T.S. Eliot said of modern drama, "A play should give you something to think about. When I see a play and understand it the first time, then I know it can't be much good."
This same logic can be applied to his poem "The Waste Land." The mixed allusions to works in anthropology and literature, shifts in location, time and subject, seem fragmented and obscure like viewing the ruins of an ancient city rising randomly and remotely out of the sand. Reading through, the reader is riveted by an image that suddenly comes into focus, a recognition, like pot shards heralding ancient burials or portraits in mosaics uncovered by an excavation tool. Each one significant, while both in place and out of time. A language lost, where only the winds whisper the moaning of their memory. The references to vegetation ceremonies, comparative mythology and religion, esoteric references to games such as the tarot cards and a game of chess, and the stream-of-consciousness flow of words give the poem meaning on many levels at once, yet remain obscure and inaccessible at first look, much like a dream. The poem seems to have a language of its own.
When reading this poem, I am inspired to take a second look. The words do something on a subconscious level and I am drawn to it again and again. It would seem worthwhile to research the references in the poem and find at least what each one means;yet, the sounds of the words themselves have their own effect and the mystery its own reward.
"There is a shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust." (l. 25-30, "The Waste Land")
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