aligns homogenised, post-war consensus culture with capitalism

Starting in the East and ending with the "Western night" - the poem fulfills the traditional expectation for westward American movement

An adaptation of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, this two stanza diversion from the main body of ‘The Fire Sermon’, stages a juxtaposition between the current, depraved state of the Thames against its former condition. Form is central to defining this juxtaposition as the jolting first stanza, absent of rhyme conveys stagnation, in comparison to the more flowing, rhyming second. Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) is based on the Old Norse legend of Ragnarok. During Ragnarok, many of the major Gods would perish and the Earth would be submerged in water and eventually arise cleansed.

Largely, the first stanza signifies the change in the purpose of the river, and even its potential rendering as obsolete. The first line immediately points to its physical exhaustion, as it “sweats Oil and tar”, endowing the Thames with human, or at least animalistic qualities. This portrayal presents the river as entirely spent – unable to meet the demands of the rapidly modernising city around it, and therefore made redundant. This redundancy is apparent as Eliot suggests a change in course – of moving with the times. In particular, lines such as, “The barges drift/ with the turning tide” and “To leeward…” (A nautical term meaning ‘with the wind’), demonstrate this.

The second stanza points to the former majesty of the Thames. The functionless, drifting barges and logs, are replaced with royalty - “Elizabeth and Leicester” in their gilded ship – “red and gold”. In contrast to the directionless stagnation of the first, the Thames of the second stanza has a “brisk swell”. Considering the significance of Ragnarok, Eliot writes in these stanzas an apocalyptic vision of the Thames and its decline into a thinly veiled sewer, not only literal, but a sewer for the psychological waste of the city as well.

The significance of Levine using a Lion might have something to do with its usual alignment with pride, nobility and bravery etc. Symbolically speaking, unlike a classically demonised animal like a snake, a lion has a lot further to fall.