Abstract

This thesis examines the place of political poetry in the ever-changing modern world It examines two political poets, T S. Eliot and Muriel Rukeyser, and their poems The Waste Land and The Book of the Dead. The analysis begins wlth an introduction to and explanation of political poetry and follows with three chapters which explore and explicate the political components within these poems. In observing each poet's techniques, purpose, and language. I argue a distinction between wrlting political poetry and being a political poet. Eliot's The Waste Land and Rukeyser's The Book of the Dead clearly demonstrate this difference.