The Waste Land is a poem by T.S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of Eliot's The Criterion and in the United States in the November issue of The Dial, It was published in book form in December 1922. Among its famous phrases are " April is the cruellest month", "I will show you dear in a handful of dust', and the mantra in the Sanskrit language " Shanthi Shanthi Shanthi".
Friedrich Nietzsche, with the concept of Ubermensch in Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-85) seems to be progressive and forward looking in giving solution to the problem of contemporary crisis in faith and self.
T.S. Eliot in 'The Waste Land'(1922) seems to be regressive and backward looking as it tries to find answers of contemporary malaise in Upanishad, Buddhism and Christianity.
