Exploring The Waste Land

This was my internet research for The Waste Land, this site is a learning resource allowing exploration of T.S.Eliot poem. Part of the site uses a framed presentation of the poem with hyperlinked notes, definitions, transtlations, cross referenced, texts of works alluded to, commentary, and questions to the reader. So I thought this was helpful for me. I learned about a few points of Eliot's one was, "the only way to learn about life is by exploring" well that is so very true. I learned many readers have had difficulty following this poem, so we are not alone. This site said that Eliot's use of allusion is part of the reason it is so difficult.
I found how some of the words used or items used in his poem where for reasons of his own, so some of this poem is part of Eliot but it is still a bit chunky for me and I will try to read it again this summer and see what effect it will have on me then.

Exploring

Class discussion helps!!!

I have found that discussing the readings and hearing everyones opinions has helped me a lot to understand the materials we have read. Once you hear how someone else thought the readings meant, you get more about the readings. Like with the individual poems we read, (mine was Blackberries) once I heard what someone else thought it meant, I would re-read it and see the same thing or I would say "oh thats what that meant" LOL so I love the class discussions on the reading in helps to understand and enjoy the readings that much more.

Battle Royal

I honestly hated this story. I do not like to think that people can be that cruel to anyone. The way they treated the girl was disgusting and the way the boys where treated was worse. It was hard to read how they were tortured for entertainment. I would have rather died than go through any of that. It was even harder to understand how the boy still had the courage and strength to read his speech, I would not have been able to survive what he did. That was a sad and cruel story.

The Company of Wolves:

Chilling, dark and scary! I like that in a story it makes it interesting. I could not wait to see what happen when she got to her grandma's house, but then her grandma was killed and now I did not like that wolf and thought, "well there goes the girl" but what a twist the ending had. She dealt with her fears by seducing the wolf and who knows maybe they will live happily ever after!
I did not like the idea it was on Christmas or that it was mention in the story, but I will have to look into that a bit more.

My scholarly journal article that I found is James e. Miller, Jr. T.S. Eliot: The Making of an American Poet, 1988-1922. This article showed me how many people out there were doing tons of biograpical works on his life and adding some interpretation to his work too. So this was interesting to me. Eliot quoted this on his own poem, "I'd say that my poetry has abviously more in common with my distinguished contemporaries in America than with anything written in my generation in England. That I'm sure of...In its sources, in its emotional springs it comes from America." with this quote scholars claim Eliot as an "American" poet. this is something I put to mind when re-reading his poem. Basically they are trying to figure out, (like us) what was on Eliot's mind when he wrote this poem, and I think theie trying to say to, separate his poem from his life. It is just pure and simple poetry my dear! LOL

2nd post on "How to read " The Waste Land" so it alters your soul

This article helped me understand bits and pieces of the poems in The Waste Land, and I agree with the fact that this is a poem, and for a poem it is a good piece. You have to keep in mind the time era it was written and that explains alot for me. It also reminds me of Shakespere, I guess because it speaks like a play from the shakespere era. In all my readings that I did on this piece, I found that the title "The Wate Land" is basically what the poem is about, "Waste" in T.S. Elliot, The Waste Land on the bottom of page 288 it says, "The Waste Land thus bespeaks a simultaneous fascination with, and revulsion from, waste". or "The process of waste-production is knitted into its cultural moment:it cannot(and pound cannot) "edit out" all the waste, because it is waste material; both the abject and a valuable surplus which enables culture to continue, creating its own moment as it orders its abjection. There can be no production without waste." When reading this information from Tim Armstrong I could relate to the poem more and understand that with many poems that a lot of the words in a poem come from the poets head and we do not always no whats in a poets head so the poems can seem a bit strange. So doing some research on this helped me understand some of the meaning in it. A bunch of waste put together in a poem!

The Waste Land/response to, "How to read"

I had to agree with Mary Karr, the poems as individuals are good poems. I felt something when I read this, "In terms of shape, the poem is a collage, somewhat disparate pieces assembled to create in readers the kind of despair that infected much of Western Europe after the Great War." after reading that the poems have more meaning to me. The poems have words from a long time ago and so there is lots of history and changes from the wars, all this brings great depth to the poems. The French language and the other languages do not help but I think it was to add something more to make the poems different and stand out. Look how much controversy it is getting now. I am learning to understand and appreciate all kinds of works in the poem world!

The Spanish Tragedy excerpt

this was a little bit of a nice sweet poem/excerpt it was easy to read and I liked it. I am not sure where this is from or what else to say about it. It was a nice short poem.

The Waste Land

OMG!!!
At this point of the poems, it started out like your normal poem, and then just became too hard to read with a different language and all. Sometimes it sounded like a small story but I still could not get into it or enjoy it like a poem should be. I am not sure what the different phases are or titles and whether it goes together or not, that is how lost I am. Can someone help me understand any of this?
Once I start re-reading parts of the poem, I can't help but have questions, like the first part of the poem, the title, "The buriel of the dead" this makes me think about burying dead people but as I read on, the poem sounds like it is talking about plants, second line. "Lilacs out of the dead land" or page 7, line 71, "that corpse you planted last year in your garden" now is he talking about flowers or corpse? Is this about the title or what? Line 72, Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? It seems to be about plants and gardens, frost and rain etc.

Where are you going,where have you been?

This was a dark story for me. I think it hit me hard because I am a mother of 2 children and do not ever want to think of this happening to them. It was hard for me to finish it, but with what is on the news today I make sure my kids are aware of the cruel world they need to protect them self from. This story was short but not sweet. I could not decide which was real or a dream or a demon. Was Connie dreaming of what would happen if she keeps on the way she does with boys, or is this about the devil, or is this your typical loser, stalking and raping young girls? I do know it was dark and the man was evil. Anyone want to help me on this one/

reflection on "The Great Gapsby"

Wow! where can I begin, it was a hard book for me because I would get lost from time to time, but over all I did get the point in the end. Tom and Daisy had some issues and it reflected the love for each other or with anyone else. It was a crazy love mess with all the characters and they all need some serious therapy. Poor Gatsby