The Waste Lands and Other Poems, by T.S. Eliot
This volume consists of Eliot's first two poetry collections,Prufrock and Other Observations (1917) and Poems (1920), along with The Waste Land(1922). The first half of Prufrock andTWL are essential modernist poems. The very modern tension of isolation, cynicism, the longing for an idealized past, and a desperate, clinging hope for the future are perfectly encapsulated in Eliot's best early verse. Unfortunately, the second half of Prufrock and virtually all of Poems fail to maintain this standard. The anti-semitism of Poems is particularly disturbing. That said, The Waste Land should be required reading for anyone interested in modern and post-modern literature.