This image connects death with the possibility of rebirth (which we see as an extremely prevelant theme throughout the poem), but in a grotesque unnatural way. Eliot then suddenly addresses "you" through Baudelaire's words. The effect is to implicate the reader in the spirutall barreness of the Waste Land. They are not simply observing this dead, fragmented society from the outside; but belong to it. Eliot's image of the buried corpse potentially producing growth mirros Baudelaire's creation of "flowers" from corruption and evil. Thus prompting if something living can grow from death and decay in the same way. Both seem to ask if beauty and renewal will emerge- or attempts to emerge-from something corrupted. A third source that also explores corruption and rebirth is Shakespeare's Hamlet. Here, the moral corruption of the court denies Ophelia the platform to speak her truth because she is only a "pretty face", and consequently Ophelia takes her own life because she cannot stand the futile role to which she has been subjected amongst such moral decay and evil. In this source, life is not able to resurrect or withstand the corruption, symbolized by Ophelia's death, but in the Waste Land, the question is left more open-ended: can society be reborn after such destitution, or will corruption and death ultimately consume the remaining life, just like Ophelia.

In the archives, H.D. kept an extensive record of multiple literary figures horoscopes including T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Sigmuend Freud.

Here we see a reference to a very important and specific tarot card: the Hanged Man. This tarot card traditionally signifies voluntary surrender, a necessary pause, and the possibility of gaining a new perspective by letting go of control. It is therefore significant that Madame Sosostris says, “I do not find / The Hanged Man.” Rather than presenting surrender itself, Eliot presents its absence. Perhaps the missing card symbolizes the speaker’s inability to surrender, pause, or relinquish control within a world consumed by despair and the aftermath of war. Yet it is also significant that the absence is explicitly acknowledged: the speaker recognizes what is missing. This recognition suggests an awareness that surrender or a new perspective may be necessary, even if it remains inaccessible. Sometimes we know, deep down, what must change, yet we wait for some catalytic symbol—like a tarot card or even a war—to force us to confront what we already know.

This line is, in itself, a variation, a contradiction perhaps, of verse 5 from Ecclesiastes 12. Ecclesiastes illustrates the inevitable coming of age and death and argues that we should embrace it rather than fear it. It not only mentions our mortality, but also echoes the ephemerality of every moment. The central message of this poem is to remember God and live meaningfully while you are young because youth, strength, pleasure, and eventually life itself are temporary. The verse, "almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden," is an indicator of how, with age, small things become harder. The flowering almond tree could be interepretaed as gaining grey hairs, and the grasshopper becoming a burden suggests that even small things become physically difficult with age. However, in The Wasteland, Eliot rewrites this verse with a different tone: despair. Motifs that once meant meaningful symbols of age have now lost their reassuring sentimental value and become echoes of anguish and inevitable doom. The almond tree and the grasshopper now symbolize the futility of age and the painful approach of death. Eliot thus trasnforms the meaning of the biblical verse to reflect a darker conception of mortality in the aftermath of world war 1.

After reading the original title, "He do the Police in Different Voices," and Dickens's "Our Mutual Friend," I was surprised to find vast similarities between the two, most notably the transactionalization of humanity. As in our class discussion, we see this same theme in the current title: land plots once shared by the general public are divided and sold as one-time statements. This demonstrates the loss of human connection and community, in favor of capitalism and selfish financial gain. Just like in the original title, Eliot makes this societal critique with a more specific and literal example in his original title: a man not only enters a house of prostitution, but is rejected from it for not looking acceptable. This encounter not only shows society's cruel, superficial priorities, but also reveals the moral corruption embedded in everyday life. "Our Mutual Friend" also opens with a very similar scene: a couple is "shopping" for a child. Dickens manipulates what would be a very intimate moment, adoption, into yet another transactional, superficial business deal. Dickens even refers to the event as a "stock market," with prices rising and falling for children based on demand. In all three examples, humanity has been stripped of its fundamental moral values to prioritize selfish financial endeavors that reflect society and the growing economy of the time. Each turns what would once be a moment of sincere social connection and community into a transactional experience designed solely to benefit the one who controls it.

After reading "The Golden Bough", the title now communicates the potential of rebirth and renewed fertility of a once arid and barren land. It therefore indicates the inevitable vegetational cycles embedded in the natural world. In the myth, "Osiris", Osiris himself is dismembered by his own brother Set, and pieces of his body are scattered. Osiris's death removes all life from the landscape of which he used to occupy, stripping it of any fertility and growth. Here you can see an obvious parallel to "The Waste Land" and its desolate, sterile quality. However, Isis, Osiris's wife, gathers the pieces and restores his body, after which Osiris becomes associated with the afterlife and regeneration. Because Osiris was also associated previously with the fertility of the land and the Nile, his death and restoration became symbolic of vegetation dying and returning to life. Eliot echoes this myth in his poem, immediately connecting it to the war-stricken era from which he was writing, with death all around, while also embedding messages of hope and the potential for societal rebirth. Therefore using this mythic pattern to represent a fragmented, spiritually barren modern world and the possibily of putting its fragments back together.