"The Burial of the Dead" Annotations
From The Waste Land Wiki
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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. | 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. | ||
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And when we were children, staying at the archduke's, | And when we were children, staying at the archduke's, | ||
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And I was frightened. He said, Marie, | And I was frightened. He said, Marie, | ||
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. | 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. | ||
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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. | 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. | ||
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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. | 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. | ||
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== Stanza 2 == | == Stanza 2 == | ||
