The Waste Land

The Waste Land by T.S.Eliot as Modernist text

• Introduction:-

• The poetry of modern age expresses the chaos and the changing scenario of life and society.
• T.S.Eliot's The Waste Land is both a demonstration and a manifesto of what the new poetry wanted to do and could do.

• T.S.Eliot (1888-1965) describes the boredom, emptiness and pessimism of modern age in bitter, ironical and satirical verse.

• His famous poem The Waste Land is considered the most important poetic documents of the age. It expresses poignantly a desperate sense of the poet, and the age's lack of positive spiritual thinking. Eliot's overwhelming need for redemption transformed him into a religious poet. His intense zeal for religious truth, which lead finally to a new hope in the Christian ideas for rebirth & renewal.

• In his pursuit of giving a realistic representation of life around him, he many times becomes critical of the spiritual degeneration of men and expresses his deep despair over utter emptiness of the contemporary civilization.

• He introduced a new poetic style. His diction is original and unique. It comprehends paradox, irony and contrast.

• Frank Kermode rightly observes that English Poetry would have had no future without the invaluable work done by T.S.ELIOT.