The first section of The Waste Land takes its title from a line in the Anglican burial service It is made up of four vignettes each seemingly from the perspective of a different speaker The first is an autobiographical snippet from the childhood of an aristocratic woman in which she recalls sledding and claims that she is German not Russian this would be important if the woman is meant to be a member of the recently defeated Austrian imperial family The woman mixes a meditation on the seasons w
T S Eliot writes very deliberately including just the right details and organizing the poem so that each phrase and section is arranged in the most effective way possible The following passage is from Eliots The Waste Land 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 25 30 This passa