``The Waste Land`` is a negative poem.

The Waste Land is a classic work . It is , of course , to repeat my thesis , a philosophic poem in a context of widespread unbelief . But it is a philosophic poem that never philosophizes '94 (Thompson , 159

In other words , Eliot refrains from prescribing an explicit '93solution '94 to the social and cultural fragmentation represented in The Wasteland rather such mending or rebirth is implied in the poem '92s deepest symbolism , drawing from Frazer '92s aforementioned '93parent myth '94 a postulation of a future , cyclical return to original wholeness and

harmony . By a conscious dialectical method it reveals the God above the god that Nietzsche said was dead . Eliot , in 1923 ,spoke of the voyage to the Houyhnhnms in Gulliver 's Travels as "one of the greatest triumphs that the human soul has ever achieved " 20 In The Waste Land , Eliot evidently sought to make a similar revelation of the beatitude implied by disgust '92 (Thompson 159

The Wasteland Page -4-

This view of The Wasteland interprets the explicit negative elements of the poem ironically that is , the view that The Wasteland is essentially an affirmative or positive poem must rise from viewing its explicit tones , moods , diction , form , and imagery as loss of spiritual and cultural integration , but the loss implies a wholeness that can be gained and thus the contemporary '93wasteland '94 of modern culture may be viewed as a fecund state from which a more idealized world emerges

In this way , the poem represents a quest , the very beginnings of a quest by which mankind redeems itself , its culture and spirituality . The poet is returned to his ancient , sacred role of revitalizingthe culture or tribe through vision

Be that as it may , the tone of the poem is somber , its imagery negative and nightmarish : ...