Customer Reviews (3)

Naming a cat is a labor of love
I read this collection because I found it in a book of collected poems, etc.I was really interested in "Murder in the Cathedral."

Well, I read this collection of poems regarding cats with great interest.Partly because I do like cats, and also because I am of English descent.T.S. has his English cats down to a "T".Naming them is great fun and his cat names are GREAT.His desciption of their behaviour and antics pretty much lets you know he has been introduced to many a cat in his day.These cats almost come off the page and play with you, they are so true to life.Read this collection if you love cats and want a few moments of private recollection.No doubt you will recognize a cat you have known or are getting to know.

Read this BEFORE you name your cat
It will help you get into the Zen of appropriate feline names.

A Great Poetry Book
This is a funny, interesting poem book. I got it right after I saw Cats the play.

I suggest you get this book. ... Read more

Book Description
This exploration of T. S. Eliot's last major poem, Four Quartets, examines the poem's potential to transform readers' faith journeys. Kramer shows that the power of Four Quartets is its ability to create a dynamic interaction between the poem and the reader that promotes a genuine connection with the natural world, with others, and with the Divine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Read This Book- Now!
Four Quartets captured me in its spell when I first encountered it in November '05. I have been trying to understand it, and its magnetic pull, ever since. Redeeming Time is brilliant in lifting the veil on Four Quartets and revealing the timeless truths so evoked there- and so hidden 'here'. If you are even vaguely interested in the contemplative / mystical life, or in touching 'sacramental existence' in the ordinary, feed your soul here- in Kramer's enabling strucutre- and let Four Quartets flow with even more power. Kenneth Kramer: what a gift. Thanks!

An excellent guide to Four Quartets
T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets is one of the most difficult and obscure poems ever written. Kenneth Paul Kramer's Redeeming Time is an excellent guide to understanding the poem's hidden meanings. The author has devoted more than thirty-five years to Eliot's masterpiece: he wrote his Ph D. thesis on Four Quartets, made numerous research trips to all four locations of the titles to each poem, taught courses on it at university, and continued his study of the poems while writing numerous books. Redeeming Time is well-written,clearly organized, and includes one hundred pages of Notes in the back of the book, plus a bibliography of the works cited and an index. This is truly a scholarly work. Best of all, Kramer's analysis unlocks many of the difficulties for the reader. I found this book to be the most helpful and useful analysis on Four Quartets written thus far.I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Book Description
A major reinterpretation, T.S. Eliot's Personal Waste Land: Exorcism of the Demons takes Eliot at his word in his reiterated statements that The Waste Land was not a "criticism of the contemporary world" but a personal "grouse against life." It is the first critical work to investigate in depth the sources of the poem in Eliot's life, with particular attention to Eliot's "Calamus"-like attachment to a French youth during Eliot's graduate year in Paris, his subsequent precipitate (and disastrous) marriage following the death of his young French friend in World War I, and his 1921 nervous breakdown (suffering from what he called "an aboulie and emotional derangement which has been a lifelong affliction") that led to the writing of The Waste Land. Yet the main thrust of this work is not on Eliot's life, but on his poetry, exploring ways in which the fragmentary details of his life shape and illuminate the poems.While some consideration is given to the early, confession-like "Ode" (later suppressed), and to the famous "familiar compound ghost" of the later Four Quartets, primary attention is focused on the original drafts of The Waste Land. The poem emerges from a meticulous and detailed reading of the manuscripts as indeed a kind of elegy for a dead friend, with links to Tennyson's In Memoriam and Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," and thus not a piece of "social criticism" but an expression of anguish and pain and despair working toward resignation, resolution, and reconciliation. It becomes clear that this interpretation is not dependent on biographical conjecture and reconstruction, but flows inevitably from simple close scrutiny of the intricate evolution of The Waste Land; therefore the firm establishment of the full facts of Eliot's early life is unnecessary to this "meaning." In following Eliot's own frequent hints, this book offers a vital corrective to all the previous readings (or misreadings) of The Waste Land, and has important implications for the entire Modernist Movement.James E. Miller Jr. is the Helen A. Regenstein Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Chicago. His most recent book, T. S. Eliot: The Making of an American Poet, 1888-1922, was published by Penn State Press in 2005. Miller's other books include The American Quest for a Supreme Fiction: Whitman's Legacy in the Personal Epic (1979) and Leaves of Grass: America's Lyric-Epic of Self and Democracy (1992). ... Read more

Book Description
First published in 1922, "The Waste Land" is T.S. Eliot's masterpiece, and is not only one of the key works of modernism but also one of the greatest poetic achievements of the twentieth century.A richly allusive pilgrimage of spiritual and psychological torment and redemption, Eliot's poem exerted a revolutionary influence on his contemporaries, summoning forth a rich new poetic language, breaking decisively with Romantic and Victorian poetic traditions.Kenneth Rexroth was not alone in calling Eliot "the representative poet of the time, for the same reason that Shakespeare and Pope were of theirs.He articulated the mind of an epoch in words that seemed its most natural expression."

