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'''Mapping "The Burial of the Dead" from "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot'''

“The Waste Land” is a very interesting, yet complicated poem written by T. S. Eliot. The poem can be split and looked at in many different ways. The two maps for “The Waste Land” are from the first section “Burial of the Dead”. The first map is a literal translation, mapping the poem from Austria to Germany, the four invasions of World War I and London to Italy. The second map is the more complicated translation. The second map translates the depths of the poem, for instance line 20: "Son of man, you cannot say, or guess for you know only a heap of broken images”. This line derives from Ezekiel 2:7. By comparing the maps they bring up many similarities between the two. The main topic of this poem seems to talk about the war. The lines all intertwine with each other.

<html><iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&amp;msid=212469246959090895780.0004ce7a4c0b141636d19&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=44.86765,10.186103&amp;spn=13.290224,20.550218&amp;t=m&amp;output=embed"></iframe><br /><small>View <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&amp;msid=212469246959090895780.0004ce7a4c0b141636d19&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=44.86765,10.186103&amp;spn=13.290224,20.550218&amp;t=m&amp;source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">Waste Land</a> in a larger map</small> </html>

In the first map the poem starts with winter changing into spring and spring into summer. “Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee”, from there the poem takes place in a memory from the childhood of Marie. She remembers staying at the arch-duke’s and sledding down the hill. The poem changes from memory to memory creating a different one with each stanza. The next stanza remembers WWI; mostly the effects of it. “What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow out of this stony rubbish?”  This line is the beginning of the memories. The memories are of the destruction and deaths caused by the war. The next stanza talks about a Madame Sosostris. She is often compared to Madame Blavatsky who was a scholar of ancient wisdom literature. She traveled a lot throughout her lifetime over the globe. For the poem, she is tracked to three locations. The locations are where she pinpointed a society she created, The Theosophical Society. The poem talks about her reading tarot cards for Marie while in London. 
After the reading of the tarot cards Marie observes the sights of London and the people that are making their way through the streets. The aftermath of the war and what it has done to the community. She continues her walk passing by the church of Saint Mary Woolnoth. As she passes she sees a familiar face and stops to talk. The discussion is another memory of another time and place. “The Burial of the Dead” ends with the two friends. This is the straight forward translation of the poem. All of the memories are a story that takes the reader on a journey. The in-depth translations are pinpoints that coordinate with the memories and create deeper meanings. 


<html><iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&amp;msid=212469246959090895780.0004cf93d6a599dcf2e70&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=43.219684,27.993164&amp;spn=22.908294,32.871094&amp;t=m&amp;output=embed"></iframe><br /><small>View <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&amp;msid=212469246959090895780.0004cf93d6a599dcf2e70&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=43.219684,27.993164&amp;spn=22.908294,32.871094&amp;t=m&amp;source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">The Burial of the Dead</a> in a larger map</small> </html>

The second map begins with the point associated with the line, “Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch“. This translates to I am not Russian at all; I come from Lithuania, I am a real German. The next several lines suggest that Marie is from Lithuania and is visiting her relatives. It is believed that Marie Larisch is the Marie in the poem and that Eliot used her as inspiration because of a meeting between the two of them. The only idea that does not fit with this belief is that Marie Larisch is not from Lithuania, so the question that I need to answer is where does this line from the poem actually fit in with the rest of it? 
The next pinpoint is the assassination of the arch-duke Franz Ferdinand. He was assassinated in Sarajevo and he is the relative that Marie visited as a child. It is believed that the assassination of the arch-duke was the final straw and what initiated the start of WWI. As the poem continues with what I believe to be the most significant part of “The Burial of the Dead” it goes into a section of strictly war and death. The line “Son of man, you cannot say, or guess, for you know only a heap of broken images” refers to a verse in the Bible. The verse is from Ezekiel 2:7, which reads “You shall speak my words to them whether they hear or refuse, for they are rebellious”. This verse takes place in Babylon where Ezekiel was sent to warn the people of the destruction of Jerusalem. This relates very closely to the destruction created from WWI. The poem continues on with another reference to the Bible with “Where the sun beats, and the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, and the dry stone no sound of water”. The verse that this line refers to Ecclesiastes 12:5 “When men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets: when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets”. In this verse King David is talking to the people. He is referring to a war of his time which closely relates to the war of Marie’s time. The lines of the poem are about WWI and all of the death and destruction. After the war is over people are mourning the dead and trying to move past the darkness.
The next several lines resemble another memory. The memory is of the war itself and going back to scenes that happened during the war. “Only there is shadow under this red rock, come in under the shadow of this red rock, and I will show you something different from either your shadow at morning striding behind you or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust”. The lines indicate that the memory is being shared, “I will show you fear in a handful of dust”, I will show you what it is like to fear everything around you. Evelyn Waugh took this line for the title to his novel. The comparison between the poem and Waugh’s novel show that all great cities have fallen, therefor London must fall too. London must find a way to come back from the ashes and be alive once again. 
As the poem continues the lines are taken from the play “Tristan and Isolde”. “Frisch weht der wind der heimat zu mein Irisch kind wo weilest du?“ This translates to: the wind blows fresh to the homeland my Irish girl where are you lingering? These lines are actually a song that is being sung by a sailor on a ship traveling from Ireland to Cornwall. Tristan is escorting Isolde to marry a king. In the next lines it describes the love created between Tristan and Isolde that cannot go any further because she is betrothed to another. This betrayal of love is followed by “Oed’ und leer das meer”, desolate and the empty sea. Tristan was wounded in act II returning home to Brittany and he awaits Isolde to come heal him. Tristan asks a shepherd to look for her and he returns saying the sea is empty.