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Eliot’s Poetry

To understand where The Waste Land sits in relation to Eliot’s other major poems, please consult this guide, which provides an analytical overview.

T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Far from being a true love song, “Prufrock” is a lament for thwarted meaning and desire. In this regard, the poem anticipates many of the key themes in The Waste Land. It also anticipates Eliot’s use of fragmentation, juxtaposition, and literary allusion. For all these reasons, “Prufrock” is a key companion.

Ezra Pound, “In a Station of the Metro”

Pound worked closely with Eliot in the process of editing The Waste Land. In fact, Pound played a critical role in shaping the poem, often cutting substantial sections and encouraging Eliot toward the style of fragmentary allusion for which the poem is known. For a view into Pound’s own poetic imagination, it’s worth checking out this famously short poem, which he wrote in his Imagist period.

Ovid, Metamorphoses

Aside from the Bible, the most cited text in Eliot’s poem is the Metamorphoses by Ovid. This Latin poem draws extensively on Classical mythology to create a profound meditation on the nature of transformation. Eliot, in turn, drew from Ovid’s accounts of Tiresias, King Tereus and Philomela, Acteon and Diana, and more.

Dante Alighieri, Inferno

Another of Eliot’s most frequently cited works is the Divine Comedy by Dante, and particularly the Inferno. The various allusions to Dante feed the poem with disturbing images of decline, death, suffering, and stagnancy.

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