As influential as his verse, T.S. Eliot's criticism also exerted a transformative effect on twentieth-century letter, and this new edition of The Waste Land and Other Writings includes a selection of Eliot's most important essays.

In her new Introduction, Mary Karr dispels some of the myths of the great poem's inaccessibility and sheds fresh light on the ways in which "The Waste Land" illuminates contemporary experience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Just what I needed
perfect condition, fast shipping, and had ALL the Eliot poems I needed in additon to The Waste Land!! Thanks!

Beautiful collection and engaging introduction by Mary Karr
I just finished a Modern Library anthology of T.S. Eliot's writings entitled simply "The Waste Land And Other Writings".Beginning with an entertaining if somewhat controversial introduction by Mary Karr, the next 234 pages provide a glimpse into Eliot's creative and critical mind.Being an autodidact, I confess ignorance about where Mr. Eliot stands in the esteem of academia today, but I was able to easily find - thanks to the internet - plenty of current syllabi showing that his works are still being discussed.

My interest in Catholic writers during what I consider the New Golden Age of Western Literature (1920 - 1970) led me to this book.I was not disappointed.You may not agree with my designation or its range of years but you will perhaps agree with me that, in a macro sense, this prior era is our nearest peak in literature.It was modernity barely alive after the coronary thrombosis of World War I.American and British education just prior to this gilded age had been at its peak in terms of quality if not quantity, and a high school graduate from 1890 to 1920 would have been a master of English, a worthy apprentice of Latin and Greek, and more than a little acquainted with French.Compared to today's students, most of them would appear to be polyglots.

Not only that, but the culture then was fairly stable (no culture is perfect) and uniform, based on the now-tired hyphenate: Judeo-Christian principles.This does not mean that people were more religious then; simply, that they consciously or unconsciously played by the cultural rules.The stigma of "sinner" was greater for both those who believed and those who didn't, but for those who didn't, it didn't mean much outside the public eye.If this seems an oversimplified explanation, I plead innocence by reason of my education, if you'll tolerate the joke.In any event, when World War II came along and finished ole Modernity, up flew the phoenix called Post-Modernism.

The old modern may not have worried much about the application of Judeo-Christian principles to his individual life, but he did place some value on the macro effects of that culture.He transgressed, perhaps, but he did not proselytize his sin; he did not want his transgression to become accepted in the culture because he saw the bigger picture.With postmodernism, there is no big picture, "there's only you and I and we just disagree" or so the pop song goes.

Keeping the discussion at its current level of abstraction, I would define postmodernism as modernism without the Judeo-Christian framework.Modern man has always transgressed, but with our new era, he can transgress and be accepted at the same time.He can be ignorant of the facts and still be a teacher.He can make vice virtue and virtue vice and the world still turns.There is a love of progress without any clear idea of the destination; there is no accountability because there is no reality to account for; and, after putting the puny human animal in his insignificant place in the universe, most postmodernists then exalt this humanity, especially the individual human, to the center of everything.All of which makes for entertaining ideas but strangely empty minds if by empty we mean to say unable to comprehend the truth.

Take, for instance, the essay by Syracuse University's Mary Karr that opens the book.Professor Karr writes with clarity and humor, but there are deficiencies that a critic could not fail to notice.Early on, she praises Eliot for his avant-garde techniques while acknowledging that there are some who, while they admit he's still avant-garde, "eschew actually reading Eliot because he's a dead white guy who represents the old guard."You can't get past the irony here.Her reason for allowing Eliot to be characterized this way becomes apparent when, concerning the semi-explanatory notes that Eliot included with his poem "The Waste Land", she writes: "It's a little-recognized fact that the controversial notes were an afterthought...."Later, "Even knowing the randomness of the notes' insertion, you still can't ignore them wholesale.There they squat in the text.But once you stop cowing in their shadow, you can decipher them as whimsical rather than smug."Still later, they are "capricious and shifting in both purpose and attitude."And there are many more of the same.(Karr is not alone; I read an analysis by Nancy K. Gish in her book "The Waste Land - A Student's Companion to the Poem" that also gave short shrift to Eliot's notes.)

By devaluing the notes, Karr fashions her analysis using one of postmodernisms favorite tools: a linguistic theory that places the word on the page above the intent of the author.She makes it clear that, for her, "The Waste Land" is a much better poem without bothering too much with what Eliot was trying to communicate.She does this because Eliot was far more conventional in his personal life than perhaps she and her readers would like to admit, and his later scholarship and the essays that came out of that scholarship lend an authority that works against the postmodern desire to turn "The Waste Land" into a life creed; and because Eliot ultimately rejected the latent nihilistic world view that others found there and renewed his devotion to his Catholic faith.To read a poem as a juxtaposition of words that communicate some inchoate feeling or desire without reference to the author's meaning is to miss the point.Not so, says the postmodernist, there is no point to miss.

