The Waste Land

The Waste Land : T .S . Eliot 's Conception of Spring

Every time I read the opening of Eliot 's The Waste Land ' I am reminded of Igor Stravinsky 's The Rite of Spring . In Stravinsky 's work the rebirth offered by spring is presented as being violent and painful much like Eliot 's breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land (Eliot lines 2-3 . Indeed , the opening seven lines of T .S . Eliot 's The Waste Land present an image of spring whose negativity runs counter to the image of spring , filled with hope

and desire , presented by most previous authors . This negativity can be explained through consideration of the allusion to Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales contained in these lines

Eliot 's conception of spring , though it shares thematic similarities with Stravinsky 's , differs in respect to its relationship with the past As has been noted , the opening lines of The Waste Land ' allude to Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales (Olney 11 . In this sense , one could read the opening of The Waste Land as Eliot 's own struggle to overcome the influence of his predecessors . Read metaphorically , the past can be equated with the winter that kept us warm , covering / Earth in forgetful snow (Eliot , lines 5-6 . The past (winter , however , has lost its power , leaving only dead land (Eliot , line 2 ) and dull roots (line 4 . The challenge of the modern writer is , then , to come to terms with the legacy of the past in to create

This challenge...