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Table of Contents | Printable Version MOOD The mood of The Waste Land is predominantly somber as befits a poem that focuses on societyÂ’s devastation and desolation. But it is not necessarily a picture of unrelieved gloom. There are a few brighter moments that bring a redeeming flash of irony or even humor which some may say borders on the grotesque. Part I has a predominant note of sterility with Tiresias sketching for us the barren waste land scenario in the first 7 lines, then in lines 19- 30("what are the roots that clutch? ...) and in the closing lines (60-77) that describes the "Unreal City" of London and its living dead. But in the countess Marie, sailor lad and Hyacinth girl sequences (lines 8-18, 31-34 and 35-41), the mood is one of "failed love" and the reminiscences of the past. Here the emotionally sterile waste land is highlighted, while the Madam SosostrisÂ’ section (lines 43-59) brings in the mystical aura of a pseudo spiritual seance with a note of doom in most of her predictions, especially the fatal pronouncement: "Fear death by water." Part II has two clear-cut shifts in tempo and mood. In the first half (lines 77-138) our senses are almost "drowned" in the stiflingly sensuous atmosphere of the Rich LadyÂ’s boudoir. But our initial impression of awe at the grandeur of her bedroom and its surrounding gives way to despair and anxiety when we witness the neurotic ravings of this lonely woman. A feeling of deadness overwhelms one as one comprehends the fact that despite all her wealth and luxury she leads an empty, vacuous existence. The second segment a part II (lines 139-171) is relieved by the vibrant dialogues of the first cockney woman even if she indulges in mere trivialities and gossip about her friend Lil and her husband, Albert. One glimpses here spark of vitality in the breathless chatter of the women in the bar, but there is also the underlying tone of "deadness" as one gathers the details of LilÂ’s over-fecund life.
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