The Fire Sermon A Poem Analysis Focusing On The Elements Of Nature Essay Example For Students

The Fire Sermon A Poem Analysis Focusing On The Elements Of Nature Essay 1. Introduction There are not many poems which offer such a wide range of possible perspectives for an interpretation as T.S. Eliots The Waste Land, a cycle consisting of five parts. A deep and thorough knowledge of his whole work, life and influences is necessary to provide a somewhat reasonable interpretation of all elements of the poem. Additionally he uses the feature of intertextuality very often, which means that one must know all the sources he uses and alludes to. In this paper I will just briefly describe Eliots life, and the main sources of intertextuality of The Fire Sermon, which is the third part of The Waste Land. Then I will try to analyze The Fire Sermon focusing on the role of nature in the poem. I have divided the poem into the three parts Water, City and Fusion. This labeling is reflecting the elements, which I consider as most important for each of the three parts of the poem. I will look at each part separately. Water and City are quite clear distinct main elements, which I will examine. Fusion means all important elements of the poem fusing together. Finally, I will try to answer the question if there is a clear ecological concern transmitted through the poem. 2. T.S Eliot- a brief biography Thomas Stearns Eliot was born on September 26, 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were Henry Ware Eliot, a brick manufacturer, and Charlotte Stearns Eliot, who was a poet in her own right. Having finished primary school, Eliot attended Smith Academy in St. Louis. There his first poems appeared in the Smith Academy Record in 1905, the year of his graduation. Afterwards he spent one year at Milton Academy, a private prep- school in Massachusetts, and then entered Harvard University in 1906 where he earned a masters degree in English literature in 1910. Awarded a traveling fellowship for the academic year 1914/1915, he intended to study in Germany, but the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 forced him to leave the country after only several weeks. He went to London, England, which would become his home for the remaining fifty years of his life. There he met Ezra Pound, who would have a great influence on the development of his work and his literary career and Vivienne Haigh-Wood, whom he married two months later. In 1917 Eliots first collection of twelve poems, Prufrock and Other Observations was published. Between 1917 and 1925, Eliot earned his living as a teacher, a bank clerk and as a writer of literary reviews. In 1925 he joined the publishing house of Faber Gwyer (later Faber Faber) to have a financially secure job. Exhaustion because of over-working and matrimonial stress led to a nervous breakdown in 1921. During his recovery at a sanatorium in Lausanne, he finished writing The Waste Land. It was published in 1922, after Eliot had adopted Pounds recommendations. It immediately became the most famous example of new poetry. But there was not only applause: Conservative critics denounced it as impenetrable and incoherent, because of its rapid shifts of settings and speakers and its allusions and quotations. In his last two decades changes occurred in his private life. In 1933 Eliot divorced. His wife was brought to a mental institution and died in a nursing home in 1947. In 1956 he married his secretary at Faber Faber, who was more than thirty years younger than him. He became a controversial figure because of his outbreaks of undisguised anti-Semitism. His last major work Four Quartets (1943) consolidated his reputation, so that in 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. After several years of declining health, he died of emphysema at his home in London on January 4, 1965. 3. The Fire Sermon The Fire Sermon is the third part of The Waste Land. The title is derived from a similar named work by Buddha, which T.S. Eliot himself considered corresponding in importance to the sermon of the mount (Eliot 1971: 148). In addition to the title, at the end of the poem Eliot also refers to this work. 3.1 Structure The structure of the Fire Sermon is not easy to analyze. The poem does not have a straight rhyme scheme or rhythm. Its main structural element is variation. Therefore I would suggest seeing the whole poem reflecting the image of a river. This is done on various levels: the actions and places described in the poem merge into one another, the transitions are flowing (cf. line 255 -257, where first the record is put on the gramophone and then although there is a shift in place and speaker it says This music crept by me upon the waters), and also the rhythm and rhyme scheme are constantly changing, so speed and intonation of a reader have to be adapted, just as a river runs sometimes faster and sometimes more slowly. There are parts with much more regular rhythm and rhyme scheme. Especially the part from line 218 I Tiresias until line 256 And puts a record). This reflects on the one hand the monotony of the relationship (love would not be suitable here!) of the described couple and on the other hand this is the part, which is most clearly set in the inner city. We could now assume that if a river runs through the heart of a city it would be much more regulated as if it ran for example through the outskirts or through open land. So this also fits the picture of a river. Concerning the storyline of the poem I do not consider it very useful to try to summarize it by repeating every event in chronological order. I can easily confirm, tha It is useless to ask such questions as the following: who is speaking, what is the point of the narrative (Donoghue 2000: 120) because of the rapid changing of speaker, place and time. This poem does not intend to tell a story, but functions on different layers. A concept which is also often used concerning this poem is the musical one (cf. Pinion. 