The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

"The Waste Land" by T.S Eliot (1922)

An integral work of modernist poetry, Eliot’s seminal “The Waste Land" explores themes of modern alienation and despair, although ending with an arguably more hopeful outlook. Rich with allusions, multiple languages, and a barrage of Eliot’s own footnotes on the text, the poem is notoriously dense and difficult, but rewards patient reading.

"The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats (1920)

William Butler Yeats’s apocalyptic poem is an allegory of post-war Europe and examines many of the same modern concerns as Eliot’s “Prufrock.” Also creating a mood of anxiety and dread, Yeats considers how the Judeo-Christian framework of the previous era will fail in the face of the violence and destruction of the modern world.

"In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound (1913)

Ezra Pound’s famous two-line poem embodies imagism, an aspect of early modernism that privileged clarity and simplicity of language. Pound published the poem in Poetry in 1913, shortly before he advocated on behalf of Eliot for the inclusion of "Prufrock" in a 1915 edition.