One final note about Karr's essay: she appears to be aware that many of her reader's will be indoctrinated by postmodern narcissism when she writes "Not to read it [The Waste Land] is to pretend that we of this twenty-first century have drawn ourselves whole (M.C.Escher-like) from our own heads.It's to ignore history, taking on faith that what now seems beautiful or important or right...has no source other than this time, this place."Well said.I would only add that "reading" involves discovering, as much as is possible, the author's intent otherwise we shall still be drawn whole from our own heads.

Fear and Trembling
Yeah, "The Waste Land" is one of those poems that everyone has to read because it so forms our current cultural milieu. And it should be read for that reason. I think, however, that most people, because they read it for that reason, only respect the poem (and Eliot) and don't necessarily like it. They don't always feel it.

I'm one of that other kind of reader, though, that just loves this poem. I love it because I find in it such a profound articulation of a lostness, a despair, that I think we all, at times, feel. And I'm one of the readers that see Eliot in the poem as working through the despair, sewing a couple of small seeds of hope. "The Waste Land" is a poem that I find myself reaching for to keep me going.

I particularly love this edition of Eliot's poems because it contains Mary Karr's essay that is essential for anyone who reads this poem "with the soul."

The rest of the selection of poems is excellent as well. The inclusion of many of Eliot's most important essays, particularly "Tradition and the Individual Talent," also makes this edition valuable. For multiple reasons, this is a must-have.
... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

An Indispensable Resource
For any scholar or serious student of modernism, Valerie Eliot's facsimile edition is a must. The content enables us to reconsider notions of "high modernism," Eliot's seemingly dry approach to life and literature (if anyone trusts such satirical jabs as 'The Sweeniad'), and the relationship between Pound and Eliot--even as it occurs in Pound's own pen on Eliot's manuscript. The several additional voices included in Eliot's original vision, particularly in his intended first stanza of what was to be titled, "He do the Police in Different Voices: Part I," gives contemporary audiences a new take on Eliot's sense of humor and full conception of the modern consciousness.

Not only does the edition provide the original manuscript on the left page (both typed and handwritten), but also a surprisingly useful retyped version on the facing page to make clear what has been written in the margins by Eliot, Pound, or any other editorial hand. These facing-page clarifications are color-coded to clarify who has done the editing (i.e., red for Pound).

If you are fascinated by historical documents, serious about Modernism and the relationships therein, or simply a fan of what has been called the landmark poem of the literary period that arguably still defines our lives today, the Waste Land Facsimile Edition is indispensable.

Brian Solomons
It's wonderful to read the Waste Land as it was originally conceived by TS Eliot and to realise that Ezra Pound's editing totally transforms the book from a rather pedestrian work into the great poem of the 20th century.Looking at this book, Ezra Pound should have at leat 30% of the credit for this work!

Wonderful!
This edition illuminates the poetic creative process for this great poem in wonderful ways. It is a must for all who love the poem (like I do), or just find it intriguing.

Wonderful Reference
For those who believe that T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' is a critical part of twentieth century liturature, Valerie Eliot's book about the creation of that poem is a must-read, be it for a scholar or the general reader.

The book nicely reproduces the original drafts of Eliot's Poem, complete with annotations and recommendations by Eliot's good friend and advisor Ezra Pound.Through these early drafts, the reader can see both the large amount of text that was cut and the fact that the final part of the poem "what the thunder said" went virtually unchanged from the first draft to publication.If you hope to understand the challenging, complex text of 'The Waste Land', this is a fine place to begin.

Waste Land born by "Caesarian Operation", and mystery solved
Valerie Eliot's publication of her late husband's Waste Land manuscripts affords the reader an opportunity to delve beneath the mysteries surrounding this truly remarkable poem. Hailed as the "greatest poemof the 20th century", a masterpiece which "captured thedisillusionment of a generation"; indeed, as the"justification" of Ezra Pound's modernist "experiment",yet referred to by Eliot, himself, as "just a piece of rythmicalgrumbling", the Waste Land is sure to spark off in any reader aburning desire to know more than Eliot's powerful words can ever themselvesexplain.

