COMPREHENSION:

1.     Focus on the three themes of the section, as explained in the introduction. Find references to them in the text.

Theme of journey of Christ’s disciples: from 1^st verse (after the torchlight red) to 9^th verse (with a little patience); verse 47 (murmur of maternal lamentation).

Theme of the Holy Grail legend: from 10^th verse (here is no water but only rock to 45^th verse (but who is that on the other side you?); from the 60^th verse (there is the empty chapel) to 66^th verse (bringing rain).

Theme of the decay of Eastern Europe: verse 53 (falling towers); verse 97 (London Bridge is falling down).

2.     Circle all the images associated with sterility.

Frosty silence, stony places, rock, sandy road, sweat is dry, dead mountain mouth, dry sterile thunder, doors of mudcracked houses, dry grass, there is no water, cracked earth, flat horizon, decayed hole, dry bones, arid plain.

INTERPRETATION

1.     What is the Thunder’s advice?

Thunder turns to humanity invoking the man to his earthly responsibilities, that are more urgent as he believes.

2.     The journey has come to an end. What final message is conveyed in the concluding lies? Why do you think the last words are in Sanskrit?

Finally Eliot turns to the Fisher King himself. The possibility of regeneration for the “arid plain” of society is not possible. Instead, the king will try to put in order what remains of his kingdom. This means that you can not really leave the wasteland, but the choice of using words in Sanskrit, a non-Western language,  gives hope for an alternative to our own dead world.

3.     What is your reaction to Eliot’s experimental poetry and the mass of notes you need in order to understand it?

Eliot is very difficult to understand, and my first reaction in front of this obstacle was of uncertainty and fear of not being able to fully comprehend him.

4.     What causes obscurity in Eliot’s poetry?

Obscurity is due to the justapposition of scenes apparently unrelated.

5.     What does she underline of Eliot’s style?

She underlines that he passes from a scene to another scene like an acrobat flying precariously from bar to bar.