"The Fire Sermon" Annotations
From The Waste Land Wiki
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===William [[Shakespeare]]=== | ===William [[Shakespeare]]=== | ||
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The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf | The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf | ||
Clutch and sink into the wet bank | Clutch and sink into the wet bank | ||
| − | + | These lines allude to Queen Gertrude announcing Ophelia's death in [[''Hamlet'' (Act IV Scene VII)]]. Ophelia had climbed a willow tree when a branch snapped, plummeting her to the brook below. | |
| − | + | The Shakespearean tragedy associates old, distinguished literary tragedies with the tragic new territory of modernity. The war itself was a tragedy, and Eliot is referencing the returning veterans who may have survived the battles but are no longer psychologically present. | |
===Edmund Spenser=== | ===Edmund Spenser=== | ||
