Hi, Lit Fic people. My novel is multi-genre, and is best classified as adventure, but I have a brief scene in which the MC and his best friend discuss T.S. Eliot, and I would appreciate any feedback on the conversation they have. I am trying to parallel an important turning point in the novel. Is it good analysis, or have I missed the point of the poem? Does it work?
For context, Miguel is thinking about betraying and murdering the MC and narrator, Lee.
**EXCERPT**
“April is the cruelest month,” said Miguel absently.
I straightened up, hanging my head. “I’m sorry?”
“It’s from a poem,” he explained. “T.S. Eliot’s The Waste-Land. The first lines of the poem, he goes out and says it. ‘April is the cruelest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain’.” He recited it lyrically, letting the words flow into the still air of my office and sink in.
My head buzzing, I tried to figure out what it meant. “So the plants are growing back in the dead land. To me, that sounds pretty good right now. What’s so cruel about that?”
“It’s a reminder. The lilacs are growing over the corpses and death and destruction of war and suffering. But can the flowers really eclipse the past, or have these things of beauty been turned into mere burial markers? Are the ‘memory and desire’ of the past the costs of rebirth and renewal? Or is there another way?” Miguel stared out the window, looking forlorn.
“You’re feeling awfully poetic today, Mig. What’s wrong?”
He turned his head back toward me. “It’s nothing,” he said. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”
**EXCERPT**
Thanks.
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41,210 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 06 46
Sounds plausible to me, at least coming from a character (not a literary professor).
To me, the words "Mixing memory and desire" reveals what the poem is about. The memory of death is mixed with desire for life, reminding us of what we perhaps would rather want to leave under a layer of snow/earth/roots.
31,949 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 07 37
Definitely plausible for characters. Also, part of the cruelty is that the new flowers are going to die, too. But I think the discussion serves your purpose of melancholy!
9,729 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 17 44
You know...it sounds pretty cool.... As a matter of fact, i like to do this sort if a thing, confusing my friends with poetic verses that i know they will never understand...but this character sounds serious, Good luck.................
----------Divya R.V.
46,331 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 19 57
I like it, but I am going to take an opposing view concerning what Simson said
To me, the words "Mixing memory and desire" reveals what the poem is about. The memory of death is mixed with desire for life, reminding us of what we perhaps would rather want to leave under a layer of snow/earth/roots.
Instead of the desire for life, think about the desire to forget. Death, especially on the scale seen in WWI (it's called the lost generation for a reason), is something that most people try to squeeze out of their minds. Sometimes at all costs. Can you make yourself forget something, or will the trying only embed the thought more firmly in your mind? I will admit it has been sometime since I have read this, but that's the great thing about poetry, its ambiguity. Take it and run. Will you be showing us why Miguel has this poem committed to memory?
Good luck!
41,210 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 04 29
To me, the words "Mixing memory and desire" reveals what the poem is about. The memory of death is mixed with desire for life, reminding us of what we perhaps would rather want to leave under a layer of snow/earth/roots.
Instead of the desire for life, think about the desire to forget. Death, especially on the scale seen in WWI (it's called the lost generation for a reason), is something that most people try to squeeze out of their minds. Sometimes at all costs. Can you make yourself forget something, or will the trying only embed the thought more firmly in your mind? I will admit it has been sometime since I have read this, but that's the great thing about poetry, its ambiguity. Take it and run. Will you be showing us why Miguel has this poem committed to memory?
Good luck!
Is that really an opposing view, though?
Notice the last bit in my post, that it's "reminding us of what we perhaps would rather want to leave under a layer of snow/earth/roots". Ie desire to forget...?