Eliot's "The Wasteland"Q5 "Much of what Eliot writes about is harsh and bleak, but he writes about it in a way that is often beautiful". Comment fully on both parts of this assertion.Most first time readers of Eliot's work would, probably, agree that his poems read as bleak and depressing. They would also say that many of his poems portray society as having a terminal illness, but when we look deeper you can see that amid the anguish not all is lost and there is hope to be found among the ruins. "The Wasteland", is an amalgamation of fragmented images that are disturbing and, yet, at times beautifully poetic. The juxtaposition of the ugly landscape and the lyricism with which it is conveyed lend the poem an authenticity and originality. 'In this decayed hole among the mountains In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing…' The very fact that decay can be seen bathed in romantic moonlight and serenaded by singing grass reinforces the fact that out of something so desolate, something good can be seen or created. The narrator, though despondent with the degeneration of society, seems to have a genuine belief that there is good inside all men and if they could create as much as they destroyed the world could be a better place and not the barren wasteland that is before us now. This, I believe, is why he chooses to convey the desolation in this lyrical fashion. The fragmentary form of the poem reflects the fragmentary nature of man. Eliot has achieved this affect by applying various techniques. One example of this is how he uses time as a way of looking at the past, mixing modernity with the historic. In most cases the result is a mixture of regret with a strong desire to return to the past. At first glance this makes the poem appear to have no structure at all, but on further analysis you can clearly see the connection of one image juxtaposed with another. This reinforces Eliot's claim that, 'Genuine poetry can communicat...
