Poetry Please: TS Eliot - The Waste Land

Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects Poetry Please: TS Eliot - The Waste Land featuring the groundbreaking modernist poem.

Roger McGough introduces requests for TS Eliot's groundbreaking modernist poem The Waste Land. First published in 1922, the programme draws upon existing recordings of the work by Eliot himself and Ted Hughes, with a recording read by Lia Williams. The effect is to semi-dramatise this extremely influential work which extended the range of the dramatic monologue. Known for its almost deliberate obscurity in places, what the listener hears in this version is instead a clear, intriguing interpretation of the poem, intercutting between the different voices.

Producer: Mark Smalley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.