T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land After World War I

It is not long T.S Eliot published the poem “The Waste Land” after The World War I. The poem addresses the modern Europe after the warfare which is the poem title suggested – A waste land, the loss of civilization culture and order. With all those premise, it is not hard to know why the imagery of water and fire significantly fascinating repeat between stanza to stanza, in exterior, spirit level, and religious level, since water and fire is meaning the Europe’s circumstance after the World War I, the flow of river represents the flow of life and the religious meaning of fire and water in the poem.

First of all, Fire and water superficially presenting the Europe’s circumstance after the World War I. “Dull roots with spring rain.” (Eliot 9)

As Eliot stated out “While I was fishing in the dull canal” (Eliot 28), “The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers, Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.” (Eliot 27), in another word, the river is lethargy and lifeless. The raindrop of spring did not get inside to the river nor the “last fingers of leaf” (Eliot 27). The only thing that closes to the water is the song and speech from Eliot “Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song, Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.” (Eliot 28) and the river did not answer to Eliot, as the scene of the funeral, the relatives sing and speak to the remaining without any replies. The flow of the river did not cut off by anything, it is just missing those summer night’s testimony (Eliot 27), happens before the war. As the life of a human that lacking of connection with others in the brightest night of the summer. Implying the life of those livings would not be the same as the river. The garbage is long gone from the river so does the people who may throw it to the river. In short, the flow of life and river is changed by the war and the fire which follows. The flow of the river is inseparable with human, the use of river or wet bank can be understanding as the habits and or characteristics of those came back from the

The poem mention about the Tarot card’s “Queen of Cups” by “Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, The lady of situations.” (Eliot 13) which is a Tarot card of a beautiful woman holding a holy grail, that is, the meaning of purification in the matter of religion since the holy grail holds the holy water for baptism. More than that, the background of tarot card “Queen of Cups” is a burned ground cover with water which can be comprehended as the rebirth land after the fire, and purify by the holy water. Also, there is more about the holy water similar to the tarot card. Eliot write about the Ganges in “Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves” (46), that is the river of holiness in the Buddhist tradition and it is able to wash away sins. As Eliot himself is probing the way of religious, water becomes the synonym of purifying sins, that he constantly reminds himself of it. Religious affiliation becomes important while those people living in the shadow of war and the waste land. It is depending on their belief to determine rather they will rise from the fire like a phoenix or not. All in all, both water and fire is the symbolic meaning a wide variety religious, giving the believers chances to reborn from the ash.

In a nutshell, the image of water and fire significantly appearing between stanza to stanza since those elements are the symbolic meaning of what T.S Eliot experienced during