"The Burial of the Dead" Annotations
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(→Decoding "The Burial of the Dead" by Courtney Handy) |
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Go back to [[Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions]] | Go back to [[Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions]] | ||
| + | ==[[Decoding "The Burial of the Dead"]] by Courtney Handy== | ||
| + | [[Decoding "The Burial of the Dead"]] is an original essay in progress which looks at the hidden | ||
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| + | Biblical language of "The Burial of the Dead" using Biblical allusions used in the Anglican service | ||
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| + | [[Order for the Burial of the Dead]], as well as the Biblical allusions central to the section | ||
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| + | itself, as catalogued below. By concentrating on frequently occurring terms in these Biblical | ||
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| + | allusions, and cross-referencing them, as well as by a literary comparison of the "Order" and of | ||
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| + | the "Burial," the essay attempts to address Eliot's complex vision of the future of the Western | ||
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| + | world, as it emerges from the ruins of social decay. | ||
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| + | I will look specifically at tone words and how frequently they occur, versus how the Biblical allusions lend to an understanding of this | ||
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| + | section of the poem. | ||
==Title: "The Burial of the Dead"== | ==Title: "The Burial of the Dead"== | ||
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===Lines 19-30, Biblical Rhetoric=== | ===Lines 19-30, Biblical Rhetoric=== | ||
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| + | <html> | ||
| + | <iframe width="950" height="475" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=205087301525898876143.0004ce7a87cebcebc70e2&hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=p&ll=30.807911,39.375&spn=8.939506,20.852051&z=6&output=embed"></iframe><br /><small>View <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=205087301525898876143.0004ce7a87cebcebc70e2&hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=p&ll=30.807911,39.375&spn=8.939506,20.852051&z=6&source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">The Burial of the Dead</a> in a larger map</small> | ||
| + | </html> | ||
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow | What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow | ||
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::::enough to dare to listen, but when Ezekiel hears God's message, it is only one of woe. | ::::enough to dare to listen, but when Ezekiel hears God's message, it is only one of woe. | ||
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| + | :::: [[Luke 22]], among others, also calls Jesus the "son of man" so its an even greater burden than prophecy--it could be literal self-sacrifice for the truth. | ||
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== Stanza 3 == | == Stanza 3 == | ||
| − | ===Lines 43-59=== | + | ===Lines 43-59, Tarot and Mythology=== |
Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante, | Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante, | ||
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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. | 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 | + | 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. |
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| − | 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 ( | + | 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 (line 50). |
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| − | ===Lines 60-63=== | + | ===Lines 60-63, Baudelaire=== |
Unreal City, 60 | Unreal City, 60 | ||
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I had not thought death had undone so many. | I had not thought death had undone so many. | ||
| − | ===Lines 64-65=== | + | |
| + | This section recalls Charles Baudelaire's poem [["Des Sept Viellards"]] in language. | ||
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| + | It speaks to a proliferation of men, each a twin of the other, who look like death, much to the horror of the author. It shows Eliot's concern that society is composed of the living dead, and is crippled by the infertility and senility thereof. | ||
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| + | ===Lines 64-65, ''The Inferno''=== | ||
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, | Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, | ||
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. | And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. | ||
| − | ===Lines 66-68=== | + | This section recalls Dante Alighieri's ''The Inferno.'' The first circle of Hell, filled with the unbaptized, is limbo, where each soul spends eternity fretting about their fate, because like Sybil they "have no hope of death, and so abject is their blind life that they are envious of every other lot." |
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| + | Life is stagnated at this period--men are stuck mentally in the realm of death, and yet they live. Women seem incapable of associating and rejuvenating the men. In a sense, the whole of society is in limbo. | ||
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| + | ===Lines 66-68, London Architecture=== | ||
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street, | Flowed up the hill and down King William Street, | ||
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With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. | With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. | ||
| − | ===Lines 69- | + | King William Street extends from London Bridge into the City--the financial district. From water, to artifice. Saint Mary Woolnoth is a church in the City, dwarfed by office buildings, demonstrating the business-like indifference of religion. |
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| + | ===Lines 69-70, Punic War=== | ||
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying "Stetson! | There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying "Stetson! | ||
"You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! 70 | "You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! 70 | ||
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| + | Mylae was the first engagement of the Punic War between Rome and Carthage in 260 BCE. Stetson, means "son of Stephen" and since "Stephen" means "crown," it means "Son of the Crown," having to do with nobility. | ||
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| + | ===Lines 71-73, "The Burial of the Dead" Stanza 1=== | ||
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"That corpse you planted last year in your garden, | "That corpse you planted last year in your garden, | ||
"Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? | "Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? | ||
"Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? | "Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? | ||
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| + | This recalls the beginning April stirs "dull roots with spring rain," because winter only keeps the dead warm. After the massive death toll of the Great War, the person wonders if there is any hope for growth. | ||
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| + | ===Lines 74-75, [[''The White Devil'']]=== | ||
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"Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men, | "Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men, | ||
| − | "Or with his nails he'll dig it up again! | + | "Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!" |
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| + | This is an excerpt John Websters '''The White Devil.''' This section is part of a mother's lamentation about her son's murder by her other son. Fratricide is also a word used to describe the war. In this case, the betrayal that wrought about the fratricide was both sexual and political. | ||
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| + | ===Line 76, Baudelaire=== | ||
"You! hypocrite lecteur! ''- mon semblable, - mon frere''!" | "You! hypocrite lecteur! ''- mon semblable, - mon frere''!" | ||
| + | Here Eliot recalls Baudelaire's [["Au Lecteur"]]. As in "Des Sept Viellards," the poem bemoans the stagnancy of life, alluding to the river of the dead walking about, bored, lifeless, indulging in petty, damning sin. This is very much Eliot's message as well. However, here both poets seem to allude to a complicity with the reader of their poems. Having read the criticism, perhaps the reader is awakened from the stream of death. Revitalized. Maybe the poem is April, "stirring dull roots with spring rain/mixing memory and desire." | ||
Go to [[The Waste Land Text]] | Go to [[The Waste Land Text]] | ||
Go back to [[Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions]] | Go back to [[Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions]] | ||
