Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
Read the extract and mark the point where the poet starts imagining a possible alternative to the desolate land in front of him.
The poet starts to imagine a possible alternative to a desert landscape in line number 16.
Exercise number 2
a) What kind of landscape is described in lines 1-15? Identify its key aspects and say how many times they are repeated.
The landscape described in lines 1-15 is a desert landscape. Its key aspects are the rocks and the lack of water. These terms are repeated many times.
b) What kind of landscape is described in lines 16-29? The landscape described in lines 16-29 is a fertile landscape.
c) Compare the two landscapes. What do they have in common? In both landscapes we find rocks.
d) Comment on the sound quality of the words which characterise the two landscapes.
When the poet talks about the desert landscape he uses words which most of them have "hard" letters, like "r" or "ck". These sounds convey the idea of something heavy. On the contrary the fertile landscape is characterised by sounds that recall something quiet, like the sound of the water.
Exercise number 3
Consider the layers of meaning that the word water acquires as the poem progresses. Note down the denotation and connotation/s of waters. Then identify the meaning of the water symbolism in the extract.
Denotation: in the first part of the poem T.S. Elliot says that there is no water, there is only desert. In the second stanza the poet imagines water and the sound it makes. At the end he goes back to reality and says that there is no water.
Connotation: in the first stanza the shortage of water means sterility, as a matter of fact in the desert we find nothing, only rocks and few plants that can live with very less water.
Exercise number 4
Concentrate on the choice of words made by the poet. Which words in the text would be regarded as conventionally "unpoetic"?
The words are:
1. carious teeth
2. sterile
3. mudcracked
Exercise number 5
Look at the metre, rhythm and layout of the extract.
1. Is it written in regular metre? No, it isn't.
2. Can it be split into regular stanzas? Yes it could be.
3. How do the rhythm and the layout complement the key aspects of the two landscapes? When the poem talks about the desert landscape the rhythm is slow. As a matter of fact, we find many times the sound "r". To pronounce this letter you must almost "stop". The stanza in which T. S. Eliot talks about rocks, is much bigger and compact than the one in which the poet talks about a fertile land. This conveys the idea of something "heavy".
Check your knowledge
Exercise number 2
Text two from The Waste Land is centered on the opposition between desert images and water images.
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 from 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 through the repetition of the word and seems to take several shapes - those of "a pool", "a spring", "the sound of water", "sound of water 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 lay-out can suggest a water-fall.
The juxtaposition of the two sets of images is effective. Desert images suggest spiritual barrenness, solitude, absence of life and therefore death. Instead, water images with their Biblical connotations and rural connotations convey the concept of what gives life and joy.