T.S. Eliot Selected Poems

by T.S. Eliot

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1964

About the author

Thomas Stearns Eliot was a poet, dramatist and literary critic. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry." He wrote the poems The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday, and Four Quartets; the plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party; and the essay Tradition and the Individual Talent. Eliot was born an American, moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at the age of 25), and became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.S._Eliot

Reviews

[Julian Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gets at the heart of an aesthetic theory I've been thinking about since Greta Gerwig's Barbie: that what you think about, and how you feel about it, is somehow infinitely more personal, intimate, and revealing than talking strictly about the things that have happened to you. What moves me most about Eliot's poetry is that it seems removed from his personal experience (writing poems about growing old when he wasn't older than 30) but is deeply concerned with how moral rot, brought on by consumerism and Godless societies, affects people all around him: working class, idle rich, man, woman, former veteran returning from war or retiree waiting in his rented house for death. The poems reveal the fractured consciousness of a tremulous, almost terrifyingly intimate writer grappling with the traumas of WWI and the shallow natures of people who sought to live their lives without God. At its heart is a great contradiction: Eliot, a modernist in style and subject matter, laments a society that may never have existed in an anti-modernist way. Relying on allusions (which I love) that signifies a classical education while subverting the perspective, clarity, and form of your average poem, turning it into beautiful sounding philosophical treatise filled with splintered voices and viewpoints is one of the great experiences of reading this collection, and familiarizing myself with Eliot more.

[Jaden · Rating 2 out of 5]

“It is impossible to say just what I mean!”


Not a big poetry girlie so I didn’t have high hopes or anything for this. I read some of T.S. Eliot’s works a couple of years ago for an English class and bought this because it reminded me of that class. Since I’m not a poetry person, I feel like none of these really resonated with me. Not only are works like this on the tougher side to understand, but I also feel like I just have a hard time visualizing what’s being said/described so it’s not as enjoyable. Anyways I definitely do want to get into more poetry, but I think I should start with someone different lol.

[Wallis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry.
I had read "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" a long time ago, and was not very familiar with Eliot's work. This thin volume (125 pps.) provides a collection of Eliot's best. It includes the aforementioned poem, and also The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday, and a few others. I was overwhelmed with the imagery of the poems, which left me with a deep longing.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful & complex, wonderful poetry.

[noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal