Understanding Poetry | The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

Understanding Poetry | The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
The Waste Land is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. The 434-line poem first appeared in in December 1922. Among its famous phrases are "April is the cruellest month", "I will show you fear in a handful of dust", and the mantra in the Sanskrit language "Shantih shantih shantih"
Eliot's poem combines the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King with vignettes of contemporary British society. Eliot employs many literary and cultural allusions from the Western canon, Buddhism and the Hindu Upanishads. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, and time and conjuring a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.
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Resources
Nick Mount Lecture:
• Nick Mount on T.S. Eli...
Mr. Huff's Literature Class:
• T.S. Eliot
Schmoop.com
www.shmoop.com...
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Music
Anxiety - Kevin MacLeod
5 Emotional Covers - James Bartholomew
The Way - Zach Hemsey

[@ThinkBigAnimation]

Hey guys. This will likely be my last philosophy style video for a while as I will be taking the channel in a different direction. I will still make this type of video from time to time but really excited for all the new changes coming up! Thank you guys for watching!

[@deedotdance]

Was looking for an explanation for Wasteland. This was beautifully done .. Thank you !

[@Evan-fr3cs]

Works like The Waste Land are almost frightening when you're in a strange spot in your life. It's both inspiring and frightening. Very hard to verbalize. Great video as always.

[@ThinkBigAnimation]

Thank you! Yeah this one definitely fucked with my head a bit... especially as I got deeper and deeper into it

[@Laughingsundrop]

Qualia

[@Laughingsundrop]

Durkheim speaks on this

[@jackied.v.carson6059]

I've been a fan of the wasteland for years. Probably read it a hundred times and spent even more time reading about the symbolism. This is the best video on all of KZbin for beautifully and comprehensibly breaking down the images. Bravo.

[@ryue65]

Listening this in late 2024, 4 years after you published this. Your impact lives on in the Internet. Thanks for a very insightful analysis of this poem.

[@daveg4036]

Incredible. I’ve listened to numerous lectures on the meaning of The Waste Land and I have to say this one is my personal favourite. Concise, easy to understand and enjoyable to watch. Well done.

[@ThinkBigAnimation]

Thank you!

[@carmenbrumariualboaie258]

@@ThinkBigAnimation Thank you!!! Great explanations and interpretation

[@Ellebeeby]

In the pub scene, there is also the implication that Lil has been having an affair; Albert has been in the army for four years, but Lil has somehow become pregnant and needed a contraceptive (the pills ‘to bring it off’, which are needed after Albert has already given her the money). More evidence the relationship is destructive, weaponised by both parties to cause each other harm.

[@toqaessam7055]

I really hated this poem as i didn't understand it UNTIL I came across that video. THANK U REALLY! I needed that wonderful explanation. GREAT JOB!!!

[@saimariaz5299]

This video is really very helpful to understand "The Waste Land".

[@guitarmatricide4834]

This was FANTASTIC! I had an inexplicable desire to read this poem tonight and, once again, left breathless by it and watching this right after was such a wonderful addendum to it. Thank you so much for this!

[@Nitusho]

This is the best analysis of this poem I've seen: better than actual lectures available on youtube. Magnificent work

[@A_Distant_Life]

That opening is amazing. I wish you would do that for entire books and poems. It really brings the words to life.

[@addy7464]

That intro was amazing to say the least.

[@MuhammadIqbal-kt3zk]

very interesting way to describe wasteland

[@thesecondmatch8505]

It's been days that I've been reading the Norton Critical Edition and this video in about 20 minutes made me understand this poem! Congrats.. It was very helpful and so well presented that I was moved by your interpretation of Eliot's masterpiece. I thought: I have finally arrived at giving a coherent meaning to the general structure of the whole. Thank you!

[@ThinkBigAnimation]

Thank you so much! This is probably my favorite video I have ever done and I'm really glad you liked it :)

[@HmmNeatCody0_o]

That intro started to creep deep into my Conscience and started making me question my existence.

