The Waste Land: Potential Drama, Persistente Poetry

Abstract

Late in his career, when he was fully devoted to dramatic writing, T.S. Eliot made the provocative statement that his early poetry was “striving ... toward the condition of drama.” This paper examines dramatic elements in The Waste Land (1922): scenes, voices/characters, and dialogue. In analysing the poem as a proto-dramatic text, it also considers Eliot’s future career as a dramatist (mid-1930s-late 1950s), as well as his contemporary essays on drama, and the unfinished play Sweeney Agonistes (1926-1927). Finally, this study explores the pervading presence of “Waste Land” imagery, moods, and diction in Eliot’s later plays. The dramatic quality of The Waste Land prefigures the plays, while these –as modern verse drama– hark back to the poem.