>> Underline examples of alliteration, repetition and onomatopoeia

alliteration: repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases

”he who was living is now dead, we who were living are now dying, with a little patience..“

”but red sullen faces sneer and snarl“

”murmur of maternal lamentation“

”who are those hooded hordes swarming“

”Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata“

repetition: simple repeating of words

”after the torchlight, after the frosty silence, after the agony“

”among the mountains.. which are mountains of rock.. dead mountain mouth“

”there is not even silence in the mountains, there is not even solitude in the mountains“

”and no rock.. and also water.. and water.. and dry grass singing“

”we think of the key, each in his prison, thinking of the key, each confirms a prison“

”gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oat, gaily, when invited, beating obedient“

”swallow swallow“ ”shantih shantih“

onomatopoeia: word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes

”Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop“

”Co co rico co co rico“

”London Bridge falling down falling down falling down“

Comprehension

>> In the extract T.S.Eliot identifies three main themes: 1. the journey of Christ's disciples to Emmaus after the Resurrection ”he who was living is now dead“ this line contain allusions to Christ's imprisonment and trial as well as to Gethsemane and Golgotha; ”who is the third who walks always beside you?“ memory associated with the journey of Christ's disciples to Emmaus. 2. the approach to the Chapel Perilous in the Holy Grail legend ”there is the empty chapel, only the wind's home“ the moment of near despair before the Chapel Perilous when the knight sees nothing there but decay. 3. the present decay of Eastern Europe ”Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata, Shantih shantih “.

>> images of sterility = frosty silence; stony places; prison; mountains; dead; rock; sandy road; dead mountain mouth of carious; sterile thunder without rain; solitude; lamentation; decayed hole; dry bones can harm no one; black clouds; Ganga was sunken..

Interpretation

>> God speaks to men through the voice of the thunder, although God speaks using only one word his advice is interpreted differently by men who understand as ”give“, the devils ”sympathies“ and the Gods ”restrain yourself“.

>> In my opinion with the sentence ”these fragments I have shored against my ruin“ T.S.Eliot wants to assume that there are so many meaning as men's feeling.

>> What the Thunder Said completes the conveyance of Eliot's message regarding the waste land that society has become and the manner through which we should attempt to conduct the transformation and regeneration of the society. Eliot concludes the poem with the purification of the society and the destruction of London Bridge which epitomized the traits of people.

>> Eliot's poetry is very difficult if you don't know all the texts from which he takes quotations. Through his poetry we can understand the important of the past in order to don't make the same mistakes.

>> T.S.Eliot is so complex as to be even obscure. Obscurity allows him to speak of secret things people was never meant to understand. Eliot's poetry is essentially based on a social and universal experience, an experience which shows a full perspective of the death of a civilization. Obscurity is also given by the several quotation that Eliot juxtaposes in his works.

>> Virginia Woolf underlines Eliot's great ability of novelist. When she reads his book she feels like ”an acrobat flying precariously from a bar to bar“ and she starts even to cry.