[@priyacool2500]

The video does a great job in bringing out more and more layers of meaning out of this difficult classic poem. All the more meaningful in these unpredictable pandemic times. Shall save this video 👍

[@zangbang9886]

Amazing fucking video. I have an exam on this tomorrow and I hate that I found this video just now because it made the whole poem a lot clearer in its intertextual dimension and overall message. Made me appreciate it a lot as a work of art too, and not only as "something I HAVE to study to get my degree". Amazing video.

[@medsaidkabouche2740]

Wonderful. Just wonderful. One of the best videos of The Waste Land. 👏

[@mina8150]

I clicked because i have an exams, i didn't expect to get so emotional it's scary but also beautiful

[@benjaminholland7774]

This was awesome! thank you for taking the time to make this :)

[@ThinkBigAnimation]

Thank you!

[@ShadidAhmed]

THE BEST PIECE OF CONTENT ABOUT The Wasteland on KZbin. Thanks my man.

[@markhughes7927]

That was good! very good! - brought out the idea of the seed of hope always lying dormant in the waste of things..reminded too of the grail motif which has unique transforming cultural power against the dead politics of control only..Provence!

[@runo5401]

Your voice is very soothing and you have a great way with words. This video helped me a lot. Thank you for uploading it :))❤️

[@hannahawbrey2294]

Great video! I was totally lost about the Waste Land before watching this.

[@vivanco223]

THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. AMAZING AND POWERFUL WORK

[@rosafalls8068]

Thanks. I was just thinking it was time to have a review of The Waste Land, and here it is reminding me to remember after all these years.

[@timdarwin_music]

Love this poem, it’s funny u started the video with what I think is potentially my favorite part, although u should have let it go a little longer until “what will we ever do” .. gonna listen to the rest now ha , was just excited to see my fav part in the intro =)

[@dordanagmeni7734]

excellent piece of work. I am was mesmerized by your presentation.

[@ThinkBigAnimation]

Thank you so much!

[@joshuarowsdower]

This is really well done.

[@emmastockwell7704]

I have just started to read the poem. This video was a superb introduction - very interesting and simple enough to help understand the main ideas.

[@ArthurLWood]

Excellent analysis. Thank you. I am planning to read the poem for my channel, but am spending time with it first.

[@anthonyholroyd5359]

Very well done, but I am a little disappointed not to see part 3 and particularly part 4. I know it's short, but the first time I heard 'Death by Water', as a teenager, it has a profound effect on me that still holds to this day.

[@noahcoops6305]

Great video. Very impressive

[@joicejj8025]

Really It this vedio mesmerized me And I'm speechless pls pls add vedio on futher two sectios

[@gogigaga1677]

The intro was genius we need the Full Version 😂

[@cleonapatterson6112]

Thank you.

[@anilsahu2639]

Hey ! There's one correction in the upanishadic story quoted there, Daman( self-control) was for Deities, Daan (to give away) for Men and Daya( to forgive) for Demons.

[@vinoychoubey8843]

Thanks for such a beautiful introduction 🙏🙏

[@ThinkBigAnimation]

Of course. Thank you for watching!

[@nourallahhosam7084]

this video is amazing it really helped me with the poem, thank you

[@festerburg87]

Amazing video and analysis. Thanks!

[@samanthabevoni152]

JUST BEAUTIFUL. Thank you so much for revealing some of these secrets.

[@abdullahmohammadsami8006]

Burning Burning Burning

[@aditisarkar982]

Marvellous!

[@abdifawzi5258]

Inspirational work.. Concise & precise 🤞Many thanks for your help.

[@NOORIraq-f3n]

Thank u so beautifully explained

[@mehdinikseresht1432]

Keep making this style of video my friend

[@印天友]

nice trip

[@leogiri2863]

Thank you so much! I've heard a lot of educational videos while studying, but this is the first one that actually got me interested in literature!

[@nyanko4393]

I have exam’s tomorrow and this really helps a lot! Thankyou!

[@liamthellama8386]

Excellent video as always!

[@ThinkBigAnimation]

Thank you!

[@ryanx3584]

So lemme get this straight- ALL this thought went into The Wasteland? If so, that's astonishing.

[@RodrigoG4ming]

all this and bit more.

