Last week, we had a first lecture for class. It went by quickly, was concise and presented a lot of ideas, I noticed, that we discussed in class and also new ones that really got a hold of my interest. In a way the lecture could be looked upon as a poem; short, but at the same time, was able to present so many ideas. Lectures are usually like long articles (ie. physics), which many people may find repulsive. However, the English lecture was like a poem, everyone is glad to follow through with it. It was especially helpful with the ideas brought up about “The Waste Land.” I hadn’t really got the whole idea that T.S. Eliot was trying convey, but after the lecture, I feel quite sure of what that could be now.
A lot of helpful historical facts were included in the lecture and that I found to be probably most helpful and it was extremely relevant to “The Waste Land.” Without the description about what Modernist ideals are, I wouldn’t have really understood the connections being made during lecture. I clearly remember that the Modernists are in fear of what is to be made of their work because they try to seek new grounds for literature and explore the frontier, tired of the traditional ways of poetry. “The Waste Land” could possibly be an allegory for this Modernist struggle. Right from the very beginning, Eliot describes how Spring is the cruelest season for making lilacs grow out of the dead. This line itself has already described the main ideas of the Modernist concerns. They are breeding new ways of writing poetry and don’t know how that will turn out, or how people will react to it, basically, they don’t really know what they’ve created yet. Since writing is progressing and doesn’t really start from scratch when someone decides to change the popular writing style, “lilacs,” the modern way of writing, are being evolved from the traditional methods.
This brings up the two levels in which “The Waste Land” can be read. The lecture revealed, to me, more meanings to what “The Waste Land” can stand for. Prior to the lecture, I hadn’t a clue what the meaning was, but knew that there was some sort of idea that Eliot was trying to convey. Now I see that at two different levels, a reader can evoke the idea of a deteriorating society or the more personal story of the Modernist struggle. Modernists were at a critical point in literary history and were faced with a challenge of creating something new when it seemed almost impossible to do so. They made an impact that changed the literary world. The heavy metaphors and symbols serve to generalize or be opened to relating to more than just one idea, as the “The Waste Land” can be read on two separate levels with very few relations to each other.
1 comment:
Lectures can certainly be repulsive as you mentioned before, yet I also agree about how an English lecture can be very informative and helpful. I believe this has partially to do with the class being small and the topic about poetry. Instead of mundane numbers and laws and theories, we are observing people's ideas, thoughts, and feelings written on paper. There is a sense of humanness as we listen to the lectures trying to learn the author's experiences. Getting historical facts helps a lot in understanding the author's intention for writing the poem and the poem's content as well.
I am certainly glad that you were able to get a lot out of these lectures, but I also feel that it is vital to try and get some kind of meaning from the poem before the lecture. For example, reading "The Waste Land," I thought about my own life and how I can see some parts of going to waste and personally relating to Eliot and the poem. Although it is not necessarily true or correct (or help for the final), I feel that developing a personal connection to poetry, or any kind of work, to be important in trying to further understand the work itself (Warning, however, because overanalyzing can be a problem. I got lots of points docked off in high school for that.) That's simply my 2 cents.
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