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==Title "What the Thunder Said"==
The title is taken from [["The Fable of the Meaning of Thunder"]] part of the ''Brihadaranyaka Upanishad'', a sacred sanskrit text of the eight and seventh centuries BCE, first translated 1817-1818.

==Stanza 1==

===Lines 322-330, Biblical Imagery===


    After the torchlight red on sweaty faces
    After the frosty silence in the gardens
    After the agony in stony places
    The shouting and the crying
    Prison and palace and reverberation
    Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
    He who was living is now dead
    We who were living are now dying
    With a little patience 330

'''[[John 18]]:3''' 

The scene in the poem draws its imagery from the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was betrayed.  However, the entirety of John 18 focuses on the denial of Christ, by Peter and by the Jewish people, who choose a criminal over him.  This is more imagery of betrayal, wherein the common people (gentile or Jew) refute truth and accept sin.  


'''[[Luke 22]]:44'''  

More imagery about the betrayal of Christ, but also an inclusion of the Last Supper--a holy ritual that utilizes imagery of blood and flesh as a kind of sacrifice.

==Stanza 2==

===Lines 331-359===

    Here is no water but only rock
    Rock and no water and the sandy road
    The road winding above among the mountains
    Which are mountains of rock without water
    If there were water we should stop and drink
    Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
    Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
    If there were only water amongst the rock
    Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
    Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit 340
    There is not even silence in the mountains
    But dry sterile thunder without rain
    There is not even solitude in the mountains
    But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
    From doors of mudcracked houses
    If there were water
    And no rock    
    If there were rock
    And also water
    And water 350
    A spring
    A pool among the rock
    If there were the sound of water only
    Not the cicada
    And dry grass singing
    But sound of water over a rock
    Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
    Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
    But there is no water

==Stanza 3==

===Lines 360-366, Emmaus & Shackleton===

    Who is the third who walks always beside you? 360
    When I count, there are only you and I together
    But when I look ahead up the white road
    There is always another one walking beside you
    Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
    I do not know whether a man or a woman
    - But who is that on the other side of you?

'''[[Luke 24]]: 13'''

The messiah appears on the road to Emmaus, but the two do not recognize him, until he breaks bread with them.  Interestingly, it is the women that assure the disciples that Jesus will rise on the third day, refusing to believe that he is truly dead.  Perhaps Eliot thinks there may be hope yet for women to bring their men back mentally?


'''''[[South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition'' 1914-1917''']]

Shackleton and his men survive the journey across forbidding ice, a kind of natural wasteland, and felt the entire time that someone else was present.  The language is similar to Eliot's.

==Stanza 4==

===Lines 367-377===

    What is that sound high in the air
    Murmur of maternal lamentation
    Who are those hooded hordes swarming
    Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth 370
    Ringed by the flat horizon only
    What is the city over the mountains
    Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
    Falling towers
    Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
    Vienna London
    Unreal

Eliot said that this was inspired by Hermann Hesse's ''A Look into Chaos: Three Essays'' which discussed the collapse of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires.  Of course, collapse of society and its consecutive spiral into chaos is a major concern of Eliot's.

==Stanza 5==
    
===Lines 378-385===
    
    A woman drew her long black hair out tight
    And fiddled whisper music on those strings
    And bats with baby faces in the violet light 380
    Whistled, and beat their wings
    And crawled head downward down a blackened wall
    And upside down in air were towers
    Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours
    And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells.

==Stanza 6==
    
===Lines 386-395, Chapel Perilous===

    In this decayed hole among the mountains
    In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
    Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
    There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.
    It has no windows, and the door swings, 390
    Dry bones can harm no one.
    Only a cock stood on the rooftree
    Co co rico co co rico
    In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust
    Bringing rain


"Eliot's note at the beginningof part V states that 'the approach to the Chapel Perilous' is one of 'three themes' employed in this part's opening section (322-394), and he tells the reader to 'see Miss Weston's book.'  Weston's [[''From Ritual to Romance'']] devotes a chapter (chapter 13, 175-188)to 'The Perilous Chapel,' a motif which she summarizes in her opening paragraph" (Rainey 119).

'''Lines 392-395'''

This alludes to a rooster as a symbol of fertility, thus bringing rain to the dry land and helping it to generate life, perhaps.

==Stanza 7==

===Lines 396-400, India & ''Upanishads''===

    Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves
    Waited for rain, while the black clouds
    Gathered far distant, over Himavant.
    The jungle crouched, humped in silence.
    Then spoke the thunder 400

The setting changes to India, then a part of the British Empire, so we are not far from British civilization, really.  "Ganga" is the Ganges, the sacred river of India, and "Himavant" is another word for snowy, making it any mountain.