[@bhoyahtzeeorg]

You better believe it. It's the reason It's endured. Absolute masterpiece.

[@iuseitToo]

Wow this was great

[@imlafonz8047]

Have you seen Fiona Shaw’s reading of the waste land? Best one I’ve ever seen

[@fadibahee]

the background music is awesome

[@leshtricity]

April is the cruelest month because of memory and desire, as springtime is associated with romance and reunions. and you can't analyze this poem when you completely skip over the Buddhist influence in the Fire Sermon, and how integral it is to the poem. and the tarot cards, the hanged man representing the lack of a Jesus or redeemer figure in the culture at large; in Eliot's view, a society without some unifying moral code or belief is a veritable wasteland.

[@SamSepiolTheHeretic]

This video is really good but neglects that T.S. Elliot rejected comparisons between his poem and the disillusionment of the lost generation after World War I. He was commenting on HIS OWN disillusionment with his marriage, employment and the lack of meaning amidst the hedonism of the 1920s, which is why he converted to Anglican Church.

[@eddesa5134]

Exactly so! Well said.

[@charliewest1221]

"Elliot rejected comparisons between his poem and the disillusionment of the lost generation after World War I." Indeed he did. This however does not necessarily mean that it (the post-war trauma did not impact on or have any bearing on the genesis and evolution of the poem). Eliot, off-handedly, dismissed comparisons but the effects of the war are to be discerned, compelling, throughout the poem. The wasteland operates on two levels, ie., the profoundly internal level as well as the, outer, external. These two levels are not mutually exclusive.

[@janeairvintage7416]

Never knew there was a quote from Ophelia in it

[@Zarathustra-nv9fs]

What's the name of the audio reader in the opening

[@crispincornett]

This is great! Good work and thank you. Where did you get the reading of the final "Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata. Shantih shantih shantih" ?

[@ThinkBigAnimation]

Here you go! kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYq1gHmPlLCbbq8

[@crispincornett]

@@ThinkBigAnimation Thanks again! Love it!

[@Vermontist1]

Here's the secret: It may be a waste of time to "search for the meaning of "The Waste Land." If one searches, instead, to find one's OWN way and meaning in the poem, then one will have collaborated with Eliot as a co-creater. And TWL will then be re-written, in a sense, and its immortality will be readfirmed.

[@meriemdaisy7279]

I liked it unfortunately it does not cover the whole poem : section 3 and 4 are left

[@Nitish.kumar992]

Shantih shantih shantih last line of waste land is taken from which upnishad

[@dyldvine]

The first line is Trochaic, not Iambic! Rookie mistake.

[@rosafalls8068]

Hey, that "Song" channel is a type of bot. I call it "the want to be friends bot." Don't sub it, it's all over the place under different names and changes its names and possibly related to channels being hacked. Don't sub it, don't spread it.

[@ThinkBigAnimation]

Oh shit. Thanks for the heads up!

[@tsubarashiii6251]

9:34

[@carlyjanescarbrough9910]

Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by The Waste Land

[@mehdinikseresht1432]

fuckin love your channel

[@jackellock7113]

I blame the second party in line 319.

[@johnbradshaw5097]

A Scapeshifter

[@marcelaiovi3743]

Very helpful and nice summarized! Although, there is something that doesn't match your source. In the video, Nick Mount, at minute 36.18 ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/gICbo3h_mcmaqKs) attributes differently each interpretation with each group.

[@harryturnbull1884]

Well it's all very good analysing in detail the minutiae of the intellectual exercise this is - but what is the actual point? There is no clear message, it is abstruse to the point of merely being a vehicle for pretentious interpretations.

[@ennius42]

I suppose that life itself is chaotic like that. There are many approaches and interpretations of life. ‘The Waste Land’ is a chaotic poem, but it seems that its overall meaning is that some sort of peace is attainable.

[@robert1411]

Eliot himself is reported to have remarked, "To me it was only the relief of a personal and wholly insignificant grouse against life; it is just a piece of rhythmical grumbling."

[@blackbird5634]

I hope they don't do this to EMNEM's music. Just leave it, let the world enjoy it and FFS don't entomb it in essays and classes of rhyme and meter!