E-C-301: Modernist Literature,

Unit- 01- The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot,

Taught by:- Dr. Dilip Barad,

Prepared by:- Maulik Bhatt,

Roll No:- 03,

M.A. Part – II, Semester – III,

Department of English,

Bhavnagar University,

Bhavnagar.

““What the Thunder Said”What the Thunder Said”

What the Thunder SaidWhat the Thunder Said

After the torchlight red on sweaty facesAfter the frosty silence in the gardens

After the agony in stony placesThe shouting and the crying

Prison and palace and reverberationOf thunder of spring over distant mountains

He who was living is now deadWe who were living are now dying

With a little patienceHere is no water but only rock

Rock and no water and the sandy roadThe road winding above among the mountains…

…Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spitHere one can neither stand nor lie nor sit…

…If there were waterAnd no rock

If there were rockAnd also waterAnd water…

Crucifixion of Christ (Amara, 02)

One of the Themes ‘Death in

Life’

Takes us back to the First Part

Symbol of rejuvenation

Indian Fertility Legend

Hopelessness

A Wish

Who is the third who walks always beside you?When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white roadThere is always another one walking beside you

Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hoodedI do not know whether a man or a woman-But who is that on the other side of you?

What is that sound high in the airMurmur of maternal lamentation

Who are those hooded hordes swarmingOver endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth

Ringed by the flat horizon onlyWhat is the city over the mountains

Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet airFalling towers

Jerusalem Athens AlexandriaVienna London

Unreal

Christ

In this decayed hole among the mountainsIn the faint moonlight, the grass is singing

Over the tumbled graves, about the chapelThere is the empty chapel, only the wind’s home.

It has no windows, and the door swings,Dry bones can harm no one…

… Ganga was sunken, and the limp leavesWaited for rain, while the black cloudsGathered far distant, over Himavant.

The jungle crouched, humped in silence.Then spoke the thunder

DADatta: what have we given?

My friend, blood shaking my heartThe awful daring of a moment’s surrender

Which an age of prudence can never retractBy this, and this only, we have existed

Which is not to be found in our obituariesOr in memories draped by the beneficent spider

Or under seals broken by the lean solicitorIn our empty rooms

Quest for the Holy Grail

Prajapati

To Men

DADayadhvam: I have heard the key

Turn in the door once and turn once onlyWe think of the key, each in his prison

Thinking of the key, each confirms a prisonOnly at nightfall, aetherial rumours

Revive for a moment a broken CoriolanusDA

Damyata: The boat respondedGaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar

The sea was calm, your heart would have respondedGaily, when invited, beating obedient

To controlling handsI sat upon the shore

Fishing, with the arid plain behind meShall I at least set my lands in order?

London Bridge is falling down falling down falling downThese fragments I have shored against my ruins

Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe.Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Shantih shantih shantih

To Devil

To God

King Fisher/Eliot

Confirms who is the

speaker here

“Peace that passeth human

understanding.”

Works CitedAmara, English Literature Essays, The Wasteland: Part V What The Thunder Said

- A Modernist Poem, 09 Oct 2011. Web. 18 April 2011. <

http://literature-essays123.blogspot.com/2011/04/wasteland-part-v-what-thunder-said.html

>

Eliot, Thomas Sterns., Vendler, Helen Henessy. The Wasteland and Other Poems,

1998, Print, ISBN - 0451526848, 9780451526847 , Signet Classic.

Acknowledgement: I am indebted to Dr. Dilip Barad for dealing with the subject

so effectively and providing us with the guideline wherever and whenever we fumble.