War has existed as long as time can tell, some being more impactful than others, it is important to note the first World War. This war – which resulted in roughly 16 million casualties – left people identity less. Where before the war people had a feeling of purpose and a powerful sense of self, post war life was brutal and filled the air with molaise and disillusionment. The lack of motivation produced many poets sparking the new style known as Modernism. Two important figures that helped stir momentum in the hearts of discontent people include Thomas Stearns Eliot, through his poem, The Wasteland, and Wallace Stevens with his poem, Sunday Morning. Post war life left people with a lack of meaning in life, and not only did Modernism arise, but this was also the start of the Jazz Era, so there really was a need for an escape shared by everyone during this time. Eliot and Stevens spoke to the lost generation through their powerful poems, and the use of season changes and recurrence to illustrate the cyclical nature of life, lack of religious fervor in everyone as well as meaning, and the longing to go back to a time much simpler.
Seasonal changes and the longing for a certain season to come back, in Sunday Morning, explains how the narrator is lost as she skips church one sunday in order to drink coffee under the sun. Here, she ponders the life around her, and where true beauty in life can be sought, if not through religion then what. Stevens references spring season in lines 54-60, “…nor cloudy palm / Remote on heaven’s hill, that has endured / As April’s green endured; or will endure / Like her remembrance of wakened birds, / Or her desire for June and evening, tipped / By the consummation of the swallow’s wings.” The woman is experiencing a longing and desire for June and the evening where the sun goes down later and more time is spent outside. She yearns for a time where she notice the presence of wakened birds the following morning, and can take it for granted knowing it will be there the next day. Stevens describes the female narrator being in situation, where she finds herself trying to find the beauty in life, without the use of God, therefore, the joy of June and evening which she desires and the joy of "April’s green" are separated by the sadness she feels, and the fact that what she desires is absent and that the birds in the autumn will be gone. She knows what will happen, as life is a simple cycle of the seasons. That is shown through the lines previous, “When the birds are gone, and their warm fields / return no more” (49-50). The wakened birds, seeking "the reality / Of misty fields, by their sweet questionings” (47-48), are simply just flying, however the problem is when they do not come back, and at the end of the poem the birds suffer by moving "Downward to darkness, on extended wings” (120). The birds left, with no initial signs of anything negative about to happen, only to their demise. This is very similar to section 4 of the Wasteland, “Death by Water”, where a Phoenician, who knows everything about the waters and boating, ends up drowning, and enters, “the whirlpool” (318). In both of these situations there is someone or something who is a master of a certain craft, however end up losing that knowledge and basically losing their sense of self, and end up dying. The narrator loses her connection with God, however finds life more beautiful by acknowledging the fact that everything is temporary, as Stevens illustrated through the birds. She longed to go back to a different time, or season, which was similar to what people during the time Stevens wrote this were going through, and how they wanted to go back to a different time before the war where they were hopeful. In this repetitive cycle, there is hopelessness, and losses, however with death comes a recycling, in Sunday Morning at least.
In The Wasteland, seasonal changes and recurrence helps illustrate – as the title entails – the true despair and darkness this wasteland presents, as well as showing little to no signs of hope for things to get better. The first line, “April is the cruelest month”, is unusual because April typically refers to spring, which could be seen as renewal, since the Winter came and basically close everything down, spring brings it all back. Where in one corner is the season of winter, which is typically seen as cold, stark, and known as the season of death; things die, and or hibernate. In the other corner is spring, which is the season of reawakening, where the flowers bloom, grass grows, and the air becomes warm. This is basically a reawakening from the death imagery of winter, therefore Eliot is operating with a heavy sense of irony. The next lines, Eliot writes, “Lilacs out of the dead land” (2), and the roots are dull (3), so it is improbable for lilacs to grow. The roots being dull leaves no prospect for anything to grow back, which shows a lack of revival. This symbolizes the absence of a God, and an absence of religious meaning, as well as purpose. Sadly, the spring rain that does come, mixes dull roots. So comes the spring rain, symbolizing some chance of hope, but there’s nothing for it to awaken any longer, so hope comes, but it is too late. In line 3, Eliot writes, “Memory and desire stirring”, a memory of a better time, a sense of nostalgia. A longing for when things were simpler and death had a prospect of rebirth. This longing is similar to the woman in Sunday Morning, who longed for “June and Evening” to come back, as she is unsatisfied with her current reality (58). Memory mixes with desire, which is a forward looking idea, so there is a desire for something better to come, which ironically will not happen in this wasteland. Spring brings rain, and warmth, and conditions of growth and rebirth, without real prospect of it, as if teasing them. Next the paradox, “Winter kept us warm, / covering Earth in forgetful snow” (5-6). Winter, which is known for being cold, and depressing, in this case keeps them warm, and the “forgetful snow” that covers the Earth seems to act as a numbing agent, an antidepressant to their harsh reality. However, spring strips that away, gets rid of the forgetful snow, and exposes the wasteland for what it truly is. There is no hiding the hideousness of the wasteland, not even snow, and as the seasons continue, illustrating the endless cycle this hellish environment presents, winter will come back for a brief relief, just to go back to the wasteland. There is a quick shift of seasons, where, “Summer surprised us…” (8), which is odd because now we are in the past tense. We went from “April is the cruelest month”, to “Summer surprised us…”, as if it is a memory. The next line, “With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,” which is no coincidence how it is raining during the summer, which is usually seen as the season to have fun and be outside with friends, and sunlight followed (10). The next reference Eliot makes to seasons is in Line 60, where he describes London as the “Unreal City”, and the following lines describe men in a crowd sighing, looking down, all while under a brown fog in the winter. This shows how it is basically just another boring day, another day in the routine they are all in.
The third section. The Fire Sermon, he rivers tent is broken. What once satisfied and sheltered no longer does either one. “The last fingers of leaf” is a reference to Autumn, where the leaves of the trees fall and eveerything is made bare, shelter is lost, and everything is exposed to harshness of the winter. Laster in this 3rd section we will see Winter approaching. The wheel of time. We’re caught in a system we cannot control. Everything is cyclical and spirals downward in this tragedy. The land is brown (line 176?), and the wind is unheard, no one is there to enjoy the song. In the line 178, Eliot references “Summer nights”, and this reference is to bacchanalia which was a greek celebration. This was a time of feasting and lovers being united. He’s saying that none of this exists here. In 184, Eliot explains how a song that was once jubilant and loud, is now tepid and reduced to a murmur.
Modernism sprang due to a need of emotional revival, during a post war time which left the majority of people purposeless. As many see the seasons changing typically in terms of a landscape changing scenery, where for example in Autumn leaves fall and change color, and in winter there is snow, Modernists saw this change in seasons as a cycle. This could be seen as the cycle of life, where things are born, only to be guaranteed one thing: death. The Wasteland alludes to the changing of the seasons and the cycle of life through his use of circles, in line 51, “Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,” the wheel represents the cycle, or circle of life, or the constant changing of the seasons. What if we just revolve? We’re simply caught in a machinery? In line 56, the wise woman mentions a ring, and in line 318, and how the Phoenician ironically drowns in the whirlpool. These are all references to the constant, guaranteed changing of the seasons, or the cycle of life, which could be mundane and routine at times.