The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

My second post for T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land, is going to be a brief summary of the style and form of the poem. In the first section, “The Burial of the Dead”, it can be seen as a dramatic monologue but with four speakers instead of one. In the second section, “A Game of Chess”, the beginning is very unrhymed and lack meter. As the section goes on, the more irregular and unmetered it becomes. In the third section, “The Fire Sermon”, Eliot includes a rhyme or two here and there. He also includes bits and pieces of music. In the fourth section, “Death by Water”, seems like the most organized portion of the poem it has four pairs of rhyming couplets. In the last section, “What the Thunder Said”, also explores forms of music just like the third section did.

                        London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down 

                        Poi s’ascose nel foco che gli affina 

                        Quando fiam ceu chelidon—O swallow swallow 

                        Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie 

                        These fragments I have shored against my ruins (426-430)