T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land is divided into five sections.
First published in 1922, the poem is one of literary modernism’s defining works. Its five sections are titled “The Burial of the Dead,” “A Game of Chess,” “The Fire Sermon,” “Death by Water,” and “What the Thunder Said.” Each section uses shifting speakers, literary allusions, and contrasting settings to explore spiritual exhaustion and the possibility of renewal after the First World War.
The poem’s structure is sometimes confused with its separate publication history. The Waste Land first appeared in periodicals, including The Criterion and The Dial, before being published as a book. Eliot also included notes in the book edition, although some of those notes began as a practical response to the poem’s length rather than as a complete guide to its meaning.
The five-part arrangement is stable across standard editions, even though punctuation, notes, and editorial presentation can vary. The section titles therefore provide a useful way to identify the poem’s major movements.