Introduction: How to read The Waste Land

Some commentators say that you can't fully understand The Waste Land if you don't have a full grasp of the allusions and symbols; others will tell you that you need to come to the poem fresh, and read it unencumbered by notes and digressions. Ever the centrist, I believe that the Middle Way works best for most people.

There is no doubt that the the poem is a difficult read: you would have to be supremely confident to attempt to negotiate it without any assistance; on the other hand, an over-reliance on interpretative notes will be an obstacle to your appreciation of its power as a poem.

You will see that the text of the poem is littered with hyperlinks: these lead to notes on the meaning of the line, the source of the allusion, connections to other lines, etc. I have tried to make these as exhaustive as possible, and you certainly won't need them all to appreciate the poem. The first hyperlink in each section (i.e. the title of that part of the poem) leads to a brief outline of the prominent themes of that part, and an "episode guide" to what is happening and who is speaking.

My recommendation would be to have a look at the relevant "episode guide" before you read each of the five parts of the poem: this should provide a handrail of sorts without interfering too much with your experience of the text. After reading a part, or at the end of the whole thing, you may have questions about the detail of the text that the individual hyperlinks can answer.

The minute detail of the allusions in The Waste Land will hopefully enrich your appreciation of the work. It is not, however, a cryptic crossword to be solved: it's poetry, and thus all about language, imagery and rhythm. For example:

• I will show you fear in a handful of dust
• I had not though death had undone so many
• I think we are in rats' alley /Where the dead men lost their bones
• On Margate Sands, I can connect nothing with nothing
• We who were living are now dying /With a little patience

The first time I read these lines, I didn't have much of a clue what they meant; but the words and images buried themselves in my brain, and have stayed there ever since. I hope you will have your own enduring images.


                                                         Go to the Title and Epigraph