MB UNIUD

Page 326, exercise 1

He starts imagining an alternative from the 16^th line (as a matter of fact it begins with "if there were...")

• a) The landscape described is sterile, made up of rocks (the word rock is used six times), mountains and sand. There is no water (mentioned three times), everything is dry, even the storm has no rain (but only thunder). This landscape is so sterile that you can't even think, you can't even find solitude, because in this land life cannot exist.
• b) The landscape is imaginary: the narrator tries to find a perfect land for him. He doesn't need the cicada and he can accept the presence of the rocks, but he wants water, he wants life, even the small and apparently insignificant life of a few grass.
• c) They have in common only the presence of rocks and the solitude that you can find there.
• d) In the first part of the extract there are quite long lines made up of hard-sounded words (such as rock, road etc.) that convey the idea of sterility. Alliteration has a very important role in this part. The second half is characterised by assonance and long vowel sounds. They reminds the reader to the imaginary concept of spring, water and so a fertile land.

Exercise 3

At the beginning the term water is just used to convey an idea of the sterile landscape. Then it represents a need of human beings (they must drink) but also their certainty, because where water is present people can stop and even think. Finally it represents a living and creative force, whose presence could change the waste land, and so human situation.

Exercise 4

Many words can be considered unpoetic, for example all terms referring to sterility (dry, carious teeth, spit, sullen faces sneer and snarl).

Exercise 5

• 1) No, it is not. As a matter of fact in the first part lines have many syllables, while in the second there are made up of only few words. Moreover there is no precise rhyme scheme.
• 2) No, it cannot, but maybe we can divide it into (irregular) scenes.
• 3) In the first part the rhythm, caused by alliteration of hard sounds, and the compact layout represent the rocky landscape described in the poem, while in the second part more melodious sounds and the layout (with short lines) convey the idea of water and so life.

CHECK YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Exercise 1

• 1) They are people who are going to work in the City (the financial and economic area of the city). Anyway they could represent every person, and especially those who hope to find a life sense in money.
• 2) Eliot alludes to Dante's Inferno. There is a comparison between unbaptised people in the Hell who desire to see God, but they cannot, and people who goes to work in London.
• 3) The speaker had met him at Mylae
• 4) It should be kept far from a corpse.

Exercise 2

In the first part the presence of "rock" is made tangible through the frequent repetition of the word and the absence of water. All the other desert images derive fro the central one - "the sandy road", "sweat (which is) dry", "feet in the sand", "carious teeth that cannot spit", "dry sterile thunder without rain", "mudcracked houses". The monotonous rhythm and the compact layout suit the quality of the barren rocky landscape.

In the second part the presence of water is created though the repetition of the word and seems to take several shapes - those of "a pool", "a spring", "the sound of water", "sound of watr over a rock", "(the song of) the hermit thrush", "in the pine trees". ‘Water' has a more melodious sound than ‘rock' and suits the pleasant aspects of the imaginary landscape. The lively rhythm seems to echo the flowing water. The layout can suggest a water-fall.

The juxtaposition of the two sets of images is effective. Desert images suggest spiritual bareness, solitude, absence of life and therefore death. Instead, water images with their Biblical connotation (e.g. baptism, purification) and rural connotation (e.g. fertility, freshness of green vegetation) convey the concept of what gives life and joy.