Decoding "The Burial of the Dead"

The Anglican burial service, the "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]" saw a lot of use after the massive death toll of WWI, and the decimation of nearly an entire generation of England's young men.  Eliot, who had tried to join the U.S. Navy upon the outbreak of the Great War, was rejected for physical reasons.  After the rejection, he moved to England, where more young men died, and witnessed the decimation of fighting men, watching and waiting from the sidelines.  His feelings of impotence, his guilt, his anger, and the other personal anxieties resultant from his married life create the feelings of disillusionment and bitterness in "The Waste Land." Young Eliot, so firmly a staunch Anglican for most of his life, may have even experienced a crisis of faith.  By looking at the "[[The Waste Land Text]]," especially "The Burial of the Dead," and critically comparing it to the Anglican "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]," it is possible to see Eliot's concerns with the promise of salvation, in a time which seems to be comparable to the Biblical vision of the end times.

Here, Voyeur Tools provides a basic way of visualizing the very interesting thematic diversions of "The Burial of the Dead" from the "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]."  The key terms--"life," "eternal," "dead," and "death"--are all related in a Judeo-Christian resurrection of the eternal soul.  As the chart shows, in the "Order for the Burial of the Dead," which includes many passages from the Bible underscoring death as a sort of stopping point to the next stage of life (such as [[1 Corinthians 15]]: 20-22 " But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."), the four terms are closer together and almost overlap entirely, with life occurring more frequently than any other term.  The "Order" promises life, even after death, and the service is for the living, who have to continue living on without the deceased.   

Alternatively, in "Burial of the Dead," the word "dead" outstrips all other terms, "life" goes down in importance, "eternal" does not occur at all, and "death" stays the same as it did in the "Order."  More emphasis is place on the individual dead, and on being dead, than on those who are left behind.  Even the few live people that Eliot includes in the poem seem to be haunted by a proliferation of the dead.   

The words that do feature prominently in Eliot's "The Burial of the Dead," are particularly telling for his attitude.  Both "dead," and "death," feature prominently, but so does "shadow," "winter," "roots," and "fear."  The last, "fear," introduces the crisis of faith most strongly.   

In order to read more deeply into "The Burial of the Dead," and to understand its relationship to Christianity, and to the Message of the Bible, the chart traces the usage of recurring terms in "The Burial of the Dead" to see what aspects of these passages are most important, and thus, most influential to Eliot.  These terms, "idols," "broken," "evil," and "forsaken" tell a very subversive story of Eliot's intent.

Since the books of the Bible are arranged in the order that Eliot uses them at the bottom, the change over time is remarkable.  It begins with the introduction of "evil," or perhaps, the beginning of evil's reign, and creates a huge proliferation of idols.  Of course, the worship of idols breaks one of the commandments, and it appears, according to the chart, that Eliot's usage of [[Isaiah 2]] and [[Ezekiel 6]] (where the most frequent usages of "idols" occur) indicates that he believes his own time to be one of idolatry.  Looking at [[Isaiah 2]], the sort of idolatry occurring in the scriptures would certain resonate with Eliot.  [[Isaiah 2]]:7-8 wshows idolatry to be an obsession with wealth, and a worship of the arts as a means of boosting an artist's ego--both would appeal to Eliot.