1986), where the whole work is compared to a piece of music, with various motifs and strands which are combined together into a poetic song. This matches together with my intended image of a river, since there are some similarities between appearing and disappearing of musical motifs and the course of a river. 3.2. Intertextuality Another important feature of the poem is intertextuality. By taking lines out of their original context and matching them together with new ones, or slightly changing them Eliot not only often mocks the original intention but also creates completely new if not exactly the opposite meaning. This is done for example with the allusion to John Days Parliament of bees, where it says: A noise of Horns and Hunting, which shall bring/ Actaeon to Diana in the spring. This is alluded to in line 197 and line 198 The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring/ Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring. Through the changing of the names from characters of Greek mythology to Sweeney, a lustful character taken from Eliots Poem Sweeney among the Nightingales, and Mrs. Porter, a character of a vulgar song, the connotation of the lines gets much more in the direction of a rude sexual encounter than in the original. The horns and motors indicate that for Eliot there is a parallel between the age in which we live (the age of motors rather than that of hunting) and the perversion of sexuality. The intertextual sources are various. The following list should briefly cover the two most important ones. * Religion As the title of the poem already suggests, religion and religious motifs play also a major role in The Fire Sermon. Not only does Eliot allude to the bible (line 182 By the Waters of Leman we sat down and wept), he also refers to St. Augustine, an ancient church philosopher, and to eastern mysticism. As I have already mentioned the title of the poem corresponds to a work by Buddha, which deals with the importance of bringing emotions (especially sexual ones) under mental control. Another also partly religious motif, which is very important in the poem is the Tale of the fisher king, a part of the Grail legend. The title of the whole cycle The Waste Land is derived from this tale. According to this tale the Fisher King is eternally suffering from a wound until someone asks him a question. As long as he suffers all his lands are cursed with aridness and sterility. (cf. Smith. 1983) * Classical Sources Apart from the already mentioned poem by John Day, which was inspired by Ovids Metamorphoses, there are several other motifs of the Greek tales. The figure of Tiresias is most important. He is the most famous seer of the Greek Mythology. According to the tale he is the only human being who was both male and female during his live, a fact to which Eliot points very often too. Tiresias has a very special role in the poem, since he is the only clearly identified speaker throughout the whole cycle. 3.3 Interpretation I want to offer my own interpretation of the poem because I do not want to just restate ideas of others. Besides I did not find very useful interpretations in the context of my idea of how to read the poem. Some meanings or possible interpretations of similes and quotations can surely be found also in already existing interpretations but I will try to put them together into a new context. Discuss the importance of inarticulateness/silence/taciturnity EssayAdditionally one could also argue that, since the sound is produced by a bird, it refers to a ravished nature, which is brutally abused by Man. 3.3.2 City The City in The Fire Sermon is closely attached to sexuality. The motif of death is there throughout the poem. This part ranges from line 207 to line 256. Once again, it is hard to draw clear lines, since the transitions are very smooth. At the beginning we have the image of Mr. Eugenides, the merchant. He invites a lyrical I to a luncheon and a weekend at a hotel. All this has clear sexual connotations, and, if we consider a male speaker, even homosexual connotations, but one can not be sure of this. On the one hand the speakers of The fire Sermon until that point have been male, but other speakers in The Fire Sermon are not and the later appearance of Tiresias as unity of both sexes (see below) could suggest that there does not necessarily have to be only males among the speakers until he appears. As the poem turns to the description of the sexual encounter between the typist and the clerk, there is an important shift of voice. The first and only time in the whole cycle, we are told who is speaking: I, Tiresias. This is no coincidence. Tiresias is one of the most important figures in the poem, especially in the Fire Sermon. The Old man with wrinkled female breasts (line 219) is uniting many motifs of the poem. Tiresias , is yet the most important personage in the poem, uniting all the rest. What Tiresias sees, in fact, is the substance of the poem. (Eliot 1972: 148) He is at the same time an emissary from the classic past as he is throbbing between two lives (line 218). Through the use of the verb throbbing, and beforehand the formulation of the human engine the connotation gets technical, industrial and thus modern. By this Tiresias unites both ages, and not only that but also both sexes since he is described as man with female breasts. He is the first sign of the third part of the poem where all the motifs begin to merge. Through the repeated hints by Tiresias of having foreseen the described action, the whole incident is lifted to a more general level. The relation of the clerk and the typist stands as a pars pro toto for the poems concept of sexuality, which is a very negative one. There is no communicative interaction between the two, not even any trace of positive erotic tension. The act is one-sided; the clerk just wants to satisfy his needs, the typist is not involved. She does not care, she is indifferent. From line 239 until line 256 there is a sudden striking regularity of the rhyme and meter. It is a nearly regular iambic