Waste Land (bloom's Modern Cr...: T. S. Eliot's The

In his introductory essay, Harold Bloom offers a distinctively "Bloomian" reading of the poem:

: Critics in this volume view the poem's non-linear structure as a reflection of the "fragmented modern consciousness" following World War I . T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (Bloom's Modern Cr...

: He interprets it as a "Romantic crisis poem" that merely pretends to be an exercise in Christian irony. In his introductory essay, Harold Bloom offers a

: 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 In his introductory essay

: Bloom argues that despite its European setting and allusions, the poem is essentially an American self-elegy masking as a mythological romance.