View source for "The Burial of the Dead" Annotations

    Go to [[The Waste Land Text]]
    Go to [[Eliot's Notes]]
    Go back to [[Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions]]


==Title: "The Burial of the Dead"==
Title inspired by the [[Order for the Burial of the Dead]], which was the burial service for the 

church of England.  Because of World War I, this was probably one of the rituals most in use 

during this period, sadly.  The title conveys a sense of mourning, or an overall pessimism.

Further, the fabric of the service lends threads of man's downfall and lack of generation to "The Waste Land" as a whole.

== Stanza 1 ==

===Lines 1-4, Geoffrey Chaucer===


  
    April is the cruellest month, breeding
    Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
    Memory and desire, stirring
    Dull roots with spring rain.

The beginning of this section is often described by scholars as an inversion of the beginning of the prologue to Chaucer's [[''The Canterbury Tales'']].

===Lines 5-7, James Thomson===

    
    Winter kept us warm, covering
    Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
    A little life with dried tubers.

This section was perhaps inspired by [["To Our Ladies of Death"]] by James Thomson:
::::  "Our Mother feedeth thus our little life,
::::  That we in turn may feed her with our death"

===Lines 8-11, Germany===
    

    Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
    With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
    And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,                                   10
    And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

"Starnbergersee," also known as Lake Starnberger, is approximately nine miles from Munich, which Eliot visited in 1911. 

The "Hofgarten" is the court garden, the heart of Munich, and the ruling house of Bavaria--a center of royal European activity. 

===Line 12, Bavarian Nobility===
    
    ''Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.''

Translation: "I am not a Russian, I come from Lithuania, a real German."  

This alludes to the beginnings of a national, and perhaps racial, identity for Europeans, which possibly also includes the loss of a greater, perhaps more valuable, cohesive European quality.

===Lines 13-18, Countess Marie Larisch===
    
    And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
    My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
    And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
    Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
    In the mountains, there you feel free.
    I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.


The speaker, Countess Marie Larisch, was the illegitimate daughter of Ludwig Wilhelm, heir to the throne of Bavaria, and a common woman.  She may represent the "degradation" of European high culture that concerns Eliot, especially considering that her father Wilhelm renounced the throne in order to marry her mother.  

This makes her cousin the Archduke Rudolf, whom she helped to conceal his affair.  This draws in issues of fertility, legitimacy, betrayal, and deception.  

Valerie Eliot maintained that this excerpt of Larisch's speech came not from her biography, ''My Past'', as many supposed, but actually came directly from a conversation that T.S. Eliot had with Larisch.

== Stanza 2 ==

===Lines 19-30, Biblical Rhetoric===

    What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
    Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,                                  20
    You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
    A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
    And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
    And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
    There is shadow under this red rock,
   (Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
    And I will show you something different from either
    Your shadow at morning striding behind you
    Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
    I will show you fear in a handful of dust.                              30

Some of the language is perhaps borrowed directly from the Bible.  

::'''[[Job 8]]'''

::::'''Lines 19-20''' "What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow out of this stony rubbish?"

::::'''Job 8:16-17''' "His roots are wrapped about the heap and seeketh the place of stones."



::'''[[Ezekiel 2]]'''

::::'''Line 20''' "...son of man"

::::'''Ezekiel 2''' God calls Ezekiel the son of man and promises him the gift of prophecy if he will "stand upon thy feet" or, be brave 

::::enough to dare to listen, but when Ezekiel hears God's message, it is only one of woe.



::'''[[Ezekiel 6]]'''

::::'''Line 22''' "...a heap of broken images"

::::'''Ezekiel 6''' God threatens to break the idols and images of idols in his wrath.  This section also begins to speak to the social ills of adultery, which will be a theme of the next section of Eliot's work.  



::'''[[Ecclesiastes 12]]'''

::::'''Line 23''' "And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief"

::::'''Ecclesiastes''' 12:5 refers to the time in ones old age, known as the "evil days" when desire fails, and even grasshoppers are a burden.  If you think back to the beginning of "The Burial of the Dead" ("mixing memory and desire") 

::::this is particularly relevant.  This chapter of Ecclesiastes also speaks about mourners in the streets, an image familiar to the end of "The Burial of the Dead."  Further, the teacher of scripture insists that everything on earth is 

::::meaningless, reflecting the general post-war apathy of Europe.


