Comparing T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land And The Hollow Man

Thomas Sterns Eliot who was a great American-British poet, playwright, literary critic and editor was a leader of the Modernist movement in poetry in such works as The Prufrock, The Waste Land and The Hollow Men. He almost completely and single - handedly brought about a revolution in thought, attitude and style in English poetry, and ushered in the modern age. His experiments in diction, style, and versification revitalized English poetry, and in a series of critical essays he shattered old orthodoxies and erected new ones. This new genre of poetry was initiated by T.S. Eliot through the publication of his poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, in 1917, a collection of poems that gave birth to a new genre of poetry – modern poetry. This poem completely revolutionised the hitherto accepted concept, definition and mode of poetry. It was an

T.S. Eliot continued producing modern poems to his last. For all these and for many more things, T.S. Eliot occupies a place of prominence in the literature of the modern world.

T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land is a major work of modernist literature. Written in the aftermath of the First World War, Eliot’s poem describes the disorganisation and collapse of modern society. In recounting this, Eliot uses a variety of images and symbols The Waste Land. Images are similes and metaphors which the poet has always used either to communicate their meaning or to decorate their language. It is by the use of images that abstract ideas or emotional states can be conveyed accurately and clearly to the readers. Poetry without images tends to become dull and dry like dead wood. The word ‘image’ actually originates from Latin ‘imago’ or ‘imagins,’ which literally means ‘to imitate.’ It has been equated with ‘imitation.’ Caroline Spurgeon defines images as “the little word-picture used by a poet or prose writer to illustrate, illuminate