Society of Fragments in Eliot and Yeats

“Eliot presents us with a society of fragments” In light of this Statement, compare the ways Eliot and Yeats present broken or fragmented worlds. In your response you must include detailed reference to The Wasteland or at least two of Eliot’s shorter poems.

Introduction:

Eliot’s poetry is often very fragmentary, and in none more so than ‘The Wasteland’, in which the reader has to piece together seemingly random things to discover that even the answers are fragmented, as Eliot presents a world breaking apart from lack of spirituality. Yeats however, focuses more on how a single human’s world can be broken apart by love.

Nature as Broken

‘The Wasteland’ is full with brokenness and emptiness, with Eliot presenting nature as dead and lifeless to reflect society’s sterility. The title of ‘The Wasteland’ immediately introduces the reader to the idea of a broken and dying world, with the first four lines of ‘The Burial of the dead’ filled with words connoting decay like ‘dull’, ‘dead’ and ‘cruellest’. Eliot juxtaposes these words with growth imagery like ‘roots’ and ‘rain’, creating a stark contrast between life and the present deadness. In these lines it seems to be a universal voice speaking, protecting against ‘April... breeding lilacs out of the dead land’, representing the extent to which society is broken, as it does not want the new life that ‘April’ brings. The hanging participles Eliot uses extends this, with lines ending with words like ‘stirring’, suggesting that even the poem’s structure is protesting against movement and change. Both in the ‘Burial of the Dead’ and ‘What the Thunder Said’ Yeats constantly repeats and varies the refrain ‘ no water’ and ‘rock’, almost like a mantra, connoting the sterility of the environment and how it has become entrenched in its way, unable to envisage the healing that ‘water’, or spirituality, would bring. It could also suggest that it was the world’s choice to become broken, as it became ever increasingly fixated on life without spirituality, and without true natural life. Either way Eliot’s portrayal of nature seems indicative of a world content in its brokenness.

Sybilline Nature of Poem

The sibylline nature of the poem is utilised by Eliot to challenge the reader about the part they play in society’s brokenness. Sybil’s speech in the epigraph of ‘The Wasteland’ illustrates just how broken society is, as Sybil ‘want[s] to die’ as it is the only escape from the horrific nature of the world. The fact that Sybil is unable to die reflects the way that society is trapped in its sterile way, and could also represent the inability of the Knights of Camelot to ask the right questions to restore the Wasteland in the legend of King Arthur, which Eliot drew upon when writing ‘The Wasteland’. The sybilline structure of the poem could reflect the way that the knights had to gather up fragments in order to ask the right question, just as the reader must do to glean any meaning from the poem. The scatteredness and disjointedness of ‘The Burial of the Dead’, jumping from the ‘Hyacinth girl’ to ‘Madam Sosostris’ could reflect the way that society is broken, or perhaps the gaps between people, as the two different voices do not run smoothly into one another, but switch from melancholy to brusque. In true sybilline form, it is women like the ‘Hyacinth girl’ and ‘Madam Sosostris’ who illustrate the fragmentary reality of the world, and perhaps Sybil throws up these fragments to show the extent to which brokenness prevails in society, affecting both these radically different women. The ‘Hyacinth Girl’ in particular is made to sound as much of a victim as Sybil, through Eliot’s name for her, which connotes her lost innocence and purity, another victim of the decline of society, and yet not even Madame Sosotris, ‘famous clairvoyant’ can shed any light on this, or indeed notice it. Eliot may be trying to show the extent to which society is broken, and the lack of answers in the poem could reflect the lack of them in the world.

Lust as Destructive:

This sibylline nature also links to the destructive force that is lust in ‘The Wasteland’, as Sibyl is in her predicament thanks to lust, just as in the ‘Second Coming’ the world’s lost innocence is the reason for its decline.  Yeats points to the fact of ‘the ceremony of innocence is drowned’ as consequence of a fragmented world, and the word ‘drowned’ connotes death, suggesting that there is no way of getting the world back to the way it was. The title of the poem suggests that his is a result of spiritual intervention, or rather lack of. The fact that Yeats remarks ‘The centre cannot hold’ perhaps connotes the myth of Christianity and religon breaking under strain, or perhaps that a loss of spirituality has lead to ‘mere anarchy’, and society can’t ‘hold’ back its steady breaking apart. Eliot also explores the way the growth of sin has lead to a decline in spirituality, and therefore society in ‘The Fire Sermon’. The ‘typist’ and the ‘carbuncular’ man’s relationship seems to act as a metonym for society’s succumbing to lust, and the way he semi-rapes her could be intended to reflect the way that purity has been driven out, or the breaking up of morals. Eliot paints a disgusting picture of the man as ‘bold’ and full of ‘vanity’, perhaps connoting the way that society, instead of looking for a greater power or even meaning in life, has become consumed in itself and its best interests, foregoing morals for the temporary pleasures of the flesh. Both Poets reflect on society’s transition from ‘innocence’ to a broken wreck of itself, lacking in principles and spirituality.

Conclusion:

In conclusion I believe that both Eliot and Yeats reflect on the broken nature of a fragmented society, both exploring what a world without faith is like. Eliot however, digs deeper, questioning the reader in their own role in society’s fragmentation, and pointing to the brokenness of nature to illustrate what he sees as society’s decline.