i wonder how much damage critics have done to this poem by being so insistent about its difficulty. i'm convinced that if you just listen, you will find something. this is a poem of incredible warmth and deep sorrow, and those come across so wonderfully in this reading. you don't have to know who tiresias is; just listen to the nightingale and her inviolable voice.

@rachelwoods2279

4 жыл бұрын

Eliot himself stated that it was far easier to understand a poem without any guidelines to what you should be understanding.

@DimWeasel

3 жыл бұрын

At the violet hour, when the eyes and back Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits Like a taxi throbbing waiting, I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives, Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea

@chavrossavros

2 жыл бұрын

It’s a poem to be read aloud and performed, not to be read silently

@halfstep44

Жыл бұрын

"Presents significant challenges to the reader" blah blah blah.....I know I've heard them all. You may as well tell people that "this is going to be torture"

@kannadable

Жыл бұрын

There are as many versions of the poem as those who choose to struggle with it. I guess we need to do ourselves a favor when we read it or cannot help thinking about it since it just won't leave us alone. Forget what Eliot, Pound, or anybody else has said about it. All lasting works of art carry with them the burden of anecdotage.

What a wonderful interpretation by the late Sir Alec Guinness! In my view it is far superior to Eliot's own reading. At the age of 82 I am a latecomer to Eliot, and to poetry generally and whilst I don't profess to understand everything in what is generally accepted as a difficult poem to get to grips with, this reading certainly helped.

‘These fragments I have shored against my ruins.’ His ruins, the ruins of his passing life, the ruins of his country...

I have spent 50 years with this poem. Trying to memorize it and amazed at my "new" favorite part. "The Golden Bough " revieled itself and The Upishandis ripped open a bottomless rabbit hole. I learned german and why there is always more than expected on this trek. It wants you to know . Its has no secrets. The thin volume fits great in back pocket of my work pants

@comraderaoul

4 ай бұрын

This is my favorite comment I've ever read on youtube.

@philliphutson7903

10 күн бұрын

beautiful comment

April is the cruelest month.... enjoying this under COVID lockdown

@andrewhunter2520

4 жыл бұрын

☝️

@ivanvinope

4 жыл бұрын

Same here. Genius.

@jamesbovington8218

3 жыл бұрын

Hadn't made the link well done.

@cowygriffon3932

3 жыл бұрын

April is the cruellest month

@anactualotter6216

3 жыл бұрын

Anyone ready for round two? Woop woop

Nobody talked about sir alec guiness…such superb performance, bring the poem to life

@chopin65

8 ай бұрын

I agree.

@saragautham

8 ай бұрын

Obi Wan Kenobi!

@davidtyndall3786

22 сағат бұрын

Bravo abravi . ODB be bmasyinh itinerary kingdo. !!!!

@davidtyndall3786

22 сағат бұрын

Beavis said. Huhhuh. Koool!!!@

@davidtyndall3786

22 сағат бұрын

And then We needed teepee for our bungholes . Teepee. - Col. holio

1:43 - 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.

@hannahzwic5975

6 жыл бұрын

stvtron that scared me

@joanduthie1689

4 жыл бұрын

I can’t help but think of Steven King when I read this part. I love the little bits of poetry he puts in before the beginning of each of the Dark Tower books.

@nickpolycandriotes1484

4 жыл бұрын

@guth Any language. These lyrics are......(sorry I can't find the words).

@Beantbeantbeant

2 жыл бұрын

Reminds me of DC comics "Sandman" By Neil Gaiman, "I Will show you fear in a handful of dust" was the tagline for the marketing

@finger420

Жыл бұрын

Uncharted 3

0:06 I. The Burial of the Dead 4:54 II. A Game of Chess 10:11 III. The Fire Sermon 17:33 IV. Death by Water 18:10 V. What the Thunder Said

@fnkmastrbloopdebloop

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks friends!

@imlafonz8047

2 жыл бұрын

@Thomas Bell Is the poem much different without those divisions?

i'm so happy to have found this! "the waste land" is such a beautiful, personal poem and guinness does a masterful job in conveying all those themes of sorrow and loss and life in his reading of it.

