The Waste Land is a poem written by T.S. Eliot. It starts with a quotation in Greek language.The lines in Greek are taken from Petronio's Satyricon and they say the following words:

"Moreover, I've also seen the Sibyl of Cumae with my eyes hanging inside the bulb. And when the children asked her << Sibyl, what you want? >> She answered << I want to die >>"

Sibilla encloses the human genre's features.

Western world culture was born from Greek language. The sibyl represents human being essence and her desire of death means a psychological and/or physical sufference of humanity.
The quotation is a via to anticipate the atmosphere of the poem, it has the aim to help the reader understand the culture degrade.

The dedication is to Ezra Pound, father of imagist poetry: a kind of poetry which developed in the earlier years of 20th century, which exploited the linguistic power as well as the emotional power of images. The reasons to understand Eliot's dedication are multiple. Eliot promoted innovative forms of poetry and Ezra pound was one of the most significant people with whom T.S. Eliot had come in contact. Ezra Pound had read the Waste Land in its manuscript form and had suggested Eliot to cut some part of the poem, the narrative part.

The subject of the first lines is April. The lines are taken from the Canterbury Tales by Choser where April was defined sweetest. In The Waste Land the lines speak about it in a different way from ordinary, as if April brought negative elements, it promises a regeneration will never happen.

Chaucer is considered the best poet in English poetry, because he was the first who used English to write poetry.