Thomas Sterns Eliot, better known as T. S. Eliot, is considered to be one of the most “realistic” American poets of this time. However, his life was not as jubilant as the rest of the country during this time. The pressures of uncongenial work, the strain of his home life and the need to hide his unhappiness brought on a nervous breakdown. In 1922, while recovering in a Swiss spa, Eliot began to write one of …showed first 75 words of 575 total…

…showed last 75 words of 575 total…allusions, signaling collapse of society, then, compensation, finally an urge for innocence. The publication of The Waste Land was an important event in the development of modern English poetry. It contrasts the spiritual stagnation of the present with the myths of the past. It proved to be a fine vehicle for meditating on the fate of civilization after World War I. Just as Eliot was also ciphering his own struggle with sin, sanity, and salvation.