What the Thunder Said

What the thunder said is the final section of the Waste Land. The feeling of desperate searching raises to fever-pitch, and the total absence of punctuations with the repetitiveness, contributes to the sense of lurching (proiettarsi in avanti) hopelessly forward in a waterless waste. 

A calm dissents with the appearance of a hooded, sexless (incappucciata e impotente) figure, who mysteriously chances positions, however. Sometimes he is walking with them, and sometimes he is ahead of them. It may be companion, guide or a menace. In the grater quiet of the rhythm, there is, nevertheless, a tense note of hidden terror, conveyed by the repetitions of the question. The seekers (coloro che cercano interiormente) are now approaching to the Chapel Perilous, the place where the Holy Grail was housed. They enter a nightmare world of horrors and dangers, which they must overcome to achieve their aim. Again, in Eliot’s symbolism, these falling cities and visions represent the devastated, nightmare-haunted spirits of men (abitato dagli spiriti) as arid and empty as the Empty cistern and the exhausted wells (pozzi). The chapel is empty and this signifies that the quest was be in vain, man has not found what he need to makes his life whole, and sane again. A cook crows on the roof of the Chapel, perhaps signifies daybreak, when evil spirits traditionally have to return to hell. Perhaps a reference to Peter’s betrayal of Christ in the Gospels. Although lightening flashing and the wind is damped, the longed-for rain does not come.

“It will come” says the thunder when man as learnt Datta, that is Give and Dayad vam, that is Sympathize: man must come out of the prison of his egoism and treat his fellows with compassionate.

The third message Damyata, that is Control. Man must act with Control and must accept authority.

Then as the boat responds to the “hand expert”, the heat will be obedient and glad (felice) in it responses.

The end of the poem adds to these Sanskrit’s words, a series of allusions and quotations taken from different languages, symbolized the absence of unity of mankind. The final Sanskrit’s words foretell that if man can obey what the thunder said: “Peace witch passeth understanding, the world will be saved”.

Eliot sad that the three themes he has used in the first part of these sections are:

1. The journey to Emmaus of two disciples to whom the resurrected Christ adds, without being recognized by them (Luke, 24, 13-31)
2. The approaching to the Chapel Perilous, from the final part of the Holy Grail source (from ritual to romance)
3. Last but not least, Western Europe decadence.