T. S. Eliot is one of the most influential poets of twentieth-century modernist literature. His poetry reflects the spiritual crisis, cultural fragmentation, moral confusion, and psychological anxiety of the modern world. One of the most important features of Eliot’s poetic technique is his use of myth. Eliot does not use myth merely as a decorative reference to the past; rather, he uses myth as an organizing structure through which the disorder of modern civilization can be understood. His poetry brings together ancient myths, religious traditions, classical literature, and modern urban experience to reveal the broken condition of modern humanity.

This article examines the relationship between myth and modernity in the poetry of T. S. Eliot with special reference to poems such as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash-Wednesday, and Four Quartets. Eliot’s modern world is marked by spiritual emptiness, loss of faith, sexual sterility, emotional isolation, and cultural decay. To represent this condition, he employs myths from different traditions, including Greek mythology, Christian symbolism, Buddhist and Hindu philosophy, fertility myths, and Grail legends.

The study argues that Eliot’s use of myth provides depth, order, and universality to modern experience. In The Waste Land, the mythical method enables Eliot to connect post-war European civilization with older patterns of death, rebirth, drought, and renewal. In Four Quartets, myth and religious symbolism move toward spiritual reconciliation and transcendence. Thus, Eliot’s poetry transforms modern chaos into a symbolic and philosophical exploration of human suffering and possible redemption.