I wasn’t in class Tuesday, and I wish I had been able to make it because I have been thoroughly confused about The Waste Land. It has me quite jumbled up in my brain. However, I’ll try and write as much on it as possible on what I felt I sort of understood.
“The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed
And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;
Departed…”
I think that this whole thing is sort of talking about urban life decaying, or ceasing to exist all together. All of the things listed are sort of modern things that if there was any sort of city life would be in existence. Then he says that city directors are departed I think that just reestablishes that it’s supposed to represent this lack of city life. I’m not positive the significance of this but I so think that’s what it’s referencing in this section.
P.S commented on Brittany Hilburn’s Adventure post.
Yes! You're definitely on the right track, Kaylie! The whole poem is full of images of death and decay. The city is full of automatons with a complete lack of humanity. Without any backbone for the city, with no absolute truth to believe, the people are all dying a slow, painful, internal death.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. I think that the entirety of the poem is about the ending of civilization and death. Either that or people are finally learning how to clean up after themselves. This is obviously not gonna happen anytime soon so we can go with the first one. I think the poem describes the deterioration of mankind and partly how the world would be without man.
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