The “barren land” of Eliot in summary
The action takes place in England after the First World War. The basis of the poem is the myth of the search for the Holy Grail and the legend of the poor fisherman. Parts of the poem are fragmentary and do not form unity.
The poem begins with an epigraph – the myth of Sivill. She wished herself eternal life, forgetting to wish eternal youth: “And then I saw the Cuma Sibyl in a bottle.” Her children asked: “Sibylla, what do you want?”, And she answered: “I want to die.”
I part. Burial of the Dead
The cruel month of April makes nature wake up from winter sleep: flowers and trees grow from dead land. There is a downpour in the town of Starnberger. Marie and a friend are sitting in a cafe and talking. Marie talks about how she was riding in the mountains on a sledge with her cousin.
The author calls the son of the human to come to where the dead tree does not give a shadow. He promises to show fear – a handful
In the first part, Sibyl turns into a fortune teller Madame Sozostris. She has a bad cold, but, nevertheless, she makes a prediction on the cards to the person who came to her. He must die from the water: “Behold,” she says, “here is your map – a drowned man, a Phoenician sailor… / But I do not see the Hanged Man.– Your death from water.”
The image of London – a ghost town where the war was. The sailor calls to the familiar Stetson and asks him if the dead man who was buried in the garden grew a year ago: “Will he flourish this year – / Or maybe an unexpected frost hit his bed?”. The mariner does not receive an answer.
II part. Game of chess
The couple play chess in complete silence, waiting for a knock at the door. They have nothing to talk about with each other. Describes the room: an aquarium without fish, a picture depicting the reincarnation of Philomele in a nightingale, scolded by a rapist-king. Finally, the familiar Lil comes in, and the landlady advises her that she arranges herself for the arrival of Albert’s
Lil, make it all up and make the plugin.
He said: I can not look at you.
And I can not, I say, think about Albert,
He ditched three years in the trenches, he wants to live,
Not with you, so others will be.
Lil is 31 years old, she gave birth to five children, and the last time she was dying. On Sunday, Albert returns.
Part III. Fiery sermon.
At night, the fisherman takes the Thames coast. He thinks of King Tire, who defiled Philomel.
Mr. Evgenidis – “one-eyed merchant” from fortune telling Madame Sozostris – invites a man to the hotel “Kennon Street”.
In this part of the poem Sibyl is the female hypostasis of the blind prophet Tiresias: “I, Tiresias, the prophet, trembling between the sexes / Blind old man with a wrinkled woman’s breast. / In a purple hour I see how with deeds / “. Tiresias anticipates a meeting between a typist and a sailor: he caresses her, she impassively tolerates his caresses. When the sailor leaves, the typist sighs with relief and turns on the gramophone. The typist recalls the facts of her biography. She was subjected to debauchery in Richmond, in Moorgate, on the Morgate beach.
The third part ends with the call to God to free the burning man from asceticism.
IV part. Death from the water.
Phlebe Phoenician dies in water in two weeks. His body is swallowing the sea current. The author calls on everyone to honor the dead Phleb: “Think of Phleb: and he was full of strength and beauty.”
V part. What the thunder said.
The last part of the poem begins with a description of the barren land: a thunderclap in the dead mountains, there is no water, only rocks, stones, sand underfoot, dry grass, cracks in the soil.
Someone else walks next to two heroes over a barren land. But they do not know him, they do not see his face. They hear thunder in the purple sky, see an incomprehensible city over the mountains, pass Jerusalem, Athens, ghostly London. They see in the crevice of the rocks an empty chapel with broken windows and a cemetery:
In this putrid cavity between mountains the
Grass sings under the dim moonlight
Waxed graves near the chapel –
This is an empty chapel, the dwelling of the wind,
Windows are broken, the door swings.
And only here the grass grows and the rain begins.
And then the thunder says: “Yes, what did we give?” – the blood of Jesus Christ, “the blood of a trembling heart,” which no one will find. But many people are looking for it, considering the blood of Jesus as the key to life.
The poem ends with the fact that the fisherman sits at the canal, fish, and thinks whether he will restore order in his lands and that the London bridge is collapsing.
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