Written primarily during a "rest cure" on"Margate Sands" ("I can connect Nothing with Nothing")and Laussanne, Switzerland; following what Eliot's London doctor diagnosedas a "nervous breakdown", but which the poet refferred to in hisletters as an "aboulie", or state of "emotionalderangement"; it is little wonder that the poem is not an easy one tocome to grips with. In the years following it's publication, countlessreaders and critics, following the "clues" left by the poet inhis now infamous "Notes", have charged off in pursuit of answersand meanings in places they shall never be found. Eliot later explained tohis friend, Pound, on whom the poet had bestowed the task (or honour, inthis critic's opinion) of editing his original manuscript - that his"Notes" had done little more than lead his readers on a wildgoosechase after holy grails and other crazy things which had littlebearing on the poem itself. The fact that Pound, the editor, chose, and waspermitted by the author, to slash out over half of the original Waste Landfragments in an operation which he described as the "CaesarianOperation" speaks volumes for itself. For it was in this operationthat Pound's theories on Vortisism and Imagisme, and Eliot's own theorieson poetic "impersonality" and committment to the "GreatTradition" were fused. The result - the final masterwork, the"cult" poem we know today. In the manuscript publication, themissing pieces to Eliot's inticate puzzle are at last to be found .If youare an Eliot fan, or have any interest whatsoever in the Modernistmovement, or the inner workings of a creative genius' mind - this book isan absolute MUST ! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pure unadulterated T.S. Eliot
A wonderful volume for those interested in T.S. Eliot. Be warned! Does not contain any annotations (other than Eliot's) or introductions. You get the texts and thats it. This is a wonderful investment, but just make sure you buy a Companion or a Study on Eliot to go along with it. Unless of course you have studied T.S. Eliot before and know what your doing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Nothing wrong with the way this book was written
"No one has examined the poems more sensitively or set down his results more lucidly.His analyses of 'The Waste Land' and of many other poems are the most complete, reliable, and forthright yet written; they are the product of a deep and long knowledge of Eliot's work."

--Richard Ellman

Cull your highschool essays from here..
I've not been well pleased by this book. Though some of its insights are valuable, and though it is somewhat well researched and fairly comprehensive, it's a chore to read. The author has a style that borders on the incomprehensible -- one feels that he is one of these people who uses tortuous turns of phrase in the mistaken belief that they'll make him seem sophisticated. As a result, the text is disjointed and difficult, its arguments meandering and ill-defined. Williamson has some good ideas, and probably knows what he means, but doesn't get his points across clearly -- it's almost as though he's trying to emulate Eliot's style (or to merely restate the poetry as prose) and, frankly, one often feels as though Williamson has ideas above his station.

In short, this has all of the hallmarks of high school essay-writing -- perhaps the author has spent too long in the company of his students. Using 'difficult' language is neither big nor clever if it serves only to obfuscate meaning; here, the wealth of double-negatives, run-on sentences and unexplained, bewildering conjecture is simply not helpful to the reader of an already difficult poet. If the reader works at it, he or she will gleam some benefit from this book - but there are far better, and better written, works out there. If in doubt, take a look at the excerpts on this site -- it may be that the rather purple prose will appeal to some readers; but I regret that where I had hoped for intelligent discourse, I instead found awkwardly adolescent writing that thought itself more clever than it actually was. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pure unadulterated T.S. Eliot
A wonderful volume for those interested in T.S. Eliot. Be warned! Does not contain any annotations (other than Eliot's) or introductions. You get the texts and thats it. This is a wonderful investment, but just make sure you buy a Companion or a Study on Eliot to go along with it. Unless of course you have studied T.S. Eliot before and know what your doing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Nothing wrong with the way this book was written
"No one has examined the poems more sensitively or set down his results more lucidly.His analyses of 'The Waste Land' and of many other poems are the most complete, reliable, and forthright yet written; they are the product of a deep and long knowledge of Eliot's work."

--Richard Ellman

Cull your highschool essays from here..
I've not been well pleased by this book. Though some of its insights are valuable, and though it is somewhat well researched and fairly comprehensive, it's a chore to read. The author has a style that borders on the incomprehensible -- one feels that he is one of these people who uses tortuous turns of phrase in the mistaken belief that they'll make him seem sophisticated. As a result, the text is disjointed and difficult, its arguments meandering and ill-defined. Williamson has some good ideas, and probably knows what he means, but doesn't get his points across clearly -- it's almost as though he's trying to emulate Eliot's style (or to merely restate the poetry as prose) and, frankly, one often feels as though Williamson has ideas above his station.

In short, this has all of the hallmarks of high school essay-writing -- perhaps the author has spent too long in the company of his students. Using 'difficult' language is neither big nor clever if it serves only to obfuscate meaning; here, the wealth of double-negatives, run-on sentences and unexplained, bewildering conjecture is simply not helpful to the reader of an already difficult poet. If the reader works at it, he or she will gleam some benefit from this book - but there are far better, and better written, works out there. If in doubt, take a look at the excerpts on this site -- it may be that the rather purple prose will appeal to some readers; but I regret that where I had hoped for intelligent discourse, I instead found awkwardly adