"The Fire Sermon" Annotations
From The Waste Land Wiki
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===[[Ovid]]=== | ===[[Ovid]]=== | ||
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Twit twit twit | Twit twit twit | ||
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So rudely forc'd. | So rudely forc'd. | ||
Tereu | Tereu | ||
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| + | This excerpt alludes to the story of Procne and Philomela in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The sounds mimic the sorrowful song of the nightingale after Philomela was transformed. | ||
==Stanza 4== | ==Stanza 4== | ||
===Charles [[Baudelaire]]=== | ===Charles [[Baudelaire]]=== | ||
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Unreal City | Unreal City | ||
Under the brown fog of a winter noon | Under the brown fog of a winter noon | ||
| − | + | This short quotation refers to Baudelaire's poem [[“Des Sept Viellards”]] from ''Les Fleurs du Mal''. "Des Sept Viellards" translates to "seven old men," and ''Les Fleurs du Mal'' to "the flowers of evil." The referred to quotation that Eliot parallels is below: | |
| − | + | :Swarming city, city full of dreams | |
| + | :Where the spector in full daylight accosts the passerby | ||
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| + | ===Walt Whitman=== | ||
Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants | Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants | ||
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| + | The word "currants" alludes to Whitman's [[“These I Singing in Spring”]] from ''Leaves of Grass''. Currants are seedless berries representing infertility. Whitman thus uses them as symbols of homosexuality. | ||
==Stanza 5== | ==Stanza 5== | ||
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===Robert Louis Stevenson=== | ===Robert Louis Stevenson=== | ||
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Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea, | Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea, | ||
The typist home at teatime | The typist home at teatime | ||
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| + | This alludes to Stevenson's [["Requiem"]]. The paralleled text reads, “Home is the sailor, home from the sea / And the hunter, home from the hill." The sailor could be representative of the soldier returning home from war. | ||
==Oedipus the King== | ==Oedipus the King== | ||
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I who have sat by Thebes below the wall | I who have sat by Thebes below the wall | ||
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| + | This is a reference to Oedipus the King of Thebes. A prophet correctly predicted that he would unwittingly kill his father and marry his mother. After solving the Sphinx’s riddle, he was made king. | ||
==Stanza 6== | ==Stanza 6== | ||
