The Waste Land

Ans: T. S. Eliot is one of the most significant English poets in the twentieth century, as well as one of the most influential critics, an interesting playwright, editor, and publisher.

Ans: The full name of T. S Eliot is Thomas Stearns Eliot.

Ans: Madame Sosostris foretells using her tarot cards.

Ans: The poem 'The Waste Land' ends with the utterance of “Shntih” or “peace” three times like the formal ending to an Upanishad

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Ans: The voices of Thunder i.e. “Da, Da, Da” mean to give (Datta), to sympathies (Dayadhvam) and to control (Damyata).

Ans: By ‘Unreal City’, Eliot refers to the modern city London that is cut off from both natural and spiritual sources of life.

Ans: The last line of the poem “The Waste Land” is “Shantih shantih shantih”.

Ans: The significance of the subtitle 'The Fire Sermon' is that it refers to Lord Buddha’s great sermon to his disciples against the fire of anger, lust, and malice etc. that consume human heart. It also alludes to St. Augustine’s sentiment on unholy passions.

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Ans: The Fisher King is a character found in several mythological sources, mostly Celtic in origin. However, he is best known from Arthurian mythology, particularly in the story of Perceval.

Ans: Madame Sosostris is the Tarot card-reading psychic who bears bad news in T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”.

Ans: Hyacinth girl is a young lady who is now forsaken by her lover. She stands for sensuous love.

Ans: Tiresias was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes. In “The Waste Land” by T S Eliot he is the narrator of "The Fire Sermon."

Ans: April appears to be the cruellest month because it brings life and activity to all objects of nature which want to remain dead and inactive.

Ans: Madame Sosostris foretells using her tarot cards.

Ans: The sections of The Waste Land are The Burial of the Dead, A Game of Chess, The Fire Sermon, Death by Water, and What the Thunder Said.

Ans: The main features in Eliot's Christian poetry are faith in religion, optimism and search for the right solution to human conflicts.

Ans: The narrator in "The Waste Land" knew nothing when confronted with the hyacinth girl.

Ans: "The ceremony of innocence" means traditional life style with steadfast adherence to innocence and purity.

Ans: “Da, Da, Da” means “to give (Datta), to sympathies (Dayadhvam) and to control (Damyata)” respectively.

Ans: "The Waste Land" stands for decay, degeneration, spiritual barrenness, sexual perversion etc.

Ans: In The Waste Land, ‘Winter’ stands for happiness and enjoyment.

Ans: The "Dry Grass singing" signifies the soulless singing of the spiritually dry pilgrims.

Ans: The sub title 'A Game of Chess', derived from Middleton’s play A Game of Chess, signifies sexual perversity prevalent among modern men.

Ans: Lazarus was a close friend to Jesus Christ. They were so close that Jesus raised him from the dead.

Ans: "Hieronymo" in ‘The Waste Land’ symbolizes the poet’s soul that is ‘mad’ for reforming the modern Waste Land.

Ans: 'The dry grass singing' signifies the spiritual dryness of the waste land.

Ans: A chapel a separate place of public worship dependent on the church of a parish.

Ans: Moorgate is a central London railway terminus.

Ans: Highbury is a district in the London Borough of Islington.

Ans: Belladonna, which means "beautiful lady" in Italian language, refers in this case to the Virgin Mary but in an ironic way. 

Ans: Coriolanus is a legendary Roman leader. Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Coriolanus’ is based on the life of this leader.

Ans: Hieronymo is the hero of Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.

Ans: Marie is a German princess. Her full name is Countess Marie Larisch.

Ans: Marie says “I am not Russian at all: I come from Lithuania, I am a real German”.

Ans: The Ganga is the most sacred river to Hindus. It is worshipped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism.

Ans: Hyacinth girl is a young lady who is now forsaken by her lover. She stands for sensuous love.

Ans: The 3 Da’s in the poem "The Waste Land" represent "Datta," "Dayadhvam," and "Damyata." They mean "give," "compassion," and "control" respectively.

Ans: The expression "Jug Jug to dirty ears” means the perverted perception of the Waste Landers about the reaction of Philomela at the time of being raped by King Tereus.

Ans: The title 'The Waste Land' symbolizes the modern world which is full of immorality and sexual perversion.

Ans: Shantih’ is a Sanskrit word meaning peace or bliss. According to T S Eliot, it means "The Peace which passeth understanding". Hindu teachings typically end with the repetition of this word as an invocation of peace.

Ans: The theme of the first section, 'The Burial of the Dead' is the spiritual and emotional decay and barrenness of modern people.

Ans: ‘The Waste Land’ is one of the most important modern poems of the 20th century by T. S. Eliot.

Ans: "The Waste Land" was first published in October 1922.

Ans: The lady of situations, referred by Madame Sosostris, is a woman who can be either beautiful or dangerous, depending on change of situations.

Ans: Tiresias is the protagonist in the poem 'The Waste Land'.

Ans: Trimalchio is the speaker in the epigraph of “The waste Land'.

Ans: Tiresious in The Waste Land is the narrator of the poem.

Ans: April appears to be “the cruelest month” because this month breeds lilacs out of the dead land, mixes memory and desire and stirs dull roots with spring rain.

Ans: The five fragments of "The Waste Land" are The Burial of the Dead”, “A Game of Chess”, “The Fire Sermon”, “Death by Water” and “What the Thunder Said”.

Ans: April is the cruelest month.

Ans: Lil is the confused and frustrated wife of an army personnel who is coming home after four years. She appears in the second section of The Waste Land.

Ans: The lady of the Rocks actually refers to the painting of Virgin Mary by Leonardo De Vinci. In the tarot cards she is Belladonna who is presented as the symbol of aridity and barrenness.

Ans: The typist is the woman mentioned in “The Waste Land”. She engages herself in mechanical sex with a clerk.

Ans: Madame Sosostris is the Tarot card-reading psychic who bears bad news in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. She uses seventy eight cards.

Ans: April is called the Cruelest month because it is the month of regeneration that the Waste Landers are afraid of.

Ans: Lil is the wife of Albert, an army officer. She is the mother of five children and is sexually less appealing to her husband.

Ans: The blindness of one eye of the merchant symbolizes his blindness to spirituality and openness to commercial gains.

Ans: The water of Thames is polluted by oil and tar coming from boats and ships.

Ans: ‘Expressionless sirens' means sirens without any sound. They signify complete silence that takes a heavy toll on human mind.

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