MB UNIUD

Analysis of an extract taken from What the Thunder Said by T. S. Eliot

The extract is organized into two stanzas. It talks about an unfertile and a fertile landscape.

In the first stanza the poem talks about a desert landscape. As a matter of fact it says that there "is no water but only rock[...]and the sandy road". The landscape is made of rocks, a sandy road and "mountains of rock without water (snow)". The mountains are like "carious teeth that cannot spit". The people who live in this desert have got red sullen faces and sneer and snarl. Also the thunder, which usually brings rain, is dry. The scenery here described conveys the idea of solitude, portrayed by the lack of water. Water brings life, life brings hope: people don't like solitude. If they are with someone they feel safe. Eventually in this poem the portrait we have of the people that live in the desert landscape are angry and frightened. They have lost their faith, they have no more hopes.

The first stanza ends with a line that is the beginning of the second stanza: "If there were water". This means that the poet wanted to create a connection between the stanzas. Probably he wants to say that people mustn't loose their faith. He uses a conditional past. If there were only the sound of water (the idea that things can change and grow up in a better way) there would be spring and trees.

But, in the last line, the poet goes back to reality and says that "there is no water". Also the poet has lost all his hopes. Sometimes people make journeys with their minds, they dream to be in better places and situations, but they have always to go back to reality, were all their hopes and dreams are broken. The poet says that you can try to escape but the truth is that "there is no water", there is no possibility of regeneration, there is no possibility of redemption.