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Ash Wednesday
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Symbols & Motifs
Colors
The colors that occur in the poem have some symbolic value. White is a symbol of purity, thus the “white leopards” who metaphorically devour the speaker’s body in Part II (Line 1) are actually a positive symbol, since they devour the outer form of the individual, not his inner essence—which, in the speaker’s view, is exactly what he needs in a symbolic sense. In the same section, the Lady is presented as “withdrawn / In a white gown, to contemplation, in a white gown” (Lines 16-17). She has withdrawn into the purity of the deepest aspect of her being, and the “whiteness of bones” in the following line is again a positive symbol, since they “atone to forgetfulness” (of the troublesome personal self, that is, that seems to act as an obstacle to communion with God [Line 18]).
White is also identified along with blue in Part IV as a symbol of the Lady and also of the Virgin Mary. Of the two, blue seems to be the more significant color because it is mentioned more often. The Lady/Virgin “Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand / In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary’s colour” (Lines 9-10). Images of Mary in Catholic and Anglo-Catholic churches (such as those that Eliot might have attended) show the Virgin attired in blue. The Lady is also associated with the “blue rocks” (Part V, Line 33), which suggest the dead matter of the wasteland infused with spirit.
Violet is another color that may have symbolic significance. The Lady “walked between the violet and the violet” (Part IV, Line 1). Violets are small flowers. They are often used in religious art to symbolize humility because they grow low to the ground and sometimes their blossoms droop, suggesting the bowing of a head in humility. Violet is also the traditional color in the church for Lent, of which Ash Wednesday marks the beginning. It represents penance. It is common for Roman Catholic priests to wear violet robes during Lent.
Rose
The rose is a symbol in Part II and an implied one in Part IV. In Part II, it symbolizes the Lady, who is closely identified with the Virgin Mary. The Lady is the “Rose of memory / Rose of forgetfulness” (Lines 28-29). In her aspect as the rose of memory, she allows people to remember their divine origins, to have contact with the deeper springs of life—or at least to be aware that such things do exist, even if they may not be immediately apparent. The Lady as rose of forgetfulness symbolizes her ability to allow people to forget the hold that the world of the senses has on them.
The appearance of the Lady as rose of forgetfulness is also in answer to the speaker’s prayer in Part I, in which he asks that “I might forget / These matters that with myself I too much discuss / Too much explain” (Lines 27-29). The rose of forgetfulness allows him to move beyond all that unproductive mental activity. The Lady is also the “single rose” (Line 32) that “Is now the Garden” (Line 33), which clearly associates her with the Virgin.
In Part IV, the Lady/Virgin is presented as, “White light folded, sheathed about her, folded” (Line 15), which suggests a white rose. The white rose is traditionally associated in Christianity with the Virgin, and more generally, with purity.
Death and Rebirth
Death and rebirth form a recurring motif in the poem, which is usually expressed also in the symbols. In Part I, the speaker is experiencing the death of his enthusiasm for the things he has always enjoyed in life, and Part II focuses on dead bones and how the pulse of life enters them again, courtesy of the Lady. In Part III, the climb up the spiral staircase resembles an escape from death, and Part IV suggests a kind of rebirth in which the speaker is able to perceive a higher dimension of life.
Part VI contains a direct reference to death and rebirth. The sphere in which human life exists is “The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying” (Line 6, emphasis added), and the relevant terms are reversed later in the same section: “This is the time of tension between dying and birth” (Line 20, emphasis added), which means dying to the ego and the limited, desire-enmeshed self, and being reborn into spiritual knowledge and understanding—a new orientation in life. Death and rebirth are also implied in the recurring symbolism: rock, dry, desert, bones (death) are contrasted with light, fountain, river, sea, garden (life).
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By T. S. Eliot
