If the last section of T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land is read literally, then there might be an argument that the thunder says everything in that section. It’s the thunder telling about the red, perspiring faces. It’s the thunder who’s lamenting the lack of balance between water and rock. Finally, it’s thunder who’s saying—chanting—text from the Upanishad.

Such an interpretation might come across as reductive or simplistic, but it might also be apt. Considering the cacophony of voices that occur throughout the poem, it’s not illogical for the thunder to have a voice—a mighty, booming voice—as well.

However, it might be indelicate to assign everything that’s said to the thunder. If the thunder did say everything, that means there would be times when the thunder would be speaking in the third person.

As it so happens, there is a moment in the section when the speaker of the poem explicitly says, “Then spoke the thunder.” The next word is, “Da.” According to Eliot’s notes, “da” connects to datta, dayadhvam, damyata, or “give, sympathize, control.” Maybe the thunder is saying Upanishad teachings to alert Western civilization about its lack of charity, sympathy, and control. It’s possible that the thunder is trying to tell modern society that if it doesn’t change its ways, it will, like the London Bridge, fall down. In other words, what the thunder says is a warning.