I find this specific line quite interesting in that it is not actually a direct quotation from Dante's Inferno. Dante states "I could not believe death had undone so many" while witnessing the masses who have been rejected from both heaven and hell and are thus stuck in a limbo of sorts. This clearly mirrors how Elliot portrays British society at the time, a mass of hollow people, who are unfulfilled, and are essentially the living dead. The interesting distinction in the way Elliot utilizes this comparison is that the narrator says "I had not thought" rather then "I could not believe". I think that this thus positions the narrator in a state of realization at the scale of the "living dead" as opposed to Dantes pure shock and disbelief. Furthermore, I find the fact that the word undone is used as opposed to death quite important, as these people are still technically alive, yet are internally empty, their humanity and spirituality having been undone through industrialization, war and a loss of faith.

After reading the excerpt from Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, I find this line much more interesting. I say this as the excerpt explains the myth behind Hyacinthus, and how when Hyacinthus was killed by Apollo, he was transformed into the hyacinth flower. Pair this with the explanation of the festival in which their are two days reserved for grieving Hyacinthus and I think that this clearly connects to the beginning of the poem. I say this as the lines "April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire." display how the rebirth of flowers and the spring season brings about memories of the dead. Thus, a connection is formed between how april is the cruellest month, and Hyacinth flowers both bring about memories of the dead, even if they should be signs of new life and rebirth.

I find this reference to Marie Larisch quite interesting as I think it really connects to the ideas of the ideas of impersonality which we discussed in class today. Here, Elliot embodies the real life countess, Marie Larisch, thus separating himself from the poem, in a style quite different from classical poetry. I think that this choice is deliberate, as with many others in the opening of this poem to establish that it is a departure from classical poetry, and a step into modernism. This can also be seen with parallels to other poems such as how Elliot subverts The Canterbury Tales opening by describing april as the cruelest month as opposed to a time of rebirth and new life. Ultimately, I think these deliberate choices lead to an interesting opening to the poem which displays how Elliots writing differs from that of classical poets.

I found this line quite interesting upon reading the satyricon and ultimately I think it was a better choice to begin the text than the quote from Heart of Darkness. This is because I think this quote speaks to the overall themes of the text, those being a cultural stagnation and lack of spirituality, better than the other quote. In this, Trimalchio explains how he saw Sybil, the women who wished for eternal life without asking for eternal youth, in a cage, asking for death. I think this illustrates the idea that Elliot presents in the poem, that being that death is favorable to a life without purpose and spirituality. Thus, the people of England after World War 1 are likened to Sybil, trapped in cages, and better off dead than continuing their existences without faith.

One interesting parallel I noticed was how in Le Morte D'Arthur, after the most pious man in all of Christendom, King Labor is slain, a great pestilence falls over the realm of Logris, which is essentially England. Thus, with this slaying of King labor, England becomes a wasteland, which is similiar to what occurs in the poem The Waste Land. In the poem however, it is not King Labor that is slain, but rather god himself, as Nietzsche said "God is dead" and with this death England turns into a Wasteland, as Elliot describes in the poem. This is because the poem occurs in a post world war 1 England which has lost most of its religion, and is suffering because of it.