"The Burial of the Dead" is the first section of T. S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land", which is complex, erudite and cryptic, and it is published in 1922. It introduces all the central images and main themes of the poem. The title suggests an idea of desolation, of death; so for the reader it is difficult to create an expectation on what the poem is about.

The poem starts with a quotation taken from Petronio's "Satyricon", that is an epighraph and is written in Greek. The picture of Cuma Sybil is introduced and is a woman who konws everything, infatti she is a mythological and prophetic figure. After the quotation there is a dedication "for Ezra Pound, il miglior fabbro". It is written in Italian and has the function to remember the poet who helped in the writing of the poem.

The structure of the poem is the juxtaposition of scenes, indeed, the first section is made up by four scenes. The first scene consists of a description of the seasons and a memory of the past. April is described as "the cruellest month", and it refers to G. Chaucer's collection of stories "Canterbury Tales", where the poet considers April as "the prettiest month". If April is generally the month of hope, now it is cruellest because it denies the rebirth. In the second line "lilacs" are mentioned by the poet and they are the flowers used for funeral; so the intelligent reader can understand that the title of the text is coherent with what the poem is about. This element suggests the idea of a desolated land, where there is a dramatic atmosphere , very well anticipated by the title. Indeed, the poem is a dramatic monologue. The language of the speaker seems to be a woman, who has need of protection.

The second scene is a dialogue between a son of man and a divine power. The landscape plays on alliterative sound "r" in "red rock"; the insistence of rock underlines the panorama of sterility which creates the setting of the poem. There is an intertextual reference to the Bible, indeed the reader can see the image of a church that recalls a passage from "Ezechiele". The line "I will show you fear; in a landful of dust" is again taken from the death of Saint Narcissus; it hints at the fear of the human beings to wake up in April because April is cruel. "A handful of dust" recalls John Dame's meditationfour in "Devotion upon Emergent Occasions". The following lines in German language are taken from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", and they are sung by a seaman who misses his girlfriend remained at home. Then there is a reference to hyacinth garden that recalls a place of love. The expression "heart of light" sends back to Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", and it suggests an experience of the void, which comes out in the following lines also taken from "Tristan und Isolded".

The idea of the reader gets from the scene is one of loss and nostalgia, the human being is either afraid or he feels something missing. T. S. Eliot resolves to different intertextual quotation to community of sterility and the fragmentary nature of civilitation that had lost his values. So this is a scena of fear, that suggests the death.

In the third scene Madame Sosostris, a fortune teller, is introduced. T. S. Eliot exploits the image of somebody who is apparently able to see into the future; but the style and the tone of these lines are a parody of the same woman. Her cards are full with mysterious figures: the drowned Phoenician Sailor, Belladona (the lady of the rocks), the Wheel, and the one-eyed Merchant.

The last scene starts with the image of unreal city, that is London. The city is populated by the dead who walk with fixed eyes on feet, without a purpose; so T. S. Eliot criticizes the society of his time. This situation sends the reader to a sense of disquiet, indeed everything looks gloomy and horrible, and this is another demonstration of why the poet uses "The Burial of the Dead" as a title. Finally, the writer concludes the poem with a quotation by Baudelaire, that is written in French and conveys the fragility of the humanity.