THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD FROM T. S. ELIOT'S THE WASTE LAND

The text proposed consists of  the first 23 lines of The Burial of The Dead, the first section of T.S. Eliot's masterpiece The Waste Land.  Just considering the title, the reader can suppose the text to be about a funeral, as suggested by the words "burial" and "dead". What' s more, the title of the section, combined with the title of the poem, suggests one of the main themes of the entire work is death.

The text, which is a dramatic interior monologue, begins with the end of winter and the arrival of spring with April. According to the tradition, April is considered as the month when nature comes to a rebirth, when there is the rebirth of life. On the contrary, Eliot distorts the tradition, indeed he states that "April is the cruellest month", when it seems that life comes to a definitive end instead of rebirthing. So, the concept is delineated in the first 4 lines and the use of particular rethorical devices such as the high density of "d" sound, the alliteration(  highlighted by the run-on line at lines 3 - 4), "mixing - memory" and the semantic field of death formed by words "dead", "cruellest", "memory", " lilacs", aim to underline it.

Going on, from line 5 to line 12 the poem's speaker refers to an unknown friend and her saying that in winter they were in warm condition while "dried tubers" were fed up by a "forgetful snow"; after that, she shifts her attention on summer, and in particular she starts remembering when her friend and her were on the "Starnbergersee" and when they were in Munich: "the Hofgarten ... for an hour". The memory closes with her friend's statement about not being Russian. Going into depth in the analysis of these lines, you can notice one of Eliot's typical writing style, that is the use of fragmentation and juxtapositions; indeed the speaking voice passes through free association of ideas from the thought about winter to the one about summer. What's more, the contrast between winter and summer is underlined by the images of the "forgetful snow" and "sunlight" - "shower of rain". In addition, the excitement about summer may be underlined by the syntax, which is full of short - sentences recalling the liveliness of life in summer,  and also by the alliteration "summer - surprised". The statement of line 12 is a reference to the Russian revolution which took place in 1917 and it also reminds to another extraordinary event of that time, that is the First World War.

Well, from line 13 to line 18 the poem's speaker, named Marie,  reminds her childhood with her cousin. In particular, she focuses on the day when her cousin "took me ... I was frightened". According to this, you can notice the Modernist interest in subjectivity because Eliot makes the speaking voice' s inner feelings  come to the surface,  indeed "I was frightened" , which is further underlined by the anaphoric repetition of the name "Marie" and the alliteration " we - went". So, here you can notice another characteristic of Eliot's writing style, that is attention to details.  In line 18 the speaking voice comes back to the present, so you meet the fusion of past, present and future in the psyche time, the subjective one, as Henry Bergson stated.

In the lines from 19 to 23, the speaking voice turns back to the "dead land" and she asks herself if there can be life upon it. The answer cannot be reached, indeed " son of man, you cannot say, or guest". Last but not least, the concept of death is expanded by the juxtaposition of images as the text suggests itself( "A heap of broken images"), going from "where the sun beats" to " no sound of water".  So, going into depth, line 20 is a reference to Old Testament, in particular to the episode of Ezekiel preaching against the wickedness of the Israelites. So, there is a parallel between Ezekiel's questions and the speaking voice's ones saying "what branches ... stony rubbish?". Considering the connotative level of these last lines, you can notice the use of the alliteration "stone - sound" underlining the impossibility of life upon the "dead land" and the language appealing to hearing ( "the cricket no relief", " no sound of water") highlights the theme of death.