As we talk about Eliot's The Wasteland, I remember how much I love to read these deep, disturbing pieces of poetry that no one really understands. It allows the reader to bring his or her own experiences into the reading of the poem, and the poem once again comes to life much as it did when the author put pen to paper. I think this is what I love about studying literature. Everytime a work is read, it is reborn by telling new audiences the story of the past and the present, of people long dead or living, of different cultures, of experiences - good and bad. Eliot's The Wasteland keeps being read and reread and is constantly invoking the reader to think hard about what Eliot is trying to say about life and in doing so, we stop just for a moment and evaluate our own world and our own lives. s hamilton