The Waste Land

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The Waste Land is a landmark modernist poem by T. S. Eliot that portrays the spiritual desolation and fragmentation of post–World War I Western society through a dense collage of voices, allusions, and shifting perspectives.

All labels observed (11)

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (61)

Predicate Object
instanceOf modernist poem
poem
alludesTo Inferno
The Canterbury Tales
The Golden Bough
The Tempest
The Waste Land (Grail legend)
linked to: The Waste Land

Tristan und Isolde
Upanishads
author T. S. Eliot
countryOfOrigin United Kingdom
dedicatedTo Ezra Pound
editor Ezra Pound
firstPublicationDate 1922
firstPublishedIn The Criterion
The Dial
form free verse
genre modernist literature
hasCriticalReception considered one of the most important poems of the 20th century
hasFamousLine April is the cruellest month
I will show you fear in a handful of dust
Shantih shantih shantih
linked to: Jesus Prayer

These fragments I have shored against my ruins
hasNarrativeMode shifting perspectives
unreliable narration
hasParatext author’s notes
influenced Anglophone modernist poetry
New Criticism
influencedBy Buddhist texts
linked to: Tripitaka

Charles Baudelaire
Dante Alighieri
Ezra Pound
Hindu Upanishads
linked to: Upanishads

James Joyce
William Shakespeare
language English
lengthInLines about 433
literaryMovement Modernism
notableCharacter Madame Sosostris
Tiresias
numberOfSections 5
publisher Boni & Liveright
Faber and Faber
section A Game of Chess
Death by Water
The Burial of the Dead
linked to: The Waste Land

The Fire Sermon
What the Thunder Said
setInTime post–World War I era
setting London
linked to: London, England
theme decay of Western civilization
fragmentation
loss of meaning
post–World War I disillusionment
search for redemption
spiritual desolation
usesTechnique literary allusion
montage
multiple voices
mythic method
stream of consciousness

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (36)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

T. S. Eliot notableWork The Waste Land
Lost Generation hasNotableWork The Waste Land
The Waste Land section The Burial of the Dead
linked to: The Waste Land
The Waste Land alludesTo The Waste Land (Grail legend)
linked to: The Waste Land
Ash-Wednesday followsWork The Waste Land
Ash-Wednesday relatedWork The Waste Land
The Hollow Men relatedWork The Waste Land
Faber and Faber publishedWork The Waste Land
Stearns bearerNotableFor The Waste Land
Hogarth Press notableWorkPublished “The Waste Land”
linked to: The Waste Land
St Mary Woolnoth mentionedIn The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
linked to: The Waste Land
A Game of Chess partOf The Waste Land
A Game of Chess follows The Burial of the Dead
linked to: The Waste Land
The Fire Sermon partOf The Waste Land
Death by Water partOf The Waste Land
Death by Water firstPublishedIn The Waste Land (1922 book edition)
linked to: The Waste Land
Death by Water relatedWork The Burial of the Dead
linked to: The Waste Land
Death by Water partOf The Waste Land (poem)
linked to: The Waste Land
What the Thunder Said partOf The Waste Land
Madame Sosostris appearsIn The Waste Land
Madame Sosostris fictionalUniverse The Waste Land universe
linked to: The Waste Land
Tiresias appearsInWork T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land
linked to: The Waste Land
Boni & Liveright notableWorkPublished The Waste Land
Ezra Pound edited The Waste Land
subject linked to: Pound
Gerontion relatedWorkByAuthor The Waste Land
A Handful of Dust hasLiteraryAllusion The Waste Land
West End Girls inspiredBy The Waste Land
Valerie Eliot notableWork The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound
linked to: The Waste Land
Valerie Eliot editorOf The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound
linked to: The Waste Land
Fiona Shaw notableWork The Waste Land (stage production)
linked to: The Waste Land
The Bridge influencedBy T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land
linked to: The Waste Land
The Bridge influencedBy T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land
subject linked to: ambitious long poem The Bridge
linked to: The Waste Land
The Bridge responseTo The Waste Land
subject linked to: ambitious long poem The Bridge
Jazz Age literature hasNotableWork The Waste Land