The Fire Sermon

E111185

The Fire Sermon is the third section of T. S. Eliot’s modernist poem "The Waste Land," depicting spiritual desolation and moral decay in a fragmented urban landscape.

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All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
The Fire Sermon canonical 3

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf literary work
poem section
alludesTo Shakyamuni Buddha
surface form: Gautama Buddha

Mr. Eugenides (Smyrna merchant)
Augustine of Hippo
surface form: Saint Augustine of Hippo

Song of the Thames-daughters
Thames
surface form: Thames River

The Tempest
surface form: The Tempest by William Shakespeare
author T. S. Eliot
centralTheme loss of transcendence
moral decay
sexual emptiness
spiritual desolation
urban alienation
countryOfOrigin United Kingdom
firstPublicationYear 1922
followedBy Death by Water
follows A Game of Chess
form free verse
genre modernist poetry
hasCharacter Eugenios
surface form: Mr. Eugenides

Thames-daughters
Tiresias
clerk lover
typist
influencedBy Buddhist teachings on desire
Christian confessional tradition
classical mythology
language English
literaryMovement Modernism
narrativeTechnique fragmentation
multiple voices
stream of consciousness
narrativeVoice Tiresias
partOf The Waste Land
partOfCollection The Criterion (October 1922 issue, as part of The Waste Land)
publisherOfFirstBookEdition Boni & Liveright
Faber & Gwyer
references Buddhist Fire Sermon (Ādittapariyāya Sutta)
sectionNumber 3
setting modern London
urban river landscape
symbolism fire as lust and spiritual torment
river as time and decay
urban waste as spiritual barrenness
themeContrast physical desire versus spiritual emptiness
tone despairing
ironic
satirical

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

The Waste Land section The Fire Sermon
A Game of Chess followedBy The Fire Sermon
Death by Water relatedWork The Fire Sermon