::'''[[Isaiah 2]]''' vs. '''[[Isaiah 32]]'''

::::'''Line 25-26''' "There is a shadow under this red rock,/ Come in under the shadow of this red rock"

::::Is the rock a shelter (Isaiah 2), or a hiding place (Isaiah 32)?  Is it a place to hide from the Waste Land, a place of salvation, or a place of fear?  Further, one must go under the rock either because the Lord is humbling man for his 
::::arrogance, or else is the "rock" a messiah, or Fisher King character that will bring the people out of the darkness.  Further, the latter half of Isaiah 32 blames female complacency for the barrenness of the land, perhaps alluding to the complacency of post-war women and their failure to rejuvenate the veterans returning home, thus dooming Europe.


However, line 30 relates back to the epigraph, where a handful of dust, or sand, dooms Sybil to an extremely long life, but one barren of beauty and pleasure.  It also brings to mind "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," alluding to man's 
mortality.

===Lines 31-34, ''Tristan and Isolde''===

            ''Frisch weht der Wind''
            ''Der Heimat zu''
            ''Mein Irisch Kind,''
            ''Wo weilest du?''

'''Translation''' 

::::::::Fresh blows the wind
::::::::To my homeland
::::::::My Irish child
::::::::Where are you tarrying?


This comes from the Wagner opera ''Tristan and Isolde'' (1865).  A sailor sings a song about an Irish woman left behind, as they sail Isolde from Cornwall to Ireland to marry King Mark.  This is also a foreshadowing of Isolde's failure later in the opera to come to Tristan's aid, when he dies waiting for her to come and magically heal him.  Again, it is the failure of woman to rejuvenate men that ends in tragedy.

===Lines 35-36, Hyacinth===


    "You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
      They called me the hyacinth girl."


Hyacinth was a companion of Apollo that was killed by Apollo's stray discus.  Hyacinth's blood miraculously generated a flower, which Apollo inscribed with his grief, explaining the patterning of the flower which seems to say "ai" the traditional Greek expression of grief.  Apollo, the representative of high culture and prophecy, betrays his adherent, representing the cultural dilemma that concerns Eliot--that high culture has left Europe.

===Lines 37-41, ''The Inferno'' and "Job 8"===

    - Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
    Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
    Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
    Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,                                    40
    Looking into the heart of light, the silence.

This is a textual reference to Dante Alighieri's ''Inferno.''  

::"How chilled and faint I turned then.  Do not ask, reader, for I cannot describe it, for all speech would fail it.  I did not die, and did nor remain alive."

It could also possibly be a reference to [[Job 8]]:9. 

::"We are but of yesterday, and know nothing ,because our days on Earth are but a shadow."

===Line 42, Tristan and Isolde===

    ''Od' und leer das Meer.''


'''Translation'''
::::''Desolate and empty the sea''


This refers back to lines 31-34, and it refers to Isolde's failure to arrive by ship to save Tristan from death.

== Stanza 3 ==

===Lines 43-59===

    Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
    Had a bad cold, nevertheless
    Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
    With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
    Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
   (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
    Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
    The lady of situations.                                                 5
    Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
    And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
    Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
    Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
    The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
    I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
    Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
    Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
    One must be so careful these days.


Important references include Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, the Major and Minor Arcana of Tarot, Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Virgin of the Rocks” also known as the “Madonna of the Rocks,” botany, religion, and classical figures/allusions. 
Sosostris is meant to be a mock-Egyptian name, alluding to the common practice in mysticism of renaming oneself a “spiritual name.” Since Eliot proceeds to talk about how the “famous clairvoyante” had a bad cold, he seems to undercut this mysticism, drawing Madame Sosostris in pitiful and somewhat desperate lines. In fact, it appears that she fears her reception by the general public, telling the narrator (Marie?) to inform Mrs. Equitone that she brings her own horoscope to mystical meetings, because “One must be so careful these days.” Perhaps this refers to the complete saturation of the mysticism market during the first half of the 20th century, or perhaps this refers to the deterioration and crock-pottery of the trade in general, whereas Madame Sosostris considers herself authentic. 
The pack of cards that she has is “wicked,” which, although I am inclined to say that it means “really cool,” retained a more sinister meaning in 1922 when this was published. According to the OED, it meant :
Bad in moral character, disposition, or conduct; inclined or addicted to wilful wrong-doing; practising or disposed to practise evil; morally depraved. (A term of wide application, but always of strong reprobation, implying a high degree of evil quality.)
 
