"The Burial of the Dead" Annotations
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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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"Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!" | "Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!" | ||
| − | This is an excerpt | + | 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=== | ===Line 76, Baudelaire=== | ||
"You! hypocrite lecteur! ''- mon semblable, - mon frere''!" | "You! hypocrite lecteur! ''- mon semblable, - mon frere''!" | ||
| − | Here Eliot recalls Baudelaire's [[" | + | 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]] | ||
