The Wasteland

During the spring months the ground is thawing and plants are beginning to grow and get green again and everyone is starting to get out and about and enjoy the weather. The season then fades into summer, which is full of sunshine, flowers, picnics, happiness and adventures. Spring and summer are generally people’s favorite time of the year. Then generally when it becomes winter-time, people start to hunker in and the winter months can usually be solemn and depressing. In literature winter generally symbolizes death and sorrow. However these generalizations are not true in all situations.

T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland starts off by discussing the seasons, which challenge what we know to be true about them.

April is described as the cruelest month, which is ironic because it is the beginning of springtime so it is supposed to be symbolic of the beginning of life and beauty and things growing. That idea of what springtime is supposed to be, contradicts the title of the poem and the description of April being cruel. I think they use the word cruel because they live in a “wasteland” which means that nothing new and beautiful can grow, whether it is symbolically or literally. When we think of a wasteland we think of dead things and a place where things that have wasted away, which if I had to pick a season that I would have guessed that this poem would be about would be winter. However he actually describes winter as keeping them warm and covering earth with forgetful snow. I think what is meant by that line is once the snow covers the ground it also covers up all the bad things man has done to God’s planet with a blanket of forgiveness (blanket of snow). Then once April rolls around and the snow melts we are faced with all of Man’s wrong in the world ,which is what makes it cruel. Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee with a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade… These lines reinforce the idea of the wasteland, and the fact that there probably isn’t a lot of rain for things to grow (whether this is literally or symbolically), which is why it states they were surprised to see it, it must not happen often.

These misconstructions make the poem unique and they give the poem deeper meaning, which, of course, make the poem stronger and more noteworthy as a whole.