Decoding The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot - Second part: A Game of Chess

Decoding Eliot's 'The Waste Land'

Towards the end of the cycle of five poems that make up 'The Waste Land' T.S. Eliot says, 'These fragments I have shored against my ruins ...' . The 'fragments' to which he refers, are the poetry and literature, the resources upon which he draws to shore up the work. The 'ruins' may be Eliot's frame of mind, his depression.

It is as if writing the poem is a therapeutic process, a way of working through and overcoming the psychological weakness that his condition has brought him to. To understand and appreciate the poem we really need to understand the fragments and to enjoy the brilliance of Eliot in constructing the powerful narrative of 'The Waste Land' around them.

This first presentation covers the opening part of T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land'. In the presentation, the themes and references are discussed.