By the end of this lecture, learners will be able to:

  1. Remember key biographical and historical details about T.S. Eliot and the modernist period that shaped his work.

  2. Understand the concept of the “crisis of meaning” and how it is thematically embedded in The Waste Land and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

  3. Apply close reading techniques to examine poetic devices such as fragmentation, allusion, and imagery in Eliot’s major poems.

  4. Analyse how Eliot constructs themes of alienation, disillusionment, and spiritual decay through voice, form, and structure.

  5. Evaluate the function of myth and intertextuality in Eliot’s poetry as tools to cope with cultural fragmentation.

  6. Create an original interpretive response, either critical or creative, that reflects on Eliot’s vision of modernity and the self.