"The Burial of the Dead" Annotations
From The Waste Land Wiki
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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. | 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. | ||
| − | ===Lines 69- | + | ===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 from 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 [["To the Reader"]] | ||
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]] | ||
