Tristan and Isolde in "The Wasteland"

The second part of "The Burial of The Dead" uses nature imagery to represent death, specifically of a loved one.  The allusion to the opera Tristan and Isolde by the German composer, Richard Wagner, is especially effective as it is a passage about a sailor separated from his love.  In the last line of the section "Od' und leer das Meer"  meaning that the sea is empty and desolate, describes the death of sailors as they go out to sea (Elliot line 42).  This death causes the "hyacinth girl" to feel after she hears that her beloved sailor as if her soul is dying too, which mirrors the death of the main characters in Tristan and Isolde who die for their love.