The Wasteland Sec. 5

he wasteland section five opens with a certain trepidation. The first stanza appears to be a time before anything significant or hopeful, “He who was living is now dead / We who were living are now dying”. “He” represents a higher power, perhaps suggesting Jesus, a savior who died then rose again. “With a little patience”, the next line, indicates something more will happen, maybe the rise of the savior.
The second stanza reinforces the atrocity that is the wasteland. It emphasizes how uncomfortable the place is. No matter how the people turn, they cannot escape the listless agony.
The third stanza is very distressing because it is a fantasy. A dream born out of the torture, a pool of water is envisioned. Water is seen as the greatest possible joy. Even the sound of water, representing freedom, is a cause for excitement.
The following stanza is also a form of hallucination packed with meaning. This time, the speaker spots a person in his line of sight. This brown cloak-wrapped being could literally be the speaker's companion's shadow, but more realistically it is death. Death has often been described as a constant companion, invisible until a person is dying. Then they go with death to wherever. The speaker spotting death is an ill omen for them, hinting that death may not be far off.
As the speaker looks into the distance, an old abandoned city comes into view. At the same time, swarms of hooded beings descend unto the city. The hooded figures being lost souls looking for peace or rest. The text also compares this city to apparently fallen, but once great places, such as Athens and interestingly modern London. This failure is more of a mental than physical destruction, as in the real world, London is a thriving urban center.
In the sixth stanza, the scene takes on an even darker light. A woman and horrible creatures are pictured in a twisted and upside-down world that corresponds with the fallen city in the previous stanza. They are invading the eerily empty wells and ringing church bells. The idea that a church can be controlled by these evil-seeming monsters is both social commentary on how everything is corruptible and a gross distortion of what most religions claim to support.
Now the hidden city appears quiet and abandoned, not plagued or inhabited. The only creature remaining is a lone rooster, who crows. Rooster's crowing brings to mind the prophecy Jesus spoke to Judas, that Judas would betray him before rooster cried three times in the morning. Then rain falls and hope is restored in the world. The sacrifice of Jesus is what Christianity believes allowed sinners to be let into heaven, essentially.
Now that it has began to rain, the Ganges river is described. Surrounding jungle is waiting to hear an unknown speaker. The speaker is revealed to be Thunder, a divine being. The thunder then goes on to issue both commands and ask questions of the world and humanity. First, it asks about generosity. The answer comes that “we” have given nothing to others, only securing our own lives. Next the thunder inquires about compassion. It answers itself by saying humans are too locked up in their own cares to even have the capacity for compassion. The final command is about self-control. It describes the happiness of a sailboat at the hands of it's master. Both are content and neither try and become each other, exercising their own control.
Finally the poem closes with the previously hinted at savior making the decision to try and save his “lands” - humanity. The route for this salvation is presented as the ideas of generosity, compassion, and self-control. It also rings as a sort of fable – story with moral lessons at it's heart.