet he has used perfect English, that is easily understood by readers. Since modernism in literature is fueled by industrialization and urbanization, many important works that Eliot has written during his life, influenced him to be a famous figure in the modern poetry, where he exercised a significant impact on Anglo-American culture and society. Eliot is credited with founding the modern poetry movement, where his poetry exemplifies high modernism in every way, including its emphasis on form as the bearer of meaning, its collage like juxtaposition of various voices, traditions and discourses, and its use of myth to support and organize atomized modern life. The poems and plays that Eliot published during his life, fill a single volume. His prose works are assemblages of conversations and sporadic pieces of journalism. The Waste Land (The Burial of the Dead) was written in the horrific times, and this poem explains how society has become disorganized and collapsed. In narrating this, the poet uses a wide range of topics, a multitude of imagery, and numerous languages and civilizations.