I wrote my undergrad capstone and my graduate thesis on The Waste Land, and I'm still gleaning new tidbits every fifth listen/read-through.

Utter bliss. The poem and the reader. This in my view is the definitive recording of The Waste Land. I prefer it to Eliot's own reading. And it's not such a hard understand. It's just about life. Thank you so much for putting this up here.

@irenemax3574

4 жыл бұрын

Ditto!

@nickjohnson8495

4 жыл бұрын

Saying it’s just about life is not true and utterly belittling. “Life” has nothing to do with it

@skatingcrowproductions2301

4 жыл бұрын

"Life" has less to do with it than death... or maybe more aptly put it has to do with what are now ghostly cues toward clues to reveal dark secrets. Check out this video on what T.S. Eliot has to do with the Zodiac Killer. kzread.info/dash/bejne/oJebw7d-lau3gLQ.html

@NaSamymDnie16400

4 жыл бұрын

>I read much of the night and go south in the winter WTF I love T.S. Eliot now

@clairejones1063

3 жыл бұрын

I agree, it’s utterly brilliant!! Never get tired of reading or indeed listening to it. The fire sermon is my favourite, takes me somewhere not known to man, simply beautiful Xxx

>Who is the third who walks always beside you? >When I count, there are only you and I together >But when I look ahead up the white road >There is always another one walking beside you Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”

@markhughes7927

2 ай бұрын

Was thinking as I listened to that part of the road to Emaus - yours seems the closer reference - but then perhaps Matthew’s is an elaboration of that singular journey. The portrait of the dry rocks without water reminds of the Exodus experience where Moses momentarily loses faith - is that the intended allusion do you think?

@davidtyndall3786

22 сағат бұрын

Bravo good citizen ! Bravo

@davidtyndall3786

21 сағат бұрын

Possibly Creator, destroyer and I. Or the 3 sisters. Life fate and death. Just a thought from a 7 th grade flunkie

@davidtyndall3786

21 сағат бұрын

Goes great with misses riding hood. The girl grew up to runnith with 🐺 🦊 🐺 🦊 🐺 🦊 🐺

If you like this, make sure you read Four Quartets as well. His poetry is simply beautiful and captivating Xxx

Eliots words evoke intense emotion because he suffered terribly in his life. In his poetry is his gift of sharing his grief and his joy. The four quartets are a lifetime of reading and contemplating in and of themselves. How I wish I could have met him.

@patriciagleve4784

Жыл бұрын

i think you may have been disappointed.

@didntlistendad

11 ай бұрын

Perhaps his best is in his poetry. Such a gift to us.

The real kick in the balls is he was thirty-four when he wrote this. At least we know what can happen when natural talent, great influences and timing work together. You could shoot for this level of quality and still miss beautifully. New voices for new times.

By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept . . . Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song, Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long. But at my back in a cold blast I hear The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.

@AmericanPsychonaut48

3 жыл бұрын

By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept . . .

When I first read this poem as a teen, I didn't get it. It did nothing for me. Now, after revisiting it several times over the years, and with the help of performances like this and Fiona Shaw's, I think I get it, or at least bits of it. Poetry is one of those things that does grow on you, and with Eliot, especially, there are always more shades of meaning to be found.

@spacemunky53

3 жыл бұрын

Shades of meanings found thanx to ezra pound.

@holograMMarXIV

3 жыл бұрын

Oh keep the Dog far hence, that’s friend to men, Or with his nails he’ll dig it up again!

@TomorrowWeLive

3 жыл бұрын

@@spacemunky53 I like Ezra Pound's commentary/criticism. Unfortunately can't abide his poetry though.

@bonnie_gail

3 жыл бұрын

Tomorrow We Live snapshots of life that fully engage one life at a time

@toriidawdy8456

2 жыл бұрын

This classic is wonderfully footnoted . Great themes are dog eared and are lyrics themselves. They offer little understanding but another layer of uberelliot

I had to swing by this video in case my depression went away.

