blessays

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The Trenches of the Wasteland

The First World War in T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland

 The Wasteland, one of T.S. Eliot’s most famous poems was published in 1922, only a few years after the First World War which was from 1914-1918. The poem has been described as critiquing the time it was published in for its weakened and chaotic society, yet these analyses never seem to mention the war that had led to this society or the actual references to both the war and the consequences it had on those who partook in it. This blessay will focus on these points by analyzing different aspects of the poem that refer to the First World War and the consequences for those who lived through it.

The poem has, throughout the text, many references to water and the environment, but rather than using water and for example flowers to symbolize life Eliot seems to use them in an opposite manner. The Wasteland starts by naming April ‘the cruellest month’ (Eliot 1) criticizing the month for bringing flowers, more specifically lilacs along. Usually flowers and spring are used to symbolize birth, a new beginning or something good and innocent, Eliot however seems to disagree with this traditional use instead opting for a more macabre interpretation. After the war had ended, the battlefields would often grow a lot of flowers with the most famous example being the poppies that would grow on the western front. Instead of poppies however, Eliot describes a field of lilacs. These flowers are known to represent a short yet vibrant life because of the short period that they are in bloom. The short yet active lives of these flowers which sprung up from the ‘dead land’ (Eliot 2) mirror those of the mostly young soldiers who though they lived shortly led a violent life. 

Aside from the flowers, the poem also makes use of a lot of water-related imagery throughout the entire text, the fourth part even carrying the title ‘IV Death by Water.’ As is the case with the flowers, water is often referred to in a positive sense, a source of life, a way of travel and a possibility to trade, however in The Wasteland, water appears to be representing the war and its battlefields. The title of the second part: ‘II A Game of Chess.’ implies a strategical game, which would logically be a metaphor for war especially as the chairs the players are sitting in are described as thrones making it a match between leaders. This implies that the second part of the poem is the part where the war itself starts taking place, or at least the memory of fighting in the war. This is also where the water-related imagery starts to take shape as a war metaphor, even more so because of the way the river is described in the first line of part two (Eliot 172). The ‘river’ is described in such a way it is reminiscent of the trenches: wet, brown/muddy, ‘[no] testimony of summer nights’ (Eliot 179) This way of describing battlefields or war-like surroundings and violence using water continues throughout the text.

 In the same segment, Eliot also manages to incorporate the ‘world’ aspect of a World War as the speaker ends up at ‘the waters of Leman’ (Eliot 182). Leman was a Belgian commander leading the Belgian troops, and thus would have been residing in the Belgian part of the allied trenches. That these trenches transitioned smoothly from one nationality to another Eliot makes clear by calling the ‘river’ that the speaker comes from, which he implores to run softly along until ‘he ends his song’ (Eliot 176) the Thames. Reading these passages with the idea that they are set in the trenches makes more sense when looking at lines 111 to 135 which are all conversation fragments of the soldiers in the trenches, that these sentence fragments are not always very coherent or seem weird at times could also hint at Eliot referring to soldiers slowly losing their minds due to traumas and eventually leading to shell-shock.

An important part of warfare with trenches was the moment that a group of soldiers would have to climb out of their trench to try to cross the battlefield to the enemy’s trench. Taking into account that Eliot is already playing with the madness that soldiers could experience in the trenches, it is not far-fetched to say that large parts of the poem could be hallucinated to cover up a more horrid truth. For example, in line 141 the line ‘HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME’ is used for the first time. On a first glance, it is unclear what this line is referring to, going into labor seeming to be the most logical. Applying the idea that the situation depicted here, being with a woman talking about her children that the speaker says goodnight to in such a way that it seems more like a farewell, might be a hallucination and then bringing it back to the trenches this could very well be something said by a superior ordering soldiers to climb out of the trenches, which the speaker realizes will most likely be the end of him thus saying his goodbyes.

 In the third part aptly named, ‘III. The Fire Sermon’, the process in between the command to get ready to climb and the actual advance is described. First the inhabitants of the ‘unreal city’ (Eliot 207), another name for the trenches, are described in such a way that the extent to which the allied trenches were international gets highlighted even further. Continuing there seems to be another hallucination of going home which is here said as ‘[a] sailor [going] home from sea’. Which if sticking to the interpretation of water as war or war-environment, could be read not just as simply going home, but also as dying, thus leaving the violence. Lines 245 to 248 describe the speaker to have ‘sat […] below the wall and walked among the lowest of the dead.’ which most likely refers to having sat in the trenches among the other soldiers after which he ‘gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit.’ effectively leaving the trenches and entering the battlefield.

 The rest of part III describes the advance as they start out with a ‘turning tide, red sails wide’ the turning tide referring to their getting the upper hand, while the wide red sails are most likely a reference to a story that Eliot refers to more often in his text, namely Tristan and Isolde. At the end of the story Tristan has been poisoned, having sent for his beloved Isolde who is the only one who can heal him Tristan looks out for the sails of the ship she might be on, if they are white she is aboard and he would be saved, however, because of a miscommunication they accidently hoist the black sails which would mean that she was not aboard causing both of their deaths as he gives up before she can get to him, dying of sadness upon seeing her beloved dead.  The red sails here in the text likely referring to those from the story. The advance continues with what seems to be bullets (‘A glided shell red and gold’ (Eliot 283-284)) hitting on both sides (‘Rippled both shores’ (Eliot 285)).

 At the end of the advance there are three separate instances given of what appear to be foreigners who were taken from colonies to fight for ‘their countries’. These short three fragments (lines 292 to 305) describe how they feel foreign on this land where they will most likely die. In lines 308 to 311 these deaths as well as the speaker’s death are mentioned as if they are being picked out one by one to die. After part III ends with picking out who dies, part IV, ‘IV Death by Water’ describes the death as someone drowning, being killed by the water, tying into the idea that the water is war-related, which means that the war is what killed him. The fault for this death is partly given to ‘you who turn the wheel’ meaning the leaders of the army. Finally, part IV is, especially in comparison to the other segments, considered to be rather short which Eliot might have done in order to emphasize that the dying itself is very quick, and seems to be almost the least important in a poem so heavily focused on death.

 The last part, ‘V. What the Thunder Said’ takes place in a sort of purgatory where the speaker has to get to the afterlife, not by taking a river such as the styx but rather by walking over a dry plane with nothing but rock and sand. Throughout the entire poem, on multiple occasions characteristic belonging to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and more specifically to shell shock. Lines 359 to 365 describe a phenomenon where a rift is created between a war-ego and a peace-ego, creating an inner conflict which might make those who suffer from it feel as if there is a constant companion following them while they are in peace and vice versa, never really being able to let either of these egos go. Another aspect of shell shock that can be seen in this part of the text is the loss of the ability to properly sympathize with others. Eliot has incorporated this aspect rather subtly as he makes use of a Upanishad, an Indian scripture, from this Upanishad Eliot uses three words which he scatters through the text, Datta, dayadhvam, and damyata (Give, sympathise, control). The part relating to dayadhvam or sympathise, ends by stating that ‘the broken Coriolanus should be revived’ (Eliot 416) or, should learn to sympathise again.

The final three words of the poem, shantih shantih shantih, also belong to the Upanishad where they are used as a formal ending meaning ‘The peace which passeth understanding.’ Even though the words sound very calming, this ending does seem to imply that the only possibility after having lived through a war is ‘the peace which passeth understanding’ which appears to mean something such as ‘the promised land’ or simpler put: ‘death’ which might have been precisely what Eliot wanted to accomplish with the poem, to show that the effect of war, even after having left the war is still very present.