In a brief scene, you watch as a dead sailor named Phlebas decays at the bottom of the ocean, and the poem tells you to think of this young man whenever you start feeling too proud. Finally, you overhear someone singing a popular song, which in the context of this poem just sounds depressing. You hear about a scene where a modern young man and woman-both not much to look at-are having this really awful, loveless sex. Next, you're hearing from Tiresias, a blind prophet from myth who was turned into a woman for seven years by the goddess Hera. The focus swoops back to the story of Philomel for a second, then another speaker talks about how he might have been asked for weekend of sex by a "Smyrna merchant" (209). Section three opens with a speaker who's hanging out beside London's River Thames and feeling bad about the fact that there's no magic left in the world. The section finishes with a scene of two women chatting and trying to sneak in a few more drinks before closing time at the bar. This is followed by a couple of fragments vaguely asking you what you know and remember. Some anxious person says that their nerves are bad, and asks you to stay the night. You are transported to the glittery room of a lavish woman, and you notice that hanging from the wall is an image of "the change of Philomel," a woman from Greek myth who was raped by King Tereus and then changed into a nightingale. And if that weren't enough, you then watch a crowd of people "flow over London Bridge" like zombies (62). Suddenly, you're in a room with a "clairvoyant" or spiritual medium named Madame Sosostris, who reads you your fortune. This is followed by a description of tangled, dead trees and land that isn't great for growing stuff. Then the poem shifts into specific childhood memories of a woman named Marie. ![]() The poem's speaker talks about how spring is an awful time of year, stirring up memories of bygone days and unfulfilled desires. It's not the cheeriest of starts, and it gets even drearier from there. ![]() Eliot's The Waste Land: Poem Summary The Burial of the Dead
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