Understanding Poetry | The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

Understanding Poetry | The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

The Waste Land is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. The 434-line poem first appeared in in December 1922. Among its famous phrases are "April is the cruellest month", "I will show you fear in a handful of dust", and the mantra in the Sanskrit language "Shantih shantih shantih"

Eliot's poem combines the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King with vignettes of contemporary British society. Eliot employs many literary and cultural allusions from the Western canon, Buddhism and the Hindu Upanishads. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, and time and conjuring a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.

==============================

Resources

Nick Mount Lecture:

Mr. Huff's Literature Class:

==============================

Music

Anxiety - Kevin MacLeod

5 Emotional Covers - James Bartholomew

The Way - Zach Hemsey

[ThinkBigAnimation]

Hey guys.

This will likely be my last philosophy style video for a while as I will be taking the channel in a different direction. I will still make this type of video from time to time but really excited for all the new changes coming up!

Thank you guys for watching!

[Evan-frcs]

Works like The Waste Land are almost frightening when you're in a strange spot in your life. It's both inspiring and frightening. Very hard to verbalize. Great video as always.

[ryue]

Listening this in late 2024, 4 years after you published this. Your impact lives on in the Internet. Thanks for a very insightful analysis of this poem.

[Ellebeeby]

In the pub scene, there is also the implication that Lil has been having an affair; Albert has been in the army for four years, but Lil has somehow become pregnant and needed a contraceptive (the pills ‘to bring it off’, which are needed after Albert has already given her the money). More evidence the relationship is destructive, weaponised by both parties to cause each other harm.

[jackied.v.carson]

I've been a fan of the wasteland for years. Probably read it a hundred times and spent even more time reading about the symbolism. This is the best video on all of YouTube for beautifully and comprehensibly breaking down the images. Bravo.

[toqaessam]

I really hated this poem as i didn't understand it UNTIL I came across that video. THANK U REALLY! I needed that wonderful explanation. GREAT JOB!!!

[daveg]

Incredible. I’ve listened to numerous lectures on the meaning of The Waste Land and I have to say this one is my personal favourite. Concise, easy to understand and enjoyable to watch. Well done.

[saimariaz]

This video is really very helpful to understand "The Waste Land".

[A_Distant_Life]

That opening is amazing. I wish you would do that for entire books and poems. It really brings the words to life.

[HmmNeat_o]

That intro started to creep deep into my Conscience and started making me question my existence.

[addy]

That intro was amazing to say the least.

[Nitusho]

This is the best analysis of this poem I've seen: better than actual lectures available on youtube. Magnificent work

[guitarmatricide]

This was FANTASTIC! I had an inexplicable desire to read this poem tonight and, once again, left breathless by it and watching this right after was such a wonderful addendum to it.
Thank you so much for this!

[thesecondmatch]

It's been days that I've been reading the Norton Critical Edition and this video in about 20 minutes made me understand this poem! Congrats.. It was very helpful and so well presented that I was moved by your interpretation of Eliot's masterpiece. I thought: I have finally arrived at giving a coherent meaning to the general structure of the whole. Thank you!

[priyacool]

The video does a great job in bringing out more and more layers of meaning out of this difficult classic poem.
All the more meaningful in these unpredictable pandemic times. Shall save this video 👍

[amaliarm]

BEAUTIFUL VÍDEO, GREAT VOICES! THANK YOU

[ernestogunyemi]

Wow, wow, wow. This is really brilliant.

[anilsahu]

Hey ! There's one correction in the upanishadic story quoted there, Daman( self-control) was for Deities, Daan (to give away) for Men and Daya( to forgive) for Demons.

[MuhammadIqbal-ktzk]

very interesting way to describe wasteland

[medsaidkabouche]

Wonderful. Just wonderful. One of the best videos of The Waste Land. 👏