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What river in "The Waste Land" is described as sweating "oil and tar"?
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The river described as sweating "oil and tar" in "The Waste Land" is the Thames. This reference appears in the third section, "The Fire Sermon," highlighting the river's pollution and symbolizing cultural decay. The imagery contrasts the absence of summer's festive remnants with a morose, degenerate modernity. This section blends the horrific and sensual, reflecting the poet's view of a society that has lost its direction and purity.
The name of the river that sweats "oil and tar" is the Thames.
The reference to the Thames can be found in the third part of the poem, called "The Fire Sermon."
In this section of the poem, the poet talks about how summer has departed without leaving traces of its previous habitation.
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette endsOr other testimony of summer nights.
By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept . . .
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The dead corpses and same-sex trysts were understood in Eliot's time to symbolize the degeneracy of modern culture. Thus, the river that sweats "oil and tar" is a symbol, an emblem of a culture that has lost its bearings.White bodies naked on the low damp groundAnd bones cast in a little low dry garret,Rattled by the rat’s foot only, year to year.Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants C.i.f. London: documents at sight, Asked me in demotic French To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.
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