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A-Z POETRY

The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot (1922)
The poem looks at the affect which the First World War has had on civilisation – the only escape of which, is death. It’s a sobering concept, and one which T.S. Eliot addresses by drawing upon lots of cultural references and shifting abruptly between speakers, locations and times – all of which work to create a unique and obscure poem.

Poem: "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot (1922)

Click here to read online [with annotations]

Related Links

Analysis Analysis Study Guide
Article: The Influence of  "Wasteland" Summary & Analysis Connell Guide to "Wasteland"

Videos

A summary of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

Dr Oliver Tearle, an English lecturer at Loughborough University, discusses the key themes within The Waste Land, the most prominent of which is the breakdown – the breakdown of marriages and relationships, psychological breakdowns, the breakdown of poetry and language, and even the breakdown of an entire world. Unsurprisingly, The Waste Land is considered by many to be the most influential poetical work of the Twentieth Century.

SOURCE: Loughborough University (2016), posted on YouTube, [3:38 mins] URL: https://youtu.be/PSI5AejsFbU

How to Structure an Essay on T.S. Eliot

In this video, we provide the most robust essay structure to use when answering any question on T.S. Eliot's poetry.

SOURCE: ignite HSC (2019), posted on YouTube, [12:15 mins] URL: https://youtu.be/3peqI3q0Hlc