Literary Devices in The Waste Land

The hermit thrush, a small bird found deep in the woods, is noted for its song that sounds like dripping water. Eliot employs onomatopoeia to capture the bird’s peaceful sounds, further emphasizing the need for water and all it symbolizes in the poem.

The mountain is personified as having a mouth and teeth and the ability to spit. The alliteration of “mountain” and “mouth” stresses the idea of water flowing from mountain springs. “Carious” in regard to teeth means decayed, underscoring the negative connotations of “dead.” Taken together, the poetic devices create the image of an arid landscape that develops the water versus rock motif.

Water and rock are antithetical motifs in “The Waste Land.” Water is associated with life, growth, and rebirth, while rock summons opposite images suggestive of a barren, sterile wasteland. The contrast between water and rock permeates the poem and supports Eliot’s depictions of modern life as a spiritual wasteland.

“Magnus Martyr” is an allusion to the St. Magnus the Martyr church, located in Lower Thames Street near the original site of London Bridge. “Splendor” means a magnificent, glorious appearance, and “Ionian” refers to columns designed in the style of classical Greek architecture. Rebuilt following the Great Fire of London in 1666, the church is considered architect Sir Christopher Wren’s most beautiful work. The imagery of the church, its beauty held within its walls, suggests a solemn silence, in contrast to the mandolin music and the “clatter” and “chatter” within the bar nearby. Through the allusion, Eliot again negatively contrasts the values of modern life with those of times long gone.

In Greek mythology, Tiresias is a prophet of the god Apollo; despite his blindness, Tiresias can see the future. In one of the Greek myths, Tiresias offends Hera, the wife of Zeus; she turns him into a woman who serves as her priestess for seven years before being turned back into a man. In his capacity as a seer, Tiresias narrates the remainder of section III.

“The violet hour” is a metaphor for day’s end; it evokes the image of a purple sky created by the setting sun. The metaphor is soon repeated in a following passage, underscoring the difference between conventional human behavior during a work day and what it becomes after dark. The “human engine” is described with a simile as being “like a taxi throbbing waiting.” The simile suggests human passions waiting to be released.

The speaker’s reverie is interrupted by the sounds of traffic along the Thames. This interruption brings the text back to the subject of prostitution through the reference of Sweeney’s returning to Mrs. Porter and her daughter in the spring. The last three lines in the passage originated in an old Australian drinking song.

The river mentioned previously is now identified as the Thames, which runs through London and southern England. The line is a refrain in Edmund Spenser’s poem “Prothalamion”; Spenser’s subject is a lovely double wedding on a summer day by the Thames, and the poem is filled with images of happiness and natural beauty. The allusion is ironic, considering Eliot’s previous description of the Thames and the silent “brown land” nearby, and it anticipates other ironic contrasts that are developed throughout section III.

“The river’s tent” is an implied metaphor that describes the leafy branches of trees along the riverbank. The image suggests that they extend over the water. The tent is “broken” because the leaves, which are personified as having “fingers” that “clutch” the branches, have fallen. The imagery establishes the setting—a place beside a river during late autumn, and a bleak—depressing atmosphere.

The line, which is repeated throughout this portion of the text, refers to the last call at closing time in a bar, the setting for the conversation that occurred between the speaker and Lil. The setting contrasts with the opulence of the woman’s bedroom in the previous scene and suggests a marked difference in social class between her and Lil that becomes evident in the lines that follow.

Eliot employs repetition in the passage, repeating two allusions that appear in the first section of the poem, “The Burial of the Dead,” lines 37–41 and lines 46–48. Repeating the allusions during the conversation between the woman and her lover emphasizes the implied meanings of the allusions and suggests that they relate to society at large.

