Upon reading Eliot I am not sure what he was trying to convey to his audience. He is a smart and well educated man than wrote very will, but what was his underlying meaning? Where did his inspiration come from? He writes in "The Waste Land",
"Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you" (p. 1213)
Eliot being a smart man has to be conveying to his audience some meaning by the since of this unknown person. Could it have been the loneliness he felt from his first marriage that made this shadow like it was always following him. It could have been the person he was always looking for but never had a face to recognize the beauty. Or it could have been the people with which Eliot felt compelled to help. The Jews and his support for modern Islam in particular. (Letters written to Kallen)
Also, when he is writing about this person being ahead of him I think it means that he is foreseeing himself walking with someone else. Maybe his sense of spirituality is sensed in this verse. The one walking beside him may be the religious figure that will accompany him in his future. Throughout life we all seem to wonder what we can not see or what we might be missing. Eliot is trying to put an identity on the “shadow” that is following him.
His writing seems to be more about the experiences he has been through and seen that about himself. He writes about his change to religion and “The Waste Land” that was written during his failing marriage with his first wife. He writes with conviction and really puts himself on paper. Eliot did not really have early childhood experiences or the tragic circumstances that we have seen. He had to write about certain situations more than feelings.
His criticism of others seemed to get him just as much back. He was criticized for being anti-Semitic throughout his career and even stealing the works of earlier poets. Whether this is true or not, Eliot is highly regarded and we all take something from what we learn.
3 comments:
Jason,
You present many possible interpretations for the lines you quote from The Waste Land. The multitude of speculation shows good critical though, but it tends to diminish the cohesiveness of this post.
Jason,
I must admit that I too struggled with "The Waste Land". I think Eliot provides some tough lines to interpret. I appreciate your ability to find several possible meanings.
Jason,
The Waste Land was the most puzzling thing for me all semester. I enjoyed the various positions on the passages. I just wish you would have stated more clearly your position on the writing.
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