When the poem was first printed in book form two months after its initial publication in the "Criterion" of October, 1922, the printer needed additional copy to fill a signature; since Eliot had no other poems ready at that time, he submitted the explanatory notes on "The Waste Land" which now fill about five pages in the "Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950". The notes have been the focus of much critical effort and comment, and Eliot has since remarked that he regrets having appended them.

One valuable function of the notes, nevertheless, has been to indicate some of the works that most importantly influenced the writing of the poem- among others (as we mentioned) Frazer's "The Golden Bough" and Weston's "From Ritual to Romance," books relevant to much of the basic symbolism used.

In the vegetative rites discussed in both, the figure of the Year-god was thrown into the waters of the Nile (or some other body of water) and later "fished out" (resurrected), symbolizing the rebirth of the life principle in the spring. This ritual also came to be associated with the religious initiation patterns to which primitive people seem to give much more open rec

In context this passage suggests not only the beauty of a remote and picturesque artifact but also the cruel violation suffered by Philomel; her song, the "inviolable voice" (twit twit") still sounds like "jug lug" to dirty ears. She next appears in Section III, "The Fire Sermon," after the contradictory references to Mrs. Porter and "ces voix d'enfants, chantant dans la coupole" ("those voices of children, singing in the choir-loft"): Twit twit twit// Jug jug jug lug jug jug/So rudely forc'd / Tereu." The irony of the reference to Verlaine's Grail ceremony in this context carries over into the song of the nightingale, at first positive, then negative. The next line, "So rudely forc'd," refers not only to Philomel but also to the use of Grail imagery in the "Sweeney and Mrs. Porter" context. The closing word of this four-line passage, "Tereu," suggests Tereus's act of violation, the fact that it is to be rued, and the sound of the bird's singing; for "twit twit," "jug jug," and "Tereu" were the three common representations of the nightingale's song in Elizabethan literature, where its moral meanings were emphasized as they are here. Though Philomel does not appear again directly in "The Waste Land," she is suggested in the other bird songs used and referred to at two levels of indirectness in the "Quando fiam uti chelidon" fragment ("When will I be like the swallow?") of the closing passage for the reader who is familiar with its context in the anonymous Latin work "Pervigilium Veneris."

Many critics have written of the antitheses, the antinomies, and the contrasts in "The Waste Land." These exist in abundance and are not just accidents of inclusion; they comprise a basic and indispensable aspect of the poem's technique, progression, and meaning. Many such polarities could be identified in the poem: universal-personal, male-female, conscious-unconscious, hope-fear, and others. But the technique of contradiction goes deeper than this in the poem's structure. Many of its symbols are involved in what I should like to call "parallelodoxes." Many of its symbols, that is, simultaneously develop in antithetical directions.

Such "parallelodoxes" are inevitable concomitants of the associative method by which the poem develops in the mind of the speaker. Its associational basis is not in ideas or images, but in total states of a complex and individual consciousness that is always aware of multiple implications. This sort of progression is implicit in the poem's entire structure, but it is easy to miss, since its recognition arises in the reader's empathic identification-"You! hypocrite lecteur! - mon semblable,-mon frere!" The requirement of this identification necessarily limits the reader- ship of the poem, but it also allows degrees of compression and of subtle complexity probably impossible to achieve by any other structural technique.

The inevitability of the "fish" and "fisher" religious symbolism is seen by reflecting on the high degree to which the e

Some common words found in the essay are:
Waste Land, Pervigilium Veneris, God Incarnate, Fire Sermon, Madame Sosostris, Section IV, Ritual Romance, Sweeney Porter, Fisher King, Jug Jug, waste land, jug jug, twit twit, positive negative, madame sosostris, fisher king, vegetative rites, iii fire sermon, negative connotations, mind speaker, fire sermon, section iii fire, section waste land, positive negative connotations, land madame sosostris,
Approximate Word count = 2073
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)