Modernist Experimentation in The Waste Land
Modernist Experimentation in “The Waste Land” Eliot’s “The Waste Land” is perhaps a prime example of the experimentation in poetic technique occurring during the period encompassing the Modernist movement. Loathed and adored by critics and students alike, the complexities of technique, language (or languages), subject matter and the sheer length of the work have contributed to the poem’s status as a definitive example of “Modernist” writing. Along with Pound, Williams, Woolf and Joyce as well as countless others, Eliot’s work clearly illustrates the Modernist idea of portraying objects and situations as they are, and not as they appear, without explanation and using techniques previously rubbished or indeed, previously untried, such as the almost prose like contents of the poem, and reliance on cultural consciousness to bring about understanding of the meaning of poetry written in a stream of consciousness style. “The Waste Land” exemplifies experimentation with style and structure not necessarily purely for its own sake but as a genuine step towards advancing a genre which for centuries had been bound within self imposed restraints of meter and accepted poetic constructs. ... Eliot makes the reader work for every shred of understanding, and it is this technique which inspires such obsessive passion for “The Waste Land”, and such dedicated hatred for it. Until the draft versions of The Waste Land were published in 1968, critical interpretation of the poem was restricted to believing the poem to be a view of society, or a view from within society, in post-Great War Britain, a bleak analysis of the future of that society and a pessimistic view of life, love and art in such a climate. ... It would seem that the first interpretation of the poem is far more relevant to the modernist context with which this essay is concerned, yet the later analysis must still be addressed as it is certainly a pressing issue as to just how much of The Waste Land is applicable only to Eliot’s life. This notion in itself is intrinsic to the modernist techniques Eliot is using – the use of personal impressions and perceptions to convey a message or to simply exist in their own right. ... Modernism allowed him to use juxtaposition to extremes – from the very first he sets the tone of the poem with “April is the cruellest month” – April is springtime, a time of birth and renewal in the natural world, but here, in this Waste Land, it is recognised as being the source of suffering – in that once born into the world, the fate of all creatures is to suffer and die.