The Thematic Refrain in" The fire Sermon and Death by water"

The Thematic Refrain in" The fire Sermon and Death by water"

               
                         Thomas stearns Eliot was born at st. Louis, Missouri, an industrial city in the centre of the U.S.A. The boy Eliot was first sent to school at st. Louis day school. At school he was considerd a brilliant student and was a gold medal for Latin. Eliot gave up teaching and enterd the foreign department of Lloyds Bank, where he worked dealing with "documentary bills, acceptances , and foreign exchange." The publication of the waste land attracted wide interest, its technique was widely imitated and it influenced even those who were not conscious imitators. Eliot's career as a poet may be divided into five phases or periods:(1) The first phase- The poems of this period are immature , juvenilie production.The poems were published in the various college and school magazines, as the smith academy Record and the Harvard Advocate. (2) The second phase - The most important poem of this collection are : (1) The Love song of J.Alfred prufrock (2) portrait of a Lady. (3) The preludes (4) Rhapsody on a Windy Night. (5) The "Boston Evenig Transcript" (6) Mr. Apollinax. (3) The third Phase - The most singnificant poems of this phase are: (1) Gerontion. (2) Burbank with a Baedekar. (3) Sweeney Erect. (4) A cooking Egg. (5) Sweeney among the Nightgales. (6) The Waste Land , 1922. (7) The Hollow Men, 1925.(4) The fourth Phase - The Characteristic poem of this period are : (1) Ash Wednesday.(2) Journey of the Magi. (3) Animila.(4) Marina. (5) Choruses from "The Rock". (6) Coriolanous.(7) A number of minor and unfinished poems. (5) The fifth Phase - The poem which are publication as follows: (1)Burnt Norton. (2) East coker (3) The Dry Salvages. (4) Little Gidding. His dramatic production includes: (1) The Rock, a Pageant Play (2) Murder in the Cathedral . (3) The family Reunion. (4) The Cocktail Party. (5)The Confidential clerk. (6) The Elder Statesman. Eliot's critical pronouncements first published in the form of articles and essays, in numerous periodicals and journals of the day , have now been collected in the follwing books: (1) The Use of Poetry and the Use of criticism (2) The Idea of a Christian Society (3) Notes Towards a Definition of Culture (4) Selected Essays, Third Edition. (5) On Poetry and Poets (6) To Criticise the Critic.
                                                       The title of this section is taken from the famous sermon of Lord Buddha in which the World is shown burning with lust and passion and hatred and a thousand other evils.It also reminds one of the confessions of St. Augustine wherein he represent lust as a burning cauldron .The sterile burning of lust is brought out by different sex experience in the contemporary waste land. The section  open with Tiresias surveying the Thames scene in the autumn. The leaves have fallen down and the wind moves without any rustle. The Thames is deserted. In the summer, it had been the haunt of nameless ladies in search of momentary pleasure,and the rich sons of business directors equally in need of pleasure. The water is a source of purification and regeneration but the degenerate morden man does not realise this, and so does not hesitate to defile the purity of the river which, " sweats oil and tar" . The pollution of the river symbolises spiritual degeneration. water and fishing were symbols of transformation and regenration in the past, but now they have lost their spiritual significance. The surrounding of the river are dirty, slimy rats creep by, naked dead bodies float on the river, bones are scattered all over, and are rattled as the rats move about. The degeneracy is further symbolised by the fact that Mr. Porter and her daughter wash their feet in soda water, not for their spiritual purification , but to make their flesh fairer to attract more males.The lust and sexual perversion of the morden man is further symbolised by the French song "O" these children's voices, singing in the choir. Eliot's pre-occupation with vulgarsation of spiritual values is further seen in the reference to Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant, the one-eyed merchant of the Tarot pack. He brought both merchandise and religion and fertility cults to Europe. But now his function has degenerated. He has only one eye. This symbolises the loss of his religious function. The degeneration of his function is further brought out by his inviting Tiresias to hotels which were the hot beds of corruption and homo- sexuality during the war and the year which followed. Thus he represents a sex-relationship which is essentially sterile.
                    The mechanical, animal-like nature of sex-relationship in the contemporary waste land is emphasised further by the action of the lady after mating with her lover. she is glad that it is all over, looks in the mirror to see  if her hair has been disarranged or the powder from the face removed, paces about the room indifferently, and mechanically puts a record on the gramophone. Eliot weaves the very rhythm of modern life into the fabric of his masterpiece in expressions, such as ," Like a taxi throbbing, waiting " , and , " puts a record on the gramophone."
                  They bemoan the polluting of river water symbolised by the oozing out of oil and tar. Modern commerce is dirty , as dirty and impure as modern life. Pleasure boats drift on the river, splashing water and spar on the logs of wood floating down from Greenwich. The second Thames daughter feel extreme humiliation after the loss of her virginity. She is walking in Moorgate , a street of Landon, but, her heart is under her feet , i.e. she suffer from extreme humiliation. Her lover wept after the event and promised to turn over a new leaf , but she did not say anything. she knew that any resentment or anger on her part is useless. " what should I reset?" , expresses her extrem dejection, frustration, and sense of helplessness.The third girl was undone on " Margrate sands " , a sea - side pleasure spot in London. She is utterly frustrated and her life is equal to nothing. Her people are helpless , humble people, like dumb-driven cattle, who expect nothing from life.
                 Sexual perversion and lust are the cause of spiritual death and degeneracy in the modern world. This degeneration is to be seen in all section of society, the rich , the middle class , and the poor. Regeneration can come about only if the modern humanity heeds the teachings of the great moral and religious teachers.
                 The signification of water as means of purification and regeneration but in the modern land of desolation it has lost its functions and has become a source of destruction. This is because man has become beastly, given to the pursuit of wealth and sensuous pleasures. The phonecian sailor, Phlebas was young, tall and handsome, but he was drowned because his life was a spiritual motivation. He was caught in a whirlpool and passed the various stages of his " age and youth " .He is old when he is immersed in water , he is young as he rises and falls on the waves , then a boy , and is finally re-born .
            The theme of the poem is the spiritual and emotional sterility of the modern world. According to Cleanth Brooks, its theme is life in death , the living death of the modern wastelanders. Man has lost his passion, i.e. his faith in god and religious, his passional participation in religion and this decay of faith has resulted in the loss of vitality both spiritual and emotional. Consequently, the life in the modern waste land is a life in death, a living death , like that of the Sibyl  at Cumae .