LITERATURE QUESTIONS
MODERN POETRY AND POETICS
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Is authentic poetry possible in the aftermath of the carnage of World War I?
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Given the diversity of the world’s poetic traditions, can there be a universal language of poetic symbolism?
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How can a shared world be created out of the fundamentally different and private experiences of individual people?
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Given that each person experiences trauma differently, is it possible for all to understand the modern world as a shared “waste land”?
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Detailed explanation-1: -The Waste Land can be viewed as a poem about brokenness and loss, and Eliot’s numerous allusions to the First World War suggest that the war played a significant part in bringing about this social, psychological, and emotional collapse.
Detailed explanation-2: -Eliot creates a parallel between past and present, where past is something which is unified, has spiritual significance, is joyous, harmonizing. The poet also fears his own end, therefore he too submits himself to the God. Through the poem Eliot highlights the need to belief in God, attain true self and be redeemed.
Detailed explanation-3: -Eliot had the idea for the poem in 1914, but a breakdown brought on by his father’s death in 1919 precipitated its completion, and it has largely been read as a comment on the bleakness of post-war European history.
Detailed explanation-4: -The work is meant to disorient the reader which reflects the predicament of modern man: this is a new world we’re living in, Eliot says throughout “The Waste Land". The confusion the reader feels as they follow the speaker through the post-apocalyptic waste land reflects the confusion of people after the Great War.