Exploring The Waste Land
Questions linked from The Waste Land, Part I, line 5


Part I
Line 5

In the first section of Part I of The Waste Land we encounter a number of occurrances of "we" and "us".

The draft version of the opening line for The Waste Land had another we:

First we had a couple of feelers down at Tom's place.

Who are these groups of people? Are the the same groups?

There are hints that the section containing lines 1 through 18 is made up of 3 sub-sections (1-7, 8-11, 12-18) and possibly 4 sub-sections (1-4, 5-7, 8-11, 12-18).

Note the change in line length between lines 7 and 8.

Notice how the the sentence in German on line 12 seperates passages.

Additionally, there is possibly a difference between thoughts on lines 5-7 and lines 8-11. We might read lines 1-8 as either:

It is a cruel spring now. (1-4)
Winter kept us two warm. (5-7)
Remember that pleasant summer we two spent together. (8-11)

or as:

It is a cruel spring now. (1-4)
Winter kept us warm. (5-7)
I'm remembering a pleasant summer I spent with someone. (8-11)

What are the other possiblities? Is it actually supposed to be April now?

Exploring The Waste Land
File name: qq005.html
File date: Sunday, September 29, 2002
[Home] [E-mail]