The Garden, a PJ Harvey Discussion Site

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicbl ... -pop-music

'Eliot's influence extends across the whole of PJ Harvey's Let England Shake, which pieces together voices and images from multiple decades and countries, and collapses all that history into a single ongoing commentary on war and nationalism. You often can't tell which lines Harvey wrote herself and which she took from existing sources; among other things The Waste Land's collage technique is a licence to borrow without shame. One blogger has pointed out the similarity between On Battleship Hill ("Jagged mountains jutting out/ Cracked like teeth in a rotting mouth") and The Waste Land ("Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit"). The critic Donald Childs believes Eliot was actually referring to Gallipoli (the home of Battleship Hill), where his close friend Jean Verdenal had been killed in action. During the campaign Australian soldiers sang the risque song about Mrs Porter that is quoted in III: The Fire Sermon. Did Harvey know all of this or is it just a case of The Waste Land's world of echoes setting off accidental echoes of its own?'

This is an interesting article, thanks for posting it. I always like seeing the way artists can take parts of other works and use them in new ways, especially when works like Eliot's can handle all the borrowing and still remain strong original pieces. I particularly like the bit about Eliot providing a license to borrow without shame. So many songwriters do this, and Polly is certainly no exception. I disagree with the comparison about the teeth line in Battleship Hill, I think she used the imagery from the book Gallipoli which describes a spur of land as a rotten tooth. I used to be bothered when I learned a lyric was actually taken from another piece of writing, but I've since come around to really enjoy seeing how words can be used in lyrics to convey new meanings.

Yes good connection, I can almost hear Polly reading this

Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
Here one can neither stand not lie nor sit
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors of mudcracked houses
More... http://emw3.com/wasteland/

Really good article and link here, thanks...

Great article. Thanks Sau. I see somebody put a link to our favorite forum in the comments.

I've always thought Polly's April was likely inspired by the opening line of the Wasteland: "April is the cruellest month,"
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land

Polly could crib entire stanzas as-is from Eliot and I wouldn't care. Amazing stuff. How could any artist (or anyone for that matter) not be inspired by reading Eliot?

DrDark wrote:Great article. Thanks Sau. I see somebody put a link to our favorite forum in the comments.

here's that comment Dr talks of...http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/16265810

yes - MattBlake please reveal yourself....if you're a Gardener - from one of the

MattBlake wrote:The Garden forum for any Polly fans here. I'm a bit biased, but genuinely, a very welcoming, lovely group of people

you mention (i hope)

mart wrote:

DrDark wrote:Great article. Thanks Sau. I see somebody put a link to our favorite forum in the comments.

here's that comment Dr talks of...http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/16265810

yes - MattBlake please reveal yourself....if you're a Gardener - from one of the

MattBlake wrote:The Garden forum for any Polly fans here. I'm a bit biased, but genuinely, a very welcoming, lovely group of people

you mention (i hope)

Yeh, I don't know who that could be! Ahem ;-)