When the thunder begins to speak, it enlists [["The Fable of the Meaning of Thunder"]].  
:"Da" is the beginning of the thunder's voice.
:"Damyata" is what Prajapati says to the gods, as a word of advice.  It means "control yourselves," perhaps because the gods are especially unruly.
:"Datta" is what Prajapati says to men, as a word of advice.  It means "give," perhaps because humans are especially greedy.
:"Dayadhvam" is what Prajapati says to demons, as a word of advice.  It means "be compassionate," perhaps because demons are especially evil.  

In essence, each of the words applies to a certain group in the world.  The order above is the one cited in the "Fable," but Eliot lists it as Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata--from men, to demons, to gods--perhaps as a mode for human progress.  Give of yourselves, be compassionate, and gain control.

===Lines 401-410, [[''The White Devil'']]===

    DA
    Datta: what have we given?
    My friend, blood shaking my heart
    The awful daring of a moment's surrender
    Which an age of prudence can never retract
    By this, and this only, we have existed
    Which is not to be found in our obituaries
    Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider
    Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
    In our empty rooms 410

According to Eliot's notes, line 407 refers to John Webster's play [[''The White Devil'']] Act 5 Scene 6.  The villain Flamineo has prostituted his sister, and murdered both is brother and brother-in-law, yet he has the audacity to be horrified when his sister betrays him.

I think in a sense, Eliot is coming to terms with what he sees as the betrayal of women, and notes that perhaps, men have something to be blamed for.

===Lines 411-417, ''Inferno'' & Shakespeare===
    DA
    Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
    Turn in the door once and turn once only
    We think of the key, each in his prison
    Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison
    Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours
    Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus

'''Line 411: "I have heard the key"'''

Eliot's note calls attention to ''Inferno'' 33:46-47, when Ugolino explains how Ruggieri shut him into a tower with his children, without any sustenance, and when his four children die, Ugolino eats their corpses.  

This describes the terrible drive to survive that leads people to do inhuman things, and as a result, puts them into a private hell--the condition of the people around him.  



'''Line 416: "a broken Coriolanus"'''

''Coriolanus,'' by William Shakespeare, details how a general of Rome attempts to punish the people for being fickle, and so unites with Volscians to do so.  After punishing them, however, Coriolanus' wife, mother, and son convince him to refrain from sacking the city, and thus he earns the Volscians ire, and is hacked to death. 

If one condemns the people, and punishes them only half-heartedly, one suffers retribution from those who joined you in the violence, perhaps.

===Lines 418-423===
    DA
    Damyata: The boat responded
    Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar 420
    The sea was calm, your heart would have responded
    Gaily, when invited, beating obedient
    To controlling hands

==Stanza 8==

===Lines 424-426, Fisher King===

    I sat upon the shore
    Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
    Shall I at least set my lands in order?

In [[''From Ritual to Romance'']], Weston describes the Fisher King as one whose condition affects the fertility of his land.  A leader can come and by controlling himself, give order to the land.

===Line 427, Nursery Rhyme===

    London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down

This nursery rhyme throws the dark tone of the fall of European civilization into a spiral.

===Lines 428-430, ''Purgatorio,'' "Pervigilium Veneris," "O Swallow, Swallow," "El Desdichado"===

    ''Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina''
    ''Quando fiam ceu chelidon - O swallow swallow''
    ''Le Prince d'Aquitaine a la tour abolie'' 430

'''Line 428'''
'''Translation: ''Poin s'ascose nel foco che gli affina'''''
::"Then he vanished into the fire that refines them."  Eliot's note cites Dante, ''Purgatorio''

::::"No I beseech you, by that virtue
::::which conducts you to the summit of the steps [in Purgatory],
::::at times bethink yourself of my suffering.'
::::Then he vanished into the fire that refines them.

Dante hears this from Arnault Daniel, to whom the ''Divine Comedy'' is dedicated.  See "The Waste Land's" [[Dedication Annotations]].


'''Line 429'''

According to Eliot's note, it comes from the Latin poem the [[''Pervigilium Veneris'']].  Because the town of Amyclae was silent, and there had been false alarms about enemy attacks, when the enemy did come to attack, the city fell because no one was willing to break the silence.  This reinforces Eliot's duty to call attention to the danger of the time.

"O swallow swallow" many think, refers to Tennyson's poem [["O Swallow, Swallow"]].

===Lines 431-432===

    These fragments I have shored against my ruins
    Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.

===Lines 433-434===

    Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
    Shantih shantih shantih