The Wasteland

I had a very difficult time with The Wasteland. Eliot seems to jump all over the place, and it became very confusing. After reading it for the first time, I could not figure out if there was a main theme. I did some research on the poem and found it extremely helpful in understanding each part of the poem. I am still a little unclear on the main theme. Regeneration is mentioned a few times and could possibly be considered a theme. The activities that we did on Monday made everything much easier to understand. I think that has been the most helpful exercise we have done! It was much easier to understand when we “acted” out different sections.

The Wasteland was pretty much everything that I had expected it to be. I knew it was going to be difficult to follow and knew that it would be pretty depressing. Everything he describes is what I imagine to be in a wasteland. The opening few lines describe the month of April as being cruel. I think of the winter months as being the cruelest, not April. That just set the tone for the entire poem. Eliot uses phrases such as, “stony rubbish” and “heap of broken images” to describe this wasteland. He mentions rats more than a few times throughout. We get a visual image of a deserted old town in ruins. I think my favorite section of the poem is “A Game of Chess.” I did not exactly like the content, but I found it to be one of the easier sections to understand.