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T. S. EliotA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The transience of all things on earth is a key theme in the poem and is stated mainly in the first section. Nothing lasts; all human creations—represented in the first 13 lines by the houses that “rise and fall” (Line 2) over many generations—eventually come to naught, and everything sinks back to the earth, “[w]hich is already flesh, fur and faeces / Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf” (Lines 7-8). The earth is a universal graveyard, yet it continually regenerates itself, and human beings play their appointed role, rebuilding, living their lives, and passing on their heritage to the next generation. Everything has its time and place, its day in the sun, before oblivion comes.
The past continues, however, in the sense that it makes an imprint on the present day—past and present are thus inextricably linked. The past can also be conjured up in the mind’s eye by the speaker when he comes to an open field near the old village. The speaker evokes a rustic scene from the past, of dancing and merriment by country dwellers in tune with the rhythms of earth and the seasons, although they too are “long since under the earth” (Line 39).
By T. S. Eliot
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday
T. S. Eliot
Four Quartets
Four Quartets
T. S. Eliot
Journey of the Magi
Journey of the Magi
T. S. Eliot
Little Gidding
Little Gidding
T. S. Eliot
Mr. Mistoffelees
Mr. Mistoffelees
T. S. Eliot
Murder in the Cathedral
Murder in the Cathedral
T. S. Eliot
Portrait of a Lady
Portrait of a Lady
T. S. Eliot
Preludes
Preludes
T. S. Eliot
Rhapsody On A Windy Night
Rhapsody On A Windy Night
T. S. Eliot
The Cocktail Party
The Cocktail Party
T. S. Eliot
The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men
T. S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
T. S. Eliot
The Song of the Jellicles
The Song of the Jellicles
T. S. Eliot
The Waste Land
The Waste Land
T. S. Eliot
Tradition and the Individual Talent
Tradition and the Individual Talent
T. S. Eliot