Decoding "The Burial of the Dead"

Voyeur Tools provides a basic and revealing way of visualizing the thematic divergences of "The Burial of the Dead" from the "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]."  The key terms--"life," "eternal," "dead," and "death"--are all related in a Judeo-Christian resurrection of the eternal soul--a notion that is meant to be comforting, which "The Waste Land" is most certainly not.   

 

Alternatively, in "Burial of the Dead," the word "dead" outstrips all other terms, "life" goes down in importance, "eternal" does not occur at all, and "death" stays the same as it did in the "Order."  More emphasis is place on the individual dead, and on being dead, than on those who are left behind, and no promise of anything "eternal" is made.   

The words that do feature prominently in Eliot's "The Burial of the Dead," are particularly telling for his attitude.  Both "dead," and "death," feature prominently, but so does "shadow," "winter," "roots," and "fear."  The last, "fear," introduces the crisis of faith most strongly.  One of the interesting correlations of Figure 2 is the path that "dead," "winter," and "roots," share for most of the graph.  This is telling, because roots do not really die in the winter, they merely remain dormant.  Of course, in the poem, the dead feed on the roots,a and the winter preserves their bodies, so either way, the poem speaks to death as a temporary state.  Nevertheless, it is one to be feared.  The biggest peak in the graph is "death."  Underneath that peak, there is one little bump for "fear."  This arrangement brings into mind the Lord's Prayer.  It would appear that in the shadow, there is fear.  However, the final three to drop off, "fear," "death," and "dead" fall off the graph in that order.  As "fear" is quelled, "death is vanquished," and the "dead" are no longer dead.  The graph ends with a rise in the word "garden," indicating that the soil is fertile for new life.  This brings to mind the very end of "The Burial of the Dead," when the narrator asks Stetson if "that corpse you planted last year...has it begun to sprout?" as though there is an expectation that the dead are like seeds, germinating under the earth (lines 71-72).  In this last section, even the resurrection of the dead is mentioned in an oblique manner.  One of the voices says "Oh keep the Dog (capitalization original) far hence, that's friend to men, or with his nails he'll dig it up again." (lines 74-75).  Just as Christ is a product of his father, God, the word Dog is an inversion of God.  While this interpretation might be a stretch elsewhere, the capital "D" like the capital "G" in God makes this connection clear.  Further "with his nails," easily refers to the nails of the Cross, since Jesus' death is the guarantee of salvation for all, and thus, resurrection for all Christians.   

The chart for the scriptural passages in the "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]" is actually not as indicative of its content as the other Figures presented, perhaps because it uses twenty Biblical passages, each differing length, and of a falsely constructed order, according to one way of structuring a funeral service.  It does, however, confirm key aspects of life after death.  It demonstrates the tension between a dead body and an everlasting body and, interestingly, "dead," and "death," overlap on [[1 Corinthians 15]]:20-26, and on [[1 Corinthians 15]]:26, Christ defeats death as the last enemy.  Soon after, the word "throne," rises in usage in [[Revelation 7]]:9-17, in which John the Apostle sees the heavenly court of God, and describes how the dead will live with Christ.  In His court, they will "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.  For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." [[Revelation 7]]:16-17.  This is an interesting passage to compare to the beginning of "The Burial of the Dead" in which the corpse is stirred by spring rain  (line 4) and is kept alive by feeding on "dried tubers" (lines 6-7).  It is almost as though these natural processes mock the corpse as he waits for the divine substances promised him, since until resurrection, the corpse will never really eat again.  Further, at the heavenly court, John the Apostle describes every language being spoken, representative of every creed of people.  This image of life after death informs Eliots' understanding of contemporary society--God's continuing punishment of his children--since they have to wait further even for the rewards of death.