T.S. Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950

I'm afraid for me Eliot's greatest works are Murder in the Cathedral and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The Wasteland leaves me cold; I respect Four Quartets

I haven't read all of it, but Eliot is one of my favorite poets. I especially enjoy his poems, "The Magi" and "Gerontion", and the play, "Murder in the Cathedral." I first discovered Eliot in an English class in high school.

One of my favorite books full of poems by my favorite poet. When I first got it about 12 years ago, I started to dog-ear each poem I liked. I stopped doing that about halfway through since I was dog-earring the whole book. I also like this book's footnotes.

Rated: B+
The New Lifetime Reading Plan: Number 116

I love T. S. Elliot. You have to understand British culture and London life of the 1900's to appreciate some of his works. But his words, his twist of a phrase are memorable.

I re-read this book almost 24 years after my first reading. Old the old

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favorites still rang true but I enjoy his plays more this time. His classic poems (Prufrock, The Wasteland, The Hollow Men) have great lines and imagery. I was drawn to "Choruses from 'The Rock'" now more than before.

Perhaps his most fun work, made famous by Andrew Lloyd Webber, are his collection of poems "Old Possum's Book fo Practical Cats" on which the musical "Cats" was based.

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Last part of the Hollow Men:


Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between

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the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

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Superlative. It's easy to forget today that Eliot's poetry was innovative in both technique and subject matter when originally written. I can do no better than to quote "Tradition and the Individual Talent", an essay from the poet himself: "What happens when a new work of art is created is

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something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art that preceded it." Such is the relationship of Eliot's poetry to the canon.

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