IV. Death by Water
This poem, 'Death by Water', is a section from T. S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'. It reflects on the inevitability of death and the insignificance of human achievements. Phlebas, a Phoenician, has been dead for two weeks, and in death, he has forgotten the sounds and movements of life, as well as the material concerns of profit and loss. The imagery of the sea picking his bones in whispers suggests a quiet, inevitable decay. As Phlebas rises and falls in the water, he metaphorically revisits the stages of his life, ultimately being consumed by the whirlpool, symbolizing the cycle of life and death. The poem concludes with a reminder to the reader, regardless of their background, to consider the fate of Phlebas, who was once vibrant and full of life, but now is reduced to nothing. This serves as a meditation on mortality and the transient nature of human existence.
| Word | In English | Plain (English) | Pron. |
|---|---|---|---|
| fortnight | two weeks | two weeks | fort-night |
| swell | rise and fall | rise and fall | swel |
| current | flow | flow | kur-rent |
| whispers | quiet sounds | quiet sounds | whis-pers |
| whirlpool | vortex | vortex | whirl-pool |
| Gentile | non-Jew | non-Jew | jen-tile |
| windward | facing the wind | facing the wind | wind-ward |
| Phlebas | a character | a Phoenician man in the poem | Flee-bas |
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965) was a leading figure of modernist poetry. Born in the United States, he moved to England in 1914 and became a British subject in 1927. Eliot is known for his influential works like 'The Waste Land' and 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.
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