The anthology brings together various schools of thought—including New Criticism and Myth Criticism—to analyze the following:
: Bloom explores Eliot's "agon" or struggle with his literary precursor, Walt Whitman , suggesting that Whitman's elegiac voice haunts the poem's structure. Critical Themes Explored T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (Bloom's Modern Cr...
: Essays delve into Eliot's use of the Fisher King and Grail legends as frameworks for a spiritually barren modern world. In his introductory essay, Harold Bloom offers a
: Bloom argues that despite its European setting and allusions, the poem is essentially an American self-elegy masking as a mythological romance. Harold Bloom - Amazon.com
In his introductory essay, Harold Bloom offers a distinctively "Bloomian" reading of the poem:
: He interprets it as a "Romantic crisis poem" that merely pretends to be an exercise in Christian irony.
: Some sections examine how Ezra Pound's extensive editing shaped the final version of the poem. The Waste Land: T. S. Eliot, Harold Bloom - Amazon.com