Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
FComelli - Here is no water but only rock. Analysis
by - (2009-02-03)
Up to Modernist Literary Output. From V. Woolf to T.S.Eliot to J. Joyce
In this short essay I'm going to analyse "Here is no water but only rock".
It is the first line of an extract from the last section of "The Wasteland". It relies on "What the Thunder said" about the desolation of the western culture. The thunder isn't able to provide the land with its need of water.
Analyzing the layout an intelligent reader can understand that the text is divided into two paragraphs.
The first one has got the lines longer than the second one. , According to the layout, in my opinion, the last paragraph looks more poetic than the first one.
In the text there are more repetitions and a lot of figures of speech. In the first two lines the reader can find the opposition between "water" and "rock". The repetition at the beginning of the line of the last word of the former line, goes on until line four.
In the text the reader can notice that the word water is repeated eleven times and the world rock is repeated nine times.
Another frequent repetition in the text is the world mountain that conveys the desolation of a place where there is no life. It is the symbol for all the "Wasteland". In lines five and six the reader can notice the rhyme between "drink" and "think" as if without water there isn't a reason to reflect about the problems of life and everything became meaningless.
Other elements sustaining such interpretation are the harsh sounds of "sneer and snarl" (in assonance) and "mudcracked". Those are not usually words for a poem.
Starting from line 16 the reader can notice the layout changes: it seems to follow the pattern of a waterfall.
The lines become shorter: "rock" and "water" are repeated twice.
The last line doesn't leave place for an hope, as a matter of fact she says: "but there is no water".
Eliot uses anthropological devices, but he isn't able to find a solution for the situation of the modern world. And the sad conclusion he tells us that the new awareness of the condition of the world doesn't calm the search for "fertility", it rather stresses such search.
It is the first line of an extract from the last section of "The Wasteland". It relies on "What the Thunder said" about the desolation of the western culture. The thunder isn't able to provide the land with its need of water.
Analyzing the layout an intelligent reader can understand that the text is divided into two paragraphs.
The first one has got the lines longer than the second one. , According to the layout, in my opinion, the last paragraph looks more poetic than the first one.
In the text there are more repetitions and a lot of figures of speech. In the first two lines the reader can find the opposition between "water" and "rock". The repetition at the beginning of the line of the last word of the former line, goes on until line four.
In the text the reader can notice that the word water is repeated eleven times and the world rock is repeated nine times.
Another frequent repetition in the text is the world mountain that conveys the desolation of a place where there is no life. It is the symbol for all the "Wasteland". In lines five and six the reader can notice the rhyme between "drink" and "think" as if without water there isn't a reason to reflect about the problems of life and everything became meaningless.
Other elements sustaining such interpretation are the harsh sounds of "sneer and snarl" (in assonance) and "mudcracked". Those are not usually words for a poem.
Starting from line 16 the reader can notice the layout changes: it seems to follow the pattern of a waterfall.
The lines become shorter: "rock" and "water" are repeated twice.
The last line doesn't leave place for an hope, as a matter of fact she says: "but there is no water".
Eliot uses anthropological devices, but he isn't able to find a solution for the situation of the modern world. And the sad conclusion he tells us that the new awareness of the condition of the world doesn't calm the search for "fertility", it rather stresses such search.