“The Fire Sermon” is the third section of T. S. Eliot’s five-section poem The Waste Land. In true modernist form, this poem explores the disillusionment of post—WWI society. The speaker sees desolation and a lack of meaning around him, which leads him to call for peace and compassion. The title, “The Fire Sermon” is a direct reference to the Buddhist Fire Sermon, which encourages listeners to seek liberation from material things.

The beginning of this section features a dark portrait of the River Thames in London. The speaker describes the abundance of litter in the river, from cigarette ends to empty bottles. The speaker says solemnly:

The river’s tent is broken: the last fingers of lead
Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.

This description of a “broken,” canopy over the “sinking” river makes the reader reflect on how nature is decaying in the modern world. The idea that mythical “nymphs” have departed suggests that the pure, almost magical, qualities of this once beautiful body of water are now gone. The destruction of the river represents the spiritual devastation that society is experiencing. However, from an environmental perspective, we can read this part as representative of modern society's negative impact on the natural world. Massive social events and changes like war, industrialization, and urbanization have made modern people careless about their environment and they are contributing to the decay of the planet.