"What the Thunder Said" Annotations
From The Waste Land Wiki
(→Lines 428-430, Purgatorio) |
(→Lines 428-430, Purgatorio, Pervigilium Veneris, "El Desdichado") |
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This nursery rhyme throws the dark tone of the fall of European civilization into a spiral. | This nursery rhyme throws the dark tone of the fall of European civilization into a spiral. | ||
| − | ===Lines 428-430, Purgatorio, ''Pervigilium Veneris | + | ===Lines 428-430, ''Purgatorio,'' "Pervigilium Veneris," "O Swallow, Swallow," "El Desdichado"=== |
''Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina'' | ''Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina'' | ||
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'''Line 429''' | '''Line 429''' | ||
| − | According to Eliot's note, it comes from the Latin poem the [[''Pervigilium Veneris'']]. | + | According to Eliot's note, it comes from the Latin poem the [[''Pervigilium Veneris'']]. Because the town of Amyclae was silent, and there had been false alarms about enemy attacks, when the enemy did come to attack, the city fell because no one was willing to break the silence. This reinforces Eliot's duty to call attention to the danger of the time. |
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| + | "O swallow swallow" many think, refers to Tennyson's poem [["O Swallow, Swallow"]]. | ||
===Lines 431-432=== | ===Lines 431-432=== | ||
