PART IV and V- FROM GOOGIE and RORI with LOVE

The Waste Land; Part 4 Death By Water

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water" Loran Eisely (1907-1977)

The fourth section of Eliot's poem "The Waste Land", although the shortest, could possibly be the most important part, because it contains the turn. The major theme of this section is the importance of water. The poem shifts from a lack of water to "Death by Water", which is ironic because water is the root of life.

"Death By Water" is set up into three tercets with a total of nine lines. The number three in this structure is very significant. In Christianity the number three represents Trinity (creator, redeemer, sustainer), which reinforces the idea of resurrection. In the Hindu religion the number three symbolizes; creation, destruction and preservation, or; unfolding, maintaining, and concluding, this reconnects to the major theme of life and death. The form of the poem also represents a wave which goes back to the theme of water, "Phlebas" is drowning, and as it is happening "He passed the stages of his age and youth", but it is uncertain whether or not he is dead. How can a person surrounded by so much life be dead? Above ground if you are dead, you are actually dead because the land is dead.

The underwater "living dead" represents hope in "The Waste Land". Water is the key to recreating, and rejuvenating the land, and the people on it. As mentioned in earlier sections, Spring is the time of year when the rain begins to fall and things are able to grow. The spring, and the growing of nature, also symbolizes the youth, and the blossoming, and prime of a younger persons life. As your dying, those are the days that you remember. Without this hope, or youth, several people become lost, as you age your worth just becomes less and less. This whole concept goes right back to Sybil, eternal life without eternal youth, is almost, if not worse than death.

"Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss."

Madame and Sosostris, in section one, pulled a card that showed "the drowned Phoenician Sailor". The sailor is a motif for greed, and for the theme of water itself. As he ages, his significance begins to lessen, which means his time has come. But is he really dead?

The simple hope in this poem is life, water is the root of life, which makes water the key to reestablishing life on land. The irony lies within the fact that the smallest section of the poem, is the turning point, the part the allows the readers to completely understand what this poem is truly about.

FROM RORI:

Section 5: Summary: What the Thunder Said

     The final section of the Waste Land is about hope and resurrection. In the first paragraph there is an allusion to a Garden – Gethsemane – the garden that Jesus was in when the Roman soldiers took him away to be crucified.  This refers from the time before he was crucified to after it.      The next few paragraph backs up idea of wasteland and the title of the entire poem. “Here is no water but only rock, rock and no water and the sandy road…” there’s no water which means there’s no life. Where the ‘sweat is dry’  you won’t find water. The mountains are dead because nothing can grow, nothing can blossom or sustain without water. “If there were water and no rock if there were rock and also water and water a spring a pool among the rock…”  The idea if there was water there would be hope. Wanting to only wanting to hear the sound of water, they didn’t want to hear the ‘cicada’ or grasshopper or the ‘dry grass singing’. But if there were water, there would actually be grasshoppers to chirp and the grass would no longer be dry. However, “there is no water.”  
     “Who is the third who walks always beside you?....gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded I do not know whether a mon or a woman…” this is an allusion to the bible, 2413 after crucification, burial, and resurrection. People are walking and when Jesus approaches he makes it so the people don’t recognize him. The people invite him into town, Emmaus, and sit down and eat and split bread. When the people finally realize that Jesus was present he disappears.
     Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna, London(/Unreal) are major cities in Europe that are morally sacked culture capitals. (SITE – see comment) “The list plots out the course of Western civilization, from its origins in classical and biblical cultures to its modern European efflorescence. As with so much of the poem, Eliot is being cryptic, particularly in his choice of the two modern cities. One can understand London: the cradle of democracy and the rule of law. But Vienna? Is there a hint in that choice of a civilization gone to seed, a place of elegance and opulence, yes, but a falling off from the human search for the order of the soul and the order of the common wealth? And does London, by its place on the sequence, also exist the downward slope of cultural history?”
     “The woman drew her long black hair out tight” - this woman refers to Cleopatra. Cleopatra relates to the failed relationships in section 2 which correlates with the countries relationships. After WWI a lot of valuable relationships and allies had been ruined, and Germany, the country that ended up basically fucked, was given the Treaty of Versailles. They had to accept the blame for all the loss and damage of the war.  
     “In this decayed hole among the mountains,” the grassy mountains obviously means had life, which means it had water! The grass sings because it’s revitalized and alive. The chapel is an allusion to King Arthur. One of king Arthurs knights went to find the Holy Grail in a chapel. The rooster cry is an allusion to the bible – it’s an allusion to Peter’s denial of Jesus – Jesus says that Peter will deny Jesus three times before the rooster cries. When Peter is asked if he knows of Jesus he says no three times, denying God. He later figures out what he did and is very remorseful. “Bringing rain” means BRINGING HOPE.
     Ganga refers to the Granges river in South India, and rivers mean water, and water means LIFE!  
      Datta means GIVE, Dayadhyam means SYMPATHIZE, and Damyata means CONTROL. The three D words refer to the creator of god in the Hindu religion, and they all make a sound that is similar to that which a thunder would make (thunder sometimes brings rain.) The creator of God says three things that instruct the lesser gods to (1) give things despite their nature cheapness, and (2) control their rowdy behaviors. The third is that he tells the demons to sympathize.
     “I have heard the key turn in the door once and turn only once,” refers to Dante’s inferno, which Count Ugolino starves to death after being locked in a tower for treason. “Broken Coriolanus” is a Roman character in a Shakespeare play who turned his back on his country. Both Count Ugolino and Coriolanus are examples of outcasts.
     The final stanza of the poem has Italian which alludes to Dante’s inferno. The Fisher King sat upon the shore and fished. We learn that he has the Holy Grail all along, but because he’s wounded, he can’t use the powers of it to revitalize the land. The purpose of the grail is to keep the land alive.  The allusion to the song London Bridge is all about WW1 where London was left in chaos and in a waste land. Shantih is an onomatopoeia that’s supposed to sound like rain. It’s supposed to bring hope. The poem ends in an uplifting way that is different than much of the poem. It ends with giving us hope that everything will work out.