What the Thunder Said

I
Echo of passion of Christ (crucifixion)
He who was living is now dead
o Opposite of Christ was dead and now living
Half-life

II
No water, no place to standkind of hell
Water is waste land, desert is waste landwaste land everywhere
No ease of sufferinghell

III
Insects outcicadasummer bug, no water,
Hermit thrush sound

IV
Journey to Emmaus
o Person walking beside themdont ask
o It is Jesus next to themghostly figure
o Always counting an extra person
Shanklands voyages

V
Glimpse of Chaos
Europe is headed toward this terrible devastation
Barbarism
Invasions from the eastRussians coming and raping and killing
Jerusalem Athens
o Centers of civilizations, great cultures
o All destroyed by war/lost of faith/etc.

VI
Beautiful imagery followed by tragic, horrific images (realism)
Dracula allusion
o Reverses normal pattern of life
Demonic reversal of Christian message
Blood bringing life vs. death
Reversal of patterns: Sleep in day

VII
Gawain and the Green Knight
o Perilous castle/churchhole in the ground, strange place
Wind being only thing present in waste land again (spirit)
o There is the empty chapel

VIII
Words from Upanishad (Buddhism)
Da: Sound of Thunder
o Da is to give
o atta: Control
o hvam: Sympathize
o Datta
o Dayadhvam
o Damyatta
Datta
Dayadhvam: Sympathize
o Sites scene of Dante in hell
o Father/son stuck in tower and father must eat children to survive
o Each is in prison of ourselvesin our own unique prison
Notion of relativity (relativity of experiences in life)
o World is only an appearance
Nothing is permanent or universal
Reality is only an image/consensus that we have
o Coriolanus: Play from Shakespeare
damyata: Control
o All about mechanical control
Three things disconnected/fragmented? Like rest of poem
o Suggestion by Ezra Pound
o Relativity nothing sequential

IX
Cacophonies of various languagesconfusion
lands in orderbefore dying
London bridgenursery rhymes
Poi..Dante Purgatorio
Quando fiam uti: Lines from Virgil (when will I be a swallow?)
ruins: ruins throughout the poem
Shantih Shantih Shantih
o The peace which passeth understanding
o Formal ending to Upanishad
o Sound of rain finally falling?
o Possible suggestion to end/peace/redemption in waste land
Balance between two ideas is skewed