The publication of The Waste Land established Eliot's reputation as a major poet. The poem was written out of an experience of emotional ‘breakdown’, and its innovative free associative form conveys a sense of psychological fragmentation. While Eliot emphasized the necessary distance that must be achieved between personal experience and successful creative expression, all his major poems were written out of periods of personal crisis and growth, and remain intensely personal. This paper explores links between Eliot's personal emotional experience and the poetry. It suggests that for Eliot poetry was part of a journey of self-exploration and, at the time of The Waste Land and subsequently, became a vital part of his struggle towards a new integration within his self.