pentameter and a regular rhyme scheme of abab. This also suggests that we deal with a routine action. Sex is not presented as life-creating but as a dull and automatic act. The city, which is the stage for all these incidents, is in the same way associated with death as unrefined nature before when in line 246 Tiresias tells us that he walked among the lowest of the dead. So again the element of death is brought into the poem. And as a matter of fact the described characters do not act as if they had much life-force left in them. Especially the female part, the typist, is pictured as a nearly mechanical being. She smoothes her hair with automatic hand, and puts a record on the gramophone (lines 255 and 256). It may be her who is among the lowest of the dead. So there is the city as the complete absence of nature, but the presence of human beings. Beforehand it was precisely the other way round. Death is the only consistency between the two parts, but the way of perceiving it changes. In nature it is the water, which brings death whereas in the second part the sexuality is closely attached to it. So in both cases there are symbols connected with death which normally do have positive connotations. In the line 257 the transition into the last part of the poem already starts. The music takes us back to the water. It is definitely not Tiresias any more, who speaks but more probably Ferdinand from Shakespeares The Tempest since the quote is taken directly from the play. We are again at the river but still in the city. Religion is another important element of the last section, brought in by mentioning Magnus Martyr. Now everything comes together to create something new. 3.3.3 Fusion Until now, there have been two sides of the same coin: water and sexuality as symbols for death, nature and city as stages for action. In the last part of the poem the symbols and the stages merge, and a new third strong concept, the idea of religion is stressed. The beginning of this part is quite distinguishable. There is again a sudden change in meter and length of line. At the same time the sentences become elliptic. Short thoughts are added one after the other, a chain of associations. It starts again with the river. Apparently we are on it now, and there is movement indicated, because the poem speaks of drifting barges and beating oars (line 280) . At the same time different places and directions (down Greenwich reach in line 275 and others) are mentioned, from which we can assume that there is a journey going eastwards out of London to the sea. But the river now is not lifeless and abandoned as before. It sweats oil and tar (line 267), which is a clear simile for industrial activity. So nature is introduced into the city again. Even the spirits are back: Eliot himself indicates in his annotations that The song of the three Thames-daughters begins here. From line 292 to 306 inclusive they speak in turn (Eliot 1971:148) These Thames daughters are in fact a reference to Richard Wagners Gotterdammerung, where the Rhine Daughters are mourning over the loss of the rivers beauty because the Rhine Gold was stolen. Eliot even quotes their refrain of the opera song in lines 277 and 278. So there are water spirits lamenting the loss of the beauty of a river because it sweats oil and tar. Although the intruding of civilization is not welcome, the process goes on. In addition to the city there comes sexuality. First slightly hinted at with the line 279 Elizabeth and Leicester , but then again with the rather drastic line of one of the Thames daughters By Richmond I raised my knee/ supine on the floor of a narrow canoe.(lines 294,295) The journey ends, the lyrical I reaches Carthage, which is an allusion to Augustine, who tells us about his sinful youth in Carthage. The last lines of the poem indicate the catharsis: the lines oh lord thou pluckest (lines 309 and 310 ) are again taken from Augustine and intermixed with the repetition of the word burning which is an allusion to Buddha s Fire Sermon. Both are longing for control over their bodily needs. So every element of the poem, the water and the sexuality as antagonists on the level of content and connotations, the Nature and the City as concepts of earthly places are combined and dissolved into the merging of eastern and western religion. This merging of the religions is not a hopeful one but it is just summing up the main idea of the poem: The cry of a torn individual for salvation. 4. Conclusion In this paper I tried to analyze The fire sermon by T.S. Eliot in respect to elements of nature. To read and analyze the poem I took the image of a river as a simile for its structure. By this I divided the poem in three main parts: Water, City and Fusion which I analyzed. I have shown that every part is linked somehow to nature. In the first part nature plays an essential role in the setting and the similes whereas in the second part nature is more referred to through the strong emphasis on its counterpart, which is the city. Now I will just briefly return to question if there can be seen a clear element of ecological concern in the poem. It is true that the overall mood is negative and the depiction of nature as brown arid land could be read as a kind of ecological concern, but I do not consider this element as consistent enough. There are several sentences in the poem where it is very easy to interpret a fear of ecological collapse and waste. Ecological concern is a feature we can easily imply today, but I doubt if T.S. Eliot really had this in mind when he wrote the poem. I tend more to think of the use of the devastated nature as an allegory for a devastated and disillusioned society. This fits better into the whole poem and the time when it was created. Nevertheless it can be stated that nature plays a very important role in the poem- as an important element but it is not like death or sexuality a motif. It is rather an important setting, a stage for events which is described to give the right frame to the things that happen.