Understanding

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (TWL), Section V:





          V. What The Thunder Said

                    Eliot's note: 

                    In the first part of Part V three themes are employed: the journey to Emmaus, the 
                    approach to the Chapel Perilous (see Miss Weston's book) and the present decay
                    of eastern Europe. 

                    For the journey to Emmaus, see TWL 360-366, although the theme begins to 
                    appear at TWL 328-330; for the decay of eastern Europe, see TWL 367-385; 
                    and for the approach to the Chapel Perilous, see TWL 386-395. These themes, 
                    and the more prominent emergence of Eliot’s own voice without allusions (see 
                    TWL 331-359), will lead to the poem’s “thunder” culmination, beginning at TWL 
                    396.  After the sections of earth, air, fire and water, this might be called the 
                    quintessential “spirit” section of the poem, in which the poet begins to find 
                    understanding, or more properly a peace that passes understanding (see note 
                    at TWL 434).

                    This section's central metaphor of THE VOICE OF THUNDER comes from 
                    Prajapati’s lesson in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (see TWL 400-423), but 
                    see also the note at TWL 44 and lines 327 and 342, and see also Revelations 10:4: 

                    And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: 
                    and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the 
                    seven thunders uttered, and write them not. 

                    See also John 12:27-30: 

                    Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour: 
                    but for this cause came I unto this hour.  Father, glorify thy name. Then came 
                    there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.  
                    The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others 
                    said, An angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not 
                    because of me, but for your sakes.

                    And see Job 26:14: 

                    Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? 
                    but the thunder of his power who can understand?

                    Finally, see the "thunder of infinite ululations" in Dante Alighieri, Inferno 4.1-9:

                    Broke the deep lethargy within my head
                           A heavy thunder, so that I upstarted,
                           Like to a person who by force is wakened;

                    And round about I moved my rested eyes,
                           Uprisen erect, and steadfastly I gazed,
                           To recognise the place wherein I was.

                    True is it, that upon the verge I found me
                           Of the abysmal valley dolorous,
                           That gathers thunder of infinite ululations.


from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, with annotations (and other explanations)