Apocalyptic Visions in T.S. Eliot’s the Waste Land and the Hollow Men

Eliot is considered a Christian poet and his poetry are believed to be a religious one. His poetry saw a linear development of his religious maturity over the years, which can be found out only by reading it with deep insight. The starting phase of his religious poetry can be considered where his disillusionment with the modern ways of the world had started. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', ‘The Waste Land' and ‘The Hollow men' belong to the phase when Eliot was living in a constant confusion to follow the ways of the world or to find peace by finding out his own path of salvation. Eliot's conversion to Anglo-Catholicism brought extreme transformation in his religious belief as well as to his poetry, while the first phase was marked with gloomy outlook; the next was marked with a spiritual slant. Eliot depicted the spiritual journey of the soul in the most beautiful and complex ways in his poems, although this ended with overwhelming spirituality, it started with his depiction of spiritual barrenness. His major poetical work ‘The Waste Land' has tones of desolation and humanity is shown at the brink of extinction. This paper explores Eliot's vision of Apocalypse and tries to find the optimistic vein he had in his poetry.