The Waste Land at 100
These must be the most familiar opening lines of any poem in the twentieth century.
Anthony Hecht The First Eighteen Lines of The Waste Land
![](https://d181q449nqu6en.cloudfront.net/content/craft/articles/_pullQuote/Hecht.jpg?mtime=20221209105025&focal=none&tmtime=20221209105353)
These must be the most familiar opening lines of any poem in the twentieth century.
Anthony Hecht The First Eighteen Lines of The Waste Land