You can jump straight to any of the five sections by clicking on its name, shown at the start of the poem.
On most browsers you can change the size of the font, allowing you to see more or less of the poem at once. On Internet Explorer, choose fonts from the view menu and choose a small font to see more of the poem.
On Internet Explorer, First click in the frame you want to search in. Press Ctrl F, and type in the phrase you want to look for.
You can scroll through the notes independently of the poem. Clicking on the line numbers in the right hand frame will call up the appropriate part of the poem in the left hand frame. So you can use the notes to navigate around the poem.
Click here to view the key words lists.
Click here to visit the bookshop
Search for specific words or phrases
One of the nicest things about using an electronic version of a text is that the computer can search for words and phrases for you. Most browsers have this facility.
Read the notes
Eliot's notes appear in the right hand frame. There are two ways to access the notes:
Clicking on a line number in the poem will call up the relevant note.
If Eliot's notes are no longer displayed in the right hand frame, you can bring them back using the option in the menu bar at the top.
Explore the hyperlinks
This is one of the most powerful features of this website. If you click on an underlined phrase in the poem, one of several things may happen.
We take you straight to the specific phrase in the source text where we can . However, this is not always possible. if you find yourself at the beginning of a source document, try using the
Find Text Command on your browser to locate the phrase Eliot has re-used in the Waste Land.
Some of the web sites we link to do not look very good squashed into the right hand frame. In this case, try moving the central bar in between the two frames to a more comfortable position. You can virtually close the left or right hand frame by doing this, if you want to.
Alternatively, you should also be able to open the frame in a new window. For instance, if you are using Internet Explorer, right click on link in the poem, and choose 'open in new window' from the pop-up menu.
Trace the key words
The key words list was created by first building a fequency count of all the words in The Waste Land, and then filtering out non-content words. The most frequent words were added to the key word list. You can look at the occurence of each word in its context simply by clicking on the quotation.
Buy the Books
You can link directly to Amazon's best Eliot texts directly from here. You can choose from books at Amazon.com (suitable for American purchasers) or Amazon.co.uk (more convenient for European and British visitors). The choices are slightly different, so have a look at both sets.