The description of the setting ends with this line, marking a turning point in the text. The auditory imagery indicates that someone is coming to her room; the following lines imply that the visitor is her lover. The connotations of “shuffled” in regard to the sound of his footsteps suggest a lack of joy or enthusiasm; even sexual relationships, it seems, are devoid of emotional fulfillment or satisfaction. The idea supports a major theme in “The Waste Land”: that modern life has deadened the spirit and robbed life of meaning.

Placing “Jug Jug” in quotation marks suggests that it represents the sound of Philomela’s voice as the nightingale, making it an example of onomatopoeia. Birds and their songs appear in various places in the text, contrasting the natural world of the past with the mechanized industrial society of the modern world, a new age void of morality and compassion.

The passage alludes to the story of Philomela in book 6 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Kidnapped and raped by her sister’s husband, King Tereus, Philomela is imprisoned and her tongue is cut out to prevent her from telling anyone what the king has done. The gods take pity on Philomela and make her a nightingale, the “change of Philomel” referenced in the passage. Besides contributing to the darkening mood and atmosphere in this section of the text, the allusion underscores the notion of sexual violence, which is introduced through implication in the title of the section, “A Game of Chess.”

A "laquearia" is an elaborate ceiling made of recessed panels that often depict a scene of some sort. The ceiling in the room is ornate, like the rest of the woman’s bedroom. However, the light that illuminates the figure of a dolphin carved into one of the panels is “sad,” not glowing or glittering, which underscores the negative change in mood and atmosphere in Eliot’s description of the environment in which the woman lives.

The mood and atmosphere change suddenly with the description of the woman’s “strange synthetic perfumes.” Being synthetic, they are artificial, implying that they are not authentic or naturally pleasing to the senses. Her perfumes are personified; they “lurked” and are “troubled” and “confused” as they overwhelm the sense of smell in “odours,” a word like the others with unpleasant connotations. The disturbing change in mood and atmosphere suggest that all is not as it appears to be in the woman’s life.

The visual imagery of light in the first two lines is further developed in this passage: the mirror of the dressing table reflects and thus doubles the flames of candles lighting the room and reflects the “glitter” of jewels on the marble table top. The alliteration in “poured in rich profusion” draws attention to the phrase and creates a dynamic image of many jewels cascading from the satin cases that hold them. The imagery contributes to the atmosphere of wealth, beauty, and privilege in which the woman lives.

Translated from German, the sentence reads “I’m not Russian at all, I come from Lithuania, a true German.” It is unclear who is speaking at this point, because speakers change throughout the poem, often with no notice. The statement could be part of a conversation overheard in the Hofgarten. Eliot’s inclusion of foreign languages in the poem often serves to capture the atmosphere of a particular setting. In this case, it emphasizes the geographical and political elements present in Europe before World War I.

The poem begins with an unidentified speaker contrasting spring and winter. The contrast is ironic—a paradox: the speaker describes April, the month associated with the return of spring, warmth, and the renewal of life, as causing the greatest pain, whereas winter snow’s covering the earth “kept us warm” is a phrase that suggests comfort and security. April is cruel, according to the speaker, because it evokes “memory and desire”; the “forgetful snow” of winter does not. The idea that remembering the past and feeling desire are now painful experiences to be avoided foreshadows a major theme in the poem: that World War I and the post-war era, the setting of the poem, resulted in a deadening of the human spirit. The theme is also suggested by the title of this section of the poem, “The Burial of the Dead.”

This is an allusion to Charles Baudelaire's 1857 poem "Au Lecteur." Eliot repurposes Baudelaire's shocking address to his "Hypocrite reader." Baudelaire's poem ends with the following stanza:

C'est l'Ennui! L'oeil chargé d'un pleur involontaire,
II rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.
Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,
— Hypocrite lecteur, — mon semblable, — mon frère!

One of many English translations of these lines is:

He is Ennui! — His eye watery as though with tears, 
He dreams of scaffolds as he smokes his hookah pipe.
You know him reader, that refined monster,
— Hypocritish reader, — my fellow, — my brother!

Translation: William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954).