Scarica The Cruelty of Spring: A Metaphorical Exploration of Life and Death by T.S. Eliot e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! The burial of the Dead THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT Title has 3 meaning: 1) RELIGIOUS, releated with Christian or Anglican church 2) FERTILITY, the change of the season is associated to the rise of fertility, to a new prosperity 3) METHAPHORICAL BURIAL, in fact every man is dumbling between life and death, is alienated, so the title underline this condition April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. (…) Unreal city, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many I had not thought death had undone so many. Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. Flowed up the hill and down King William Street, To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. There I saw one I knew, and stopped him crying: « Stetson! You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! That corpse you planted last year in your garden, Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? O keep the Dog far hence, that’s friend to men, Or with his nails he’ll dig it up again! You! hypocrite lecteur! – mon semblable, – mon frère! » The setting is in April, in spring times (such as Geoffry Chaucer's Canterbury Tales) witch is a period of life, characterized by rebirth of nature. Anyways, April here has the opposite meaning because is associated to pain. April is the cruellest month and human is aware of his condition of suffering. His existence is only pain and he knew. Sein: This state of mind is releted to the period, as a consequence of the I World War. Man is in a condition of life in death (expecially soldiers) and Eliot uses Juxstapposition (rethorical figure) to describe the contrast between alienation of man and rebirth of nature Lilac is a color associated with land and flowers, rebirth of nature and also lent Rain brings life to the dry land, in fact water is a positive elements releated to rebirth Warm is usually associated with hot seasons, but here “Winter is warm” and this is an other Juxstapposition which implies a methaphorical letargic period. A beneficial sleep for human, who’s in pain, a sleep that protect him from depression, awareness and suffering Juxstapposition = snow is strictly connected with memory, with past and present time London is called “Unreal city” (reference to Baudelaire’s “Fleur du Mal”). London convey a sospending waiting athmosphere (like in Dante’s limbo and Purgatory, characterized by crowd) which characterized working people that are alienated The speaker (an ordinary common man) recognise a Stetson hat on Ezra Pound who's the leader of imaginism He wants to know if corps have generated good and fertile earth Dog personification: 1) Guardian of underworld (such as in Dante’s Inferno: Cerberus) 2) Constellation of dog major, brietest star in constellation of Syrius A methaphorical burial of every man. In fact, the guilt, the condition of sorrow, alienation, pain, is common in every modern man who is responsable of war The preface of Baudelaire and Emilio Praga’s Preludio Saint Mary Woolnoth is an Anglican Church which have a clock that marks the hours. In particular the “stroke of nine” is the hour which underline the beginning of work in the city of London Reference to Milazo's Battle, (I Punic War). Eliot wants to put a comparison between 2 different time: past and present. In fact as well as in the past, war are still present at that time. War are foolish for him, so Eliot wants to underline human foolishness. Corps are burial bodies and this is a reference to egyptian pagan mytology, in particular the myt of Osirides which after his murder was cut in pieces in order to being burial in different places of his country. His wife Isydes consacreted this places in order to have much more fertile earth Juxstapposition between terms that refers to death and life ⑭ ⑭ pain for his existence - th] of ⑭ - num ⑭ num I ↑ m m mmm me * * mer m T men / · n # I * I - ⑭
