15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Introduction to T. S. Eliot, May 31, 1999
By A Customer
I thought that this book was a great introduction to T. S. Eliot. It contains most of his really famous pieces, including The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday, A Love Song for J. Alfred Prufrock, and many others. If you like it, you might also try "Murder in the Cathedral."
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very good collection of Eliot's poems, November 28, 2004
If you can only get one book of poems, get this one. It has the most important poems before "Four Quartets". If you want more,get also "Four Quartets" and "Murder in the Cathedral" or, even better, get the collected poems.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The strange and haunting visions of T.S Eliot, May 16, 2006
This review is from: T.S. Eliot: Selected Poems (Library of Classic Poets) (Hardcover)
It took me sometime before I could genuinely come to understand and appreciate his poetry: yet, nevertheless, the writings of American-born, anglocized author T.S Eliot have always held a peculiar fascination for me, and, it seems, for a number of other writers and laypeople as well. From the personal yet somehow universal, melancholy and self-doubting music of "The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock" to the wild, multi-cultural, history spanning visions of urban chaos in "The Wasteland", Eliot's oeuvre is rich in religious, political, and philosophical themes, and played an enormous role in shaping the development of poetry in the twentieth-century (not to mention, on an obviously less signficant level, my own writing). Reading Eliot's serious poetry, however, requires a great deal of analytical prowess and is often a rather depressing experience (particularly in the beautiful "Prufrock"): nevertheless, those with patience will find that it is richly rewarding and can be appreciated on a superificial level simply for the entrancing rhythm of the music and haunting nature of the imagery, which, though informed by a number of sources, including Shakespeare, Dante, and Baudelaire, are written in a voice which is always distinctive and wholly original.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