@mrJohnDesiderio

5 жыл бұрын

Keep watching Tucker and you’ll witness “The Wasteland” of thought.

@gregoropesa5028

5 жыл бұрын

John Desiderio hmm. My Lit teacher quoted you today

@Niovo

4 жыл бұрын

big mood

@williamnordwall787

4 жыл бұрын

@@Niovo Hej Anirudh

@Niovo

4 жыл бұрын

@@williamnordwall787 hej william hahah

"Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell And the profit and loss. A current undersea Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell He passed the stages of his age and youth Entering the whirlpool. Gentile or Jew O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you." 22:28 "The awful daring of a moment's surrender Which an age of prudence can never retract"

@ManichaeanMannequin

3 жыл бұрын

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_Phlebas

@irenejohnston6802

2 жыл бұрын

I live with that, impulsive innocence/stupidity, 1958. This is how I read it. The awful daring of a moment's surrender which an age of prudence cannot retract. 81 yrs of age

@derasor

2 жыл бұрын

@@irenejohnston6802 like some wise Viking said; No regrets, and every single regret. Cheers!

The way this starts, “April is the cruelest month” always made me so confused when I was younger. How could someone in their twenties juxtapose the revitalization of spring with winter hiding a wasteland of damage. I don’t pretend to understand most of this poem, but I’m starting to see fragments of clarity.

@davidhorn2248

Жыл бұрын

A suggestion by Ezra Pound ...

I never used to like this poem, but it's grown on me. Particular moments are extremely evocative.

@willb3698

7 жыл бұрын

Tomorrow We Live - Yes: Helps to have it read so well.

@Rainbow_Quartz

6 жыл бұрын

I was so confused and wasn't even sure I liked, it got worse and worse with the first two parts but then it started to get better and more awesome and a little more clearer, than I got to What The Thunder Said and that was just awesome and so beautifully surreal.

I have yet to find a bigger Eliot fan than myself, and as far as I'm concerned he reads it better than TSE did.

@Idmoment

Жыл бұрын

Well- I am obsessed w his poetry. Absolutely the MASTER. Did you know when Eliot worked in editing at Faber he published WH Auden first poems ? He spotted his greatness immediately.

@thefisherking78

Жыл бұрын

@@Idmoment i did not!!

" I will show you fear in a handful of dust." This line was first brought to my attention in Stephen King's, "The Dark Tower" series. The same line being in Neil Gaiman's, "The Sandman" only solidified my necessity to seek out the original source of this material, and I am thoroughly pleased with it.

@samharness24271

2 жыл бұрын

Long days and pleasant nights.

@jassingh8215

2 жыл бұрын

The Scarecrow from Batman also references that line, so it's rather popular in media it seems

@MatDale

2 жыл бұрын

@@samharness24271 may you have twice the number

Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many.

@rosalindbaxter36

3 жыл бұрын

Game of Chess - this poem predicts the future, as the boredom of the idle rich in wartime (quarantine)

@bonnie_gail

3 жыл бұрын

Ahmed Salah mind blown

I have read The Wastelands many times since I first heard it as an angst filled teen, living in a small, coastal, Welsh village and I thought I loved it Having just listened to this reading, I am transported. I don't think I have ever been so moved...

Of course I know him. He's me.

A wonderful treat - cannot believe this only has a few thousand views.

@TheMimifur

7 жыл бұрын

You'll see far more views now. Poss early low number cos many like me had given up searching for several years. I first heard this reading on BBC Radio Three several decades ago. When youtube arrived, I searched avidly but it wasn't there. Eliot's own reading has been available for years, but quite frankly, it is dull!! As so often the case with poets reading their own work. It's just a joy that we have this now and thank you so much to modelsandjuniors for giving this back to me. Oh and in the original broadcast, Guiness reads Prufrock first, then Sir Stephen Spender talks a bit about the poems. That would be a lovely thing to hear.

