The Waste Land

"The Waste Land is perhaps, the finest poem of this generation; ...it gives voice to the universal despair or resignation arising from the spiritual and economic consequences of the war, the cross purposes of modern civilization, the cul-de-sac into which both science and philosophy seem to have got themselves and the break-down of all great directive purposes which give zest and joy to the business of living." -Burton Rascoe, New York Tribune (1922) The Waste Land, by T. S. Eliot, is widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry.In The Waste Land, Eliot combines the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King with sketches of contemporary British society. This 434-line poem is divided into five sections: "The Burial of the Dead," "A Game of Chess," "The Fire Sermon," "Death by Water," and "What the Thunder Said."