The Waste Land & Other Ground
T.S. Eliot

When The Waste Land was published by T.S. Eliot in 1922, it was a breakthrough in modern poetic form, integrating a daunting variety of classical references, in various languages, and crafting a unique landscape within which the reader would tour the spectrum of human emptiness, struggle, and aspiration.

This electronic edition is devoted to honoring that literary moment, and to presenting a collection of works by one the 20th century's most influential poets.

From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

... ... ...

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep … tired … or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet?and here's no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all.
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question...