@nyar369

6 жыл бұрын

It seems all of the beautiful things in this world will only get a few thousand views, my friend. :(

@TopCutsAudio

4 жыл бұрын

now it has over 200,000 views

A poem wretched in substance. The perceived beauty of the individual lines is what keeps it going.

@jrb4935

Ай бұрын

Your comment is wretched in substance and has no redeeming beauty.

Awesome rendering. Took me through the life of the lines. The journey around the world in 24 minutes.Thank you.

@DazeOfOurLies

3 жыл бұрын

I do not find The Hanged Man Fear death by water

First class. A masterclass in spoken English.

To say this is a beautiful reading does not convey what beautiful encapsulates when so much of lesser beauty occupies the same. This is exquisite. Alec Guinness has brought Eliot alive like Richard Burton brings alive Dylan Thomas in his KZread uploaded recordings. Thank you so much for sharing.

@spacemunky53

3 жыл бұрын

No one would of beeeleaved din din dinnnnn

I think the proudest moment of my high school life was when I could read the Wasteland without needing any translation.

Beautiful words read with exquisite beauty and grace by a consummate professional.

I love this poem, and wrote my senior capstone on it. So much of this has to do with death and rebirth, from the references to many vegetation gods, to the rise and fall of great cities, to the references to the Golden Bough and the Fisher King. Too much for one comment to contain, but every time I listen to this or read it I always wind up unpacking a little bit more. Truly a masterpiece, even if its meaning remains elusive to the average reader.

@spacemunky53

3 жыл бұрын

A masterpiece of pretentious shite christ poor ezra had his work cut out mentoring this prick...thank god for eustace mullins!!

@hamstergirl-ii7su

3 жыл бұрын

hi- is there any way you could send me your senior capstone? i'm doing a big report on this and im looking for other perspectives :)

@nathanielbeha833

3 ай бұрын

​@@hamstergirl-ii7su and here I am 3 years later writing on this very same poem.

Far too may words. Like any good sauce, Condense Eliot into a word, Not a sentence. A paragraph, Nor a tome. There’s a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield, And the ricks stand grey to the sun, Singing: ‘Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover, ‘And your English summer's done.’ Kipling nails it.

A passionate cry against absence of passion

Thank you for this incredible treat.

So grateful for this upload ✨❤️💕

I who have sat by Thebes below the wall. And walked among the lowest of the dead.

Probably my favorite poem and one of my favorite readings of it, Alec kills it

“This music crept by me upon the waters.”

Quality. Absolutely top drawer. Found a copy of this in perfect nick in a London skip along with some Dylan Thomas, Ralph Richardson readings and the Burton Under Milkwood. Beautiful recording on the vinyl although this upload is a bit boomy. A good lesson for actors in how to read poetry; it's a different kind of use of the voice from stagework - it's about carving and polishing the words out of the air and making as much use of silence and sustain as an instrumentalist.

@caroltaylor3414

5 жыл бұрын

I'm going to memorize that phrase "it's about carving and polishing the words out of the air". Gorgeous description of this reading.

@irenemax3574

4 жыл бұрын

Finnbar Snowdrop Man, those are treasures! I can’t help feeling disappointed that the Waste Land was in perfect nick: somebody had it in their collection but never listened to it.

.......in the mountains, there you feel free. A soooo wonderful mixture of a childhood immersed in the large expanse of nature (the mountains) intwined in the fear and abandonment of a childhood experience of the thrill of a journey by sled down a snow covered mountainside. WOW !!!!!!!!

Love the start to Thunder, how his voice changes. lost, out of place, desperate feeling, no water, dry, otherworldly. Me and my husband have also been discussing the 'da' s. I still feel the da is loud and the dhatata (etc) is like a rumble after, an echo....my husband has always read the da and dhatata (etc) as all loud, like an interruption

This is absolute magic it's going to be really hard to play chess with this playing.

The poem was published exactly 100 years ago in the October issue of _The Criterion_ #TheWasteLand100

I love this so much I'm speechless.

this is downright ASMR

@AikiDoge

3 жыл бұрын

Musing upon the king my brother’s wreck And on the king my father’s death before him.