In this way, it appears that the narrator believes the cards to be evil, or morally depraved. And yet, the narrator comes to Madame Sosostris to get a reading, implying that the narrator must be truly desperate to know his/her future. 
Madame Sosostris uses a six-card reading. In order to understand the fullest extent of this reading, an understanding of the most popular six-card spread is useful: the Celtic Cross. Here I use a Tarot Teachings website, which, if you are interested, provides other six card spreads.                                                                                                            
 
 


1. The Drowned Phoenician Sailor: the “You” Card. Indicates the person’s current situation. Phlebas the Phoenician and Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant are both possible candidates for this position. Whether the client is literally one of these figures, or whether the client is like one of these figures, is unsure. 
                                                                    


2.    Belladonna, or the Lady of the Rocks: the “crux” of the issue. The conflict.      “Belladonna” means “beautiful lady” but it is also a poisonous plant. And the Lady of the Rocks is most probably the Virgin Mary—Belladonna or Madonna. Sweet poison or sanctified chastity. She is the “lady of situations” because she is the conflict, the decision to be made (line50).
 
 
3. The Man with Three Staves, or, the three of wands, or, according to Eliot, the Fisher King: the challenge. The Fisher King is a symbol of life, but is wounded, incapable of moving on his own. His weakness as king reduces his kingdom to…a Waste Land! The Three of Wands, however, symbolizes the beginning of an enterprise, looking forward to a journey or task. There is hope for the dead land, if only the Fisher King can be helped to heal. Perhaps the Fisher King is western culture?
 
 
 

4. The Wheel (probably the tarot Wheel of Fortune, but also the sign of man’s invention): Conscious—what you have control or awareness of.   Really, this indicates that the client has control over the whole situation, as well as how she/he understands and acts upon the reading (of six cards, like the six spokes of the wheel). Additionally, the client (possibly Western Culture) has control over their own ingenuity (the object of the wheel-invention) and so, can use their skills to better the situation.


 


                                                        
5. One-eyed merchant: the Unconscious/Subconscious.  Our unknown, internal ally.  While there are several possible interpretations of the one-eyed merchant (available here), I find Odin to be the most productive, meaningful explanation for this particular card.  He is associated with fury, excitation, prophecy, magic, the hunt, the mind, and poetry—the working of the Cultural mind.  We should listen to art, because it is the way out of the Waste Land and to cultural fertility.



6.  Blank card: Outcome—ties up loose ends.  It is appropriate that this be blank, but it is on the back of the subconscious, and relies on the work of the subconscious.


The fact that she does not find the Hanged Man, who to Eliot represents the self-sacrifice of a fertility god to bring the Waste Land back to life, possibly indicates that it will not be like the second coming of Christ—there is no one distinct savior.  I am unsure as to what “fear death by water” means, but water without growth to feed becomes a killing rather than nourishing force (like a flash flood, in a sense).  SO GROW!  THINK!  CREATE!  The end is possibly positive.  Sosostris sees people walking around in a circle—perhaps they ring around the maypole celebrating fertility and the coming spring.

== Stanza 4 ==



===Lines 60-63===
   
    Unreal City,                                                            60
    Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
    A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
    I had not thought death had undone so many.

===Lines 64-65===

    Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
    And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.

===Lines 66-68===

    Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
    To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
    With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.

===Lines 69-76===

    There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying "Stetson!
    "You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!                            70
    "That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
    "Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
    "Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
    "Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
    "Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
    "You! hypocrite lecteur! ''- mon semblable, - mon frere''!"


Go to [[The Waste Land Text]]

Go back to [[Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions]]