The Waste Land - T.S. Eliot

Great poem, maybe Eliot's masterpiece, even though I don't like his way of reading it

Firstly, Eliot sounds like someone is crushing his shriveled, old balls.

Secondly, Hitler states in his book "Mein Kampf" that "The Waste Land" was one of the prime sources for the Nazi movement. Thus, Eliot is the father of Nazism.

Thirdly, Eliot was once on academic probation for masturbating in public.

Fourthly, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was a poem written to describe Eliot's homicidal tendencies.

Fifthly, T.S. stands for Thomas Stearns. Worst name ever!

I think the way he reads this is very telling - Eliot was a man who knew the difference between words that are meant to be read, and words that are meant to be spoken. The deadpan delivery just shows that he knows what the poem is, and isn't trying to make it into something more dramatic.

Pound was more important for the ideas he expounded on poetry than for his poetry itself, in my own opinion.

someone give me a good connotative meaning or thesis on this poem, i gotta do a paper on it soon

O.O I have nothing intellectual to say, except that I thoroughly enjoyed "The Waste Land". As for my own, personal kind of comment...I will promptly forget his voice, and let the voice I gave him replace it whenever I reread this, as silly as that is. Not saying I dislike his reading, but he sounds too normal for such an innovative poem. ....A strange thing to say about the author, but....oh well. ^^; I would have been upset if I never heard him speak, though, so thank you! ^_^

I am familiar with Eliot's reading but not of the Waste Land - which I learnt almost by heart when I was maybe 20 in 1968. We had his reading Prufrock and other poems -I think his reading is great. he is / was a great poet. Thanks for this.

I rewrote The Waste Land and read it in NY when I was visiting and here in Auckland where it went down very well. It started as an exercise suggested by Bernadette Mayer, one of list, i.e. "Rewrite someone difficult"
I kept the Laforgian ironic (almost comical -the corpse..can bloom again! I didn't use that but it is amusing) tone but also the sense of revelation or "mystery" etc

He has an interesting way of reading it. I also read this, before hearing this, which is good, as I might have been influenced by it, but I never would have guessed that this was the author, as most people read it with more expression. Good German pronunciation, sort of Bavarian accent.

il miglior fabbro...Eliot & Pound have their own charm. As for Pound's "unrecognizable renditions of tradition (sic) Chinese verse"; they're 'interpretations' and not strict 'translations' let alone 'renditions'. "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter" is particularly powerful.