How many times did I listen to this before I realized he says "schled" at 0:55? 😂😂😂

thank you for this masterpiece

He do the characters in different voices!

@ParadoXDestinY

3 жыл бұрын

ŠΔNTI ŠΔNTI ŠΔNTI

@alissasattentau7442

3 жыл бұрын

Brilliant

Elliot is brilliant and so natural

GUINNESS GIVES YOU STRENGTH! The " velvet voice " of a great knight in harmony to the singular inner voice of " the man ".........T S Eliot 📃 📝📖📄📓📕🖍🖋🖊

@spacemunky53

3 жыл бұрын

Pure genius

Great reading of a great poem, I can listen to this over and over again. Thank you so much for posting!

gives me goosebumps

Excellent!

An amazing treat... Thank you

T.S. was born in St. Louis, Misery. He went to Harvard and got a doctorate in literature. He made his living as a banker and dressed like one. He emigrated to Britain and became a British subject. "The Wasteland" was first published in "Criterion" , the magazine he edited. It has been 100 years since October, 1922. Elliot's nightmare goes on. Who better to tell the tale than a well educated bourgeois financier?

This guy sounds just like Prince Faisal- "No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees. There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing." His cadence and accent are so close to what you hear in Lawrence of Arabia. Wow, to have command of language, speaking, tone like this.. . . . . Thanks for posting this. First time I have heard it read aloud.

@HEHEHE_I_AM_A_MASKED_WARRIA

Жыл бұрын

Alec Guinness also played that character.

@mottopanukeiku7406

Жыл бұрын

@@HEHEHE_I_AM_A_MASKED_WARRIA Indeed.

Thank you, Sir..

I go back to this poem time and time again. One of the best. Read out aloud and feel the language slip from your mouth, simply beautiful. Thank you Elliot you have made your mark on literature 👍

@louisew5795

3 жыл бұрын

Have grown so much more appreciation for reading these outloud - somehow gain more from speaking it - 'a current under sea picked his bones in whispers' ❤️

Imagine a reading of the couple’s conversation in “a game of chess” read by Frank and Estelle Costanza at their most exasperated

This is like if Oswald Spengler’s “The Decline of the West” was a poem. Eliot was 100% inspired by his favorite historian.

This is the first time I have heard this recording. I don't how well read it was, but will guess because it was Sir Alec Guinness reading a poem by T.S. Eliot it must be something well done. Did I enjoy the different sections? They were interesting. I have read this poem to myself before in my head and out loud several years ago. I get some of the cultural and mythological allusions. I get the poem is working on multiple levels, but am guessing as to what those levels are. One day I may study it carefully. Thank you for posting the video.

This is an otherwise magical reading, but his German accent does sound a bit like Dracula...

@jamesdolan4042

4 жыл бұрын

German accent? He is not German. In actual fact, he is probably among the great English actors of a generation that included Lawerence Olivia (English), Richard Burton (Welsh), Peter O Tool (ex Pat), etc.

@FlyingTeacup

4 жыл бұрын

You mean a Saxon accent? Yea very Nordic. 🙈

@gageamonette5120

4 жыл бұрын

@@jamesdolan4042 He's referring to the German language portion of the poem.

@jamesdolan4042

4 жыл бұрын

@@gageamonette5120 And what is the German language part of the poem? Let me know, and thanks.

@gageamonette5120

4 жыл бұрын

@@jamesdolan4042 Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch. and Frisch weht der Wind Der Heimat zu Mein Irisch Kind, Wo weilest du? and Oed’ und leer das Meer. That's all the German in the poem as far as I know.

Perfection. Thank you!

This is brilliant! Thanks a lot!

Marvelous!

absolutly delightfull

>I read much of the night and go south in the winter WTF I love T.S. Eliot now

wonderful.. , amazing reading by Alec Guinness

Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, The lady of situations. Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel.

it is wonderful audiobook with wonderful and perfect expressions.

O wow. Thanks for this!

Very nice - beautifully read and communicated. Had thought Eliot a cold fish and great to be deceived in that thought.

Fantastic poem and performance. It really shows how devastated the world was by WW1.

My friend, blood shaking my heart.

The chemist said it would be all right, but I’ve never been the same

Incredible

This poem became in big parts my life, its like a precise description of big parts of my life, the guy was magic. Magic like cg jung writings. Their writing is a living thing, Like only some religious writings Can be magic. Every time i carry my water up a dry, dusty mountain road in spain I am still amazed how he described in what i read in 1991, written longtime before, would be my life in 2021. ❤️

Thank you so much for this.

interesting how alec's various character voices betray his particular interpretations of when exactly the speaker changes throughout the poem, which isn't always made obvious by the text. like how in the first stanza he switches from his default english accent to a mock-german one only once he gets to "summer surprised us..."

sublime!

Thank you very much

One of the most beautiful poem in English Literature.

Magnificent!

Brilliant - thank you.

OMGOMOMGOMG awesome! THAAANKS A TON!

Brilliant!

Just wow.

I like Joyce's parody----"November is the wettest month, getting through all impermeables...."

I cried the whole time, I don’t know why

@jamesboyle5232

3 жыл бұрын

fuck off you absolute melt

@nobunnyspecial

3 жыл бұрын

James Boyle why

@jamesboyle5232

3 жыл бұрын

@@nobunnyspecial because i told you too. Get a fucking grip

@BlimaWormtong

3 жыл бұрын

Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante, Had a bad cold, nevertheless Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, With a wicked pack of cards

@nobunnyspecial

3 жыл бұрын

BlimaWormtong thanks

You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats

@irenejohnston6802

2 жыл бұрын

Tell that to Time Team.

The jungle crouched, humped in silence

But at my back in a cold blast I hear The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear

excellent

Beautifully spoken, but I'm still lost. Eliot goes over my beanie.

@brandonmatuja6498

6 жыл бұрын

It's "the first great cut-up collage", as another writer once said. It presents a cross-section of many ages, periods, eras, and cultures... It's not supposed to "make sense", exactly, but only to present various scenes, from the most commonplace to the most elaborate and decorous. There are many quotes and allusions from other literary and musical sources.

@irenemax3574

4 жыл бұрын

Forget about trying to understand it and enjoy the rhythms of the language.

@Rainbowthewindsage

4 жыл бұрын

Now imagine having to write a summary of the first two poems for an english class. The thing about the Wasteland is that it has a ton of references to other works people and languages and if you aren't familiar with the references nor have footnotes to guide you, it's easy to get lost.

@Craig_1991

4 жыл бұрын

Your lucky you dont understand. I wish I didnt know what he was talking about.

@cliffordbernard7663

3 жыл бұрын

It communicates before it's understood, as Eliot said poetry should. I see it as a lament for lost spiritual direction. In the wake of Darwin, and Freud, it seems that God is dead, and in the wake of the first world war, it seems that man is lost. Hence all the images of emptiness, decay, and the great unquenched thirst for spiritual renewal that pervades the poem, expressed as a hard dry land without even the sound of water. The theme is sounded at the outset in the ironic reversal of Spring (the cruelest month) that offers no renewal, only the painful awareness of what has been lost and winter, that provides at least the mercy of forgetfulness. Look at the Hollow Men for echoes of the same

Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls Of Magnus Martyr hold Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold

Absolutely love it. I appreciate "The Waste land" in a very strange way, it fascinates me deeply, and this is such a great lecture, from such a great actor! I've only a question, because I'm not English, so I just can't understand: does he speak with a light Scottish accent or something (I saw him in many films, but they were all dubbed in my language)? The way the "r"sounds is amazing!

@spacemunky53

3 жыл бұрын

Yes light jock voice i think the poem is pretentious shite mingling mangling random words cobbled together to sound elitist high brow only a numbskull thinks this is any good ...ezra ended up nuts trying to mentor these pricks with ears...listen to eustace mullins a true genius mentored by ezra uzooooraaa pound!

@vanillaali8772

3 жыл бұрын

@@spacemunky53 Mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.

exquisite!