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Stanza Analyses: T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land

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Stanza Analyses: T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land
English A1 HL
Stanza Analyses
Sir B
September 30, 2010
T.S Eliot’s “The Waste Land” Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante, | | Had a bad cold, nevertheless | | Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, | 45 | With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she, | | Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor, | | (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!) | | Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, | | The lady of situations. | 50 | Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel, | | And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card, | | Which is blank, is something he carries on his back, | | Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find | | The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. | 55 | I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring. | | Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone, | | Tell her I bring the horoscope myself: | | One must be so careful these days. | | | |

Stanza Analyses This excerpt from T.S Eliot’s “The Waste land” depicts a scene of a clairvoyant woman using her “abilities” to read aman’sfortune. Unfortunately the fortune being told is not so fortunate; the woman presents the man with a reading of death by drowning, seduction, options (in life) and fortune, some of which seem to not correlate congruently, leaving the man “unfortunately”lost to his ownfate. The extract begins with the introduction of Madam Sosostris. A fortune teller who from the text is not as capable of using her manipulative cards on this day “Had a bad cold, nevertheless”. Her customer is a man that seems a bit distraught, this coming from the fact he is in desperate need of advice from a fortune teller, a well known one at that “Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe”. The first card that is presented is “…drowned Phoenician Sailor…” This card is not the stereotypical card used by a fortune teller. This card was conjured by T.S Eliot himself. A sign of death by drowning, the man’s brain
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