By this, and this only, we have existed
No matter how much these people think about what they can or should've done it has already happened. In this section we see the regrets of mothers and friends that have lost people. Love can be a beautiful thing but because it's so beautiful it can also hurt the most when something you love is gone.
In this decayed hole among the mountains In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel There is the empty chapel, only the wind’s home. It has no windows, and the door swings, Dry bones can harm no one. Only a cock stood on the rooftree Co co rico co co rico In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust Bringing rain
Decayed hole=broken city. Empty chapel=decrease in people's faith as their hope as also faded away.
A woman drew her long black hair out tight And fiddled whisper music on those strings And bats with baby faces in the violet light Whistled, and beat their wings And crawled head downward down a blackened wall And upside down in air were towers Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells.
Countless funerals. The purpose of describing the women is to set the scene of a funeral and how she would prepare for it. You can hear this stanza. From the strings to the bells and voices. You hear the suffering and the lamentations of those that have lost people they love.
What is that sound high in the air Murmur of maternal lamentation Who are those hooded hordes swarming Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth Ringed by the flat horizon only What is the city over the mountains Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air Falling towers Jerusalem Athens Alexandria Vienna London Unreal
Misery. A city tainted by the horror and poisons of war. The earth and city are broken together.
Who is the third who walks always beside you?Who is the third who walks always beside you? In his endnotes, Eliot pointed to Ernest Shackleton’s account of one of his Antarctic expeditions, in which the explorers maintained the delusion that there was an extra member present. It also clearly conjures up a biblical story from Luke 24 of travelers on the road to Emmaus, in which two disciples encounter a third presence on their journey, who is revealed to be a post-resurrection Jesus. When I count, there are only you and I together But when I look ahead up the white road There is always another one walking beside you Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded I do not know whether a man or a woman —But who is that on the other side of you?
When I pictured this in my head I imagined someone on their way to meet death or their creator but they don't even know it yet. They still believe they are alive but when they look at the "white road," which could be a symbolism for the pathway to heaven, they see someone they know but they don't seem as familiar anymore as they are in a different place.
And no rock If there were rock And also water And water A spring A pool among the rock If there were the sound of water only Not the cicada And dry grass singing But sound of water over a rock Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop But there is no water
More imagery is used. It seems that a once beautiful place has lost its beauty. Or, in the people's suffering they no longer see the beauty in anything unless they can find a need in it to survive.
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
They don't have the time to relax in fear of other people getting ahead.
If there were water we should stop and drink Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand If there were only water amongst the rock
The amount of imagery used here in order to help the reader understand just how famished and low of resources a population is after war is mind blowing. I believe this whole section is used to describe a people's mindset after a war. "The road winding above among the mountains," alludes to a society trying to pick themselves back up again and rebuild. However, this comes with hardships. "If there were water we should stop and drink." Here we see how impoverished society can be become. Even on their process of rebuilding their nation after war, they can't even find resources to spare or help them continue with more efficiency. They have to completely start from scratch.
agony in stony places The shouting and the crying
Discomfort is a theme of this poem. There's a large emphasis on it. Agony, shouting, and crying show it to be a common theme. This poem is meant to be unpleasant and show discomfort.
After the torchlight red on sweaty faces After the frosty silence in the gardens
These two lines are a description of two complete opposites. Hot and then cold. After war, life drastically changes but the consequences of it still linger.
V. What the Thunder Said
Due to the fact that this whole poem seems to be focused on the effects of war on a society, we can assume that this title of the last section can be an allusion to war itself. In this specific title, "What the Thunder Said," anthropomorphism is used. The thunder could be the sounds of war itself; bombs, planes, shooting, etc.