T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” is a complex poem because of all of the references to previous works of art. He quotes from other pieces of literature, and he slyly refers to others within the text. Reading “The Waste Land” is not just reading his poem; basically, the reader is also expected to understand all of his allusions – these bits and pieces of other works. In order to truly understand this poem, you would need to know and understand the depth of all of these references, not to mention you would need to know other languages –like German.

In building on and referring to the work of others, Eliot shows the complexity of Western tradition and Western thought and the debt each new generation owes the generation of artists which came before. In a way, he also shows the complexity which was World War I. Each country brought to the war its own conflicts, enemies, and allies. We cannot truly understand World War I without understand all these bits and pieces – all these contributions. In considering this complexity, “The Waste Land” becomes representative of both Western tradition and World War I itself.