"The Fire Sermon" Annotations
From The Waste Land Wiki
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==Stanza 2== | ==Stanza 2== | ||
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+ | ===Andrew Marvell=== | ||
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+ | But at my back in a cold blast I hear | ||
+ | The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear. | ||
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+ | This excerpt alludes to Marvell's [["To His Coy Mistress"]], in which the narrator attempts to persuade a woman to engage in sexual intercourse with him. A direct quote from that passage reads: "But at my back I always hear / Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near." | ||
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+ | Eliot's work, however, relates this poem to death and war battle. The chuckle concluding the excerpt creates an eerie adaptation of the poem. | ||
==Stanza 3== | ==Stanza 3== |