The poem, T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” is often cited as one of the most important literary works of the twentieth century. It is a polyphonic conglomeration of Arthurian legend, classical myth, modern social satire, and religious vision, and it discusses themes of disillusionment, despondency, death, and mortal judgment.

"April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing": Adapted from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, l.1-2 (1922)

"I will show you fear in a handful of dust": Adapted from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, l.30 (1922)

The poet and playwright in question is Samuel Beckett, who (along with Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, and Tom Stoppard) is one of the key members of the Theatre of the Absurd. Works that belong to this so-called movement typically include nihilism, wordplay, elements of vaudevillian comedy or downright nonsense mixed with horror or tragedy, and frustration at the apparent meaninglessness of humanity’s place in the world. Although Beckett’s poetry is perhaps the least read of his various creative works, his contributions to the genre were not insignificant, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1969.

A major modernist poet, T. S. Eliot was also a highly influential critic and essayist. In his essay "Tradition and Individual Talent," Eliot rejected the inspired individualism of romantic poets like William Wordsworth in favor of a view of the poet as one who uses tradition to lift him beyond his personal experience.

Passage adapted from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Elliot, 1-11 (1915)

The poem is Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” a lyrical poem in which Dickinson personifies Death as he takes the speaker to her grave.

“The Song of Hiawatha” is one of Longfellow’s best known poems. Published in 1855 and written in trochaic tetrameter, it is an epic that follows the life and adventures of Hiawatha, a Native-American hero.

This poem was written by Stephen Crane. It was published in 1895, as part of his poetry collection The Black Riders and Other Lines. Historically, Crane’s poetry has received less attention than his prose, among which is the famous American novel The Red Badge of Courage, but this particular poem is often discussed among scholars and has served as the epigraph to several later works of fiction.

“Thanatopsis” was published in 1817 by the early American poet, William Cullen Bryant. As its Greek title indicates, the poem is an extended meditation on death (Thantos = "death" in Greek).

This poem is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bells.” Known also for his short fiction, much of which has a macabre tone and a preoccupation with human mortality, Poe wrote “The Bells” with the aid of literary devices such as onomatopoeia, metaphor, and diacope. It was published posthumously.

Ralph Waldo Emerson may be best known for his critical work, including “Self-Reliance” and various discussions of Transcendentalism, but it is important to recognize his poetry as well. “Concord Hymn,” published in 1836, is one of his best known poems and was sung at the dedication for a monument commemorating the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Concord.

This is Stephen Crane’s poem “In the Desert,” taken from his collection of 56 poems titled The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895). The Black Riders and Other Lines was Crane's second book, and was published earlier in the same year as Crane's most famous work, The Red Badge of Courage (1895).