Most first-time readers who approach T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land do so knowing that the poem is generally considered to be difficult, and the two epigraphs, or prefatory quotations, do nothing to dispel their apprehensions. Even at a first glance, the reader encounters difficulty: one of the quotations is in Latin and Greek, the other in mediaeval Italian. The first, “Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere . . .”, translates “For once I saw with my own eyes the Cumean Sibyl hanging in a jar, and when the boys asked the Sibyl, 'what do you want?' she answered 'I want to die'.” This quotation from Petronius's Satyricon, a racy prose narrative from the first century A.D. of …
5073 words
Citation: Thormahlen, Marianne. "The Waste Land". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 February 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8096, accessed 26 November 2024.]
