Rash promises

A promise kept

The poetry group I belong to have a tradition of a short talk by one of the members each month. Topics vary widely – from introducing or deep diving into the work of a particular poet, to talking about the importance of titles, to exploring form, to philosophical talks on time, peace, music and so on. For my turn this year I rashly promised to talk on T S Eliot’s seminal poem, The Wasteland. Rash because the poem is long (too long to both read and discuss in the time allowed), it is complex, multi-faceted, full of allusions, and controversial. Not only that but a quick scan of the available commentary shows that a lot of people have written about it, and all have written at length.

However, I did manage to pull something together which touched on the major points, and left space for the poem to breather, selecting excerpts to read and reflect on. It felt like a good use of time. It left me musing on what I had learnt from the exercise.

This was not so much about Eliot or the poem – there was learning there but starting from a base of familiarity. It was more about influence, about criticism, about the long view, and about my own relationship with the poem and Eliot’s work overall.

The background

Eliot was one of the drivers of my early interest in poetry. I knew Old Possum and his practical cats from childhood, bought an edition of Eliot’s selected poems from a church ‘Bring and Buy’ stall at 13, fell in love with the Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, studied Eliot for A level. He has stayed with me.

T S Eliot is reputed to have regarded The Four Quartets as his masterpiece, but

The Wasteland was, arguably, more influential (and I still love Prufrock).

Published in 1922, The Waste Land transformed 20th-century literature. It captured the devastating disillusionment, spiritual decay, and cultural fragmentation following World War I. By using collage-like, non-linear techniques, Eliot permanently revolutionized modern poetry and language.

The process was one of writing, rewriting, taking feedback and editing from Ezra Pound. Large amounts of material were deleted, a painful process. The end result involved the rejection of his/its American origins, the ‘readerly’ smooth form, continuity of form, clear meaning, the centrality of Christian religion and the single point of view. Introduced or included were many religious allusions, both Christian and other, a number of specifically Buddhist and a cornucopia of literary and other allusions.

In the process a new poetry emerged, a new internationalism, a new understanding of modernity and ‘a polyphony of conversation and quotation that put Dante into the vernacular and made pub quarrels literary’ (Helen Vendler in the Yale Review’)

To say reactions were mixed would be an understatement, ranging from ‘the finest poem of this generation’ (New York Tribune). To ‘The thing is a mad medley – so much wastepaper’ (Manchester Guardian) with all views in between.

Lessons learnt

I would pick out three, always a good number for a list.

First of all, that rash promises can produce satisfying results. Yes, in a way I had bitten off more than I time to chew – but the process was enjoyable, and the end result satisfying.

Second, and importantly, that critics know nothing – sounds harsh but they are merely giving an opinion, from a standpoint, and history may prove them wrong – and often does. For a writer it’s important to be discerning in gauging reactions to your work, to know who to trust, and to believe in yourself – not to the extent that you can’t take criticism but enough to know you can produce work of value.

And third, that while Eliot may be correct in his assessment of the Four Quartets as his best work, at the same time it is the longer and more difficult Wasteland that spoke to and for a generation, that changed the course of poetry, and that became an enduring influence on generations of poets, songwriters and many more. As writers, we do not know whether anything we write will last, and certainly not what will last, what will have an influence, what others will think. We don’t need to be writers of Eliot’s stature to learn from this.

I finish, not with anything I’ve written, but with a quote from Eliot – not from the Wasteland but from the Four Quartets, as this seems to both sum up some of what I have been feeling and also to point to the importance of the Buddhist influences already evident in The Wasteland

We shall not cease from exploration 
And the end of all our exploring 
Will be to arrive where we started 
And know the place for the first time




Extract from The Four Quartets
TS Eliot

_{Image courtesy of Stuart Creasey under license CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0}