After listening to an expert read TS Elliot’s poem, The Waste Land, I realized that my personal reading of the poem had a lot of faults. First, I missed a lot of the proper punctuation and the use of commas. The pauses made by the reader make a huge difference, not only in the understanding of the text, but in the fluency of the voice, and the essence of the tone that is trying to be transmitted. My reading of The Waste Land, also lacked a lot of emotion and mood, because I had read it for the first time and it didn’t even know what the poem was about, and even less, who was the narrator. Once I heard it, I could get a grasp of the real tone of the poem and I could understand the story that was being described. The other part of that personal reading that was very confusing was the usage of foreign languages. Elliot probably made use of this other languages to make the expressions more colloquial according to the people that were being described in the poem. He probably wanted to emphasize on specific regions in Europe like Germany and France besides from England.
“And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch…”(10-12)
The accents that the reader makes are very notorious when I listened to him read the poem. There is a certain pattern in which there are approximately three words that are strongly accented per line and they stand out a lot when the poem is read out loud. These words are mostly the first, middle and last word of the line. It seems to be that the poem follows an iambic meter because all of the words follow a stressed and unstressed pattern, although it is reversed.
“APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring…” (1-3)
The reader in the recording also makes it very obvious at times when there is an evident enjambment. This enjambment occurs most of the time at the end of each line. This happens because each line is divided into two parts. There is an introduction to a new idea at the end of the line, most of the time after a punctuation sign and then the beginning of the next line is like the continuation of the final segment of the line above.
“And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find,
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.” (52-55)
I also noticed that in some parts, there was an enjambment after two lines that rhymed. This was very strained, but at the same time it gave that new part a lot of force because it was introducing something different and innovative. The reader had to work with his tone to be able to maintain the rhythm he had been employing all along.
“And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.” (65-68)
Finally I also wanted to say that the reader of The Waste Land, had to use his own reading skills to be able to enjamb certain lines by speeding up the pace or using a different tone to be able to maintain the same rhythm. This happened when there is a line that is longer than the rest. The opposite will also occur with those lines that are too short and they need the reader to extend his voice by reading slower to maintain the tempo.
“And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch…”(10-12)
The accents that the reader makes are very notorious when I listened to him read the poem. There is a certain pattern in which there are approximately three words that are strongly accented per line and they stand out a lot when the poem is read out loud. These words are mostly the first, middle and last word of the line. It seems to be that the poem follows an iambic meter because all of the words follow a stressed and unstressed pattern, although it is reversed.
“APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring…” (1-3)
The reader in the recording also makes it very obvious at times when there is an evident enjambment. This enjambment occurs most of the time at the end of each line. This happens because each line is divided into two parts. There is an introduction to a new idea at the end of the line, most of the time after a punctuation sign and then the beginning of the next line is like the continuation of the final segment of the line above.
“And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find,
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.” (52-55)
I also noticed that in some parts, there was an enjambment after two lines that rhymed. This was very strained, but at the same time it gave that new part a lot of force because it was introducing something different and innovative. The reader had to work with his tone to be able to maintain the rhythm he had been employing all along.
“And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.” (65-68)
Finally I also wanted to say that the reader of The Waste Land, had to use his own reading skills to be able to enjamb certain lines by speeding up the pace or using a different tone to be able to maintain the same rhythm. This happened when there is a line that is longer than the rest. The opposite will also occur with those lines that are too short and they need the reader to extend his voice by reading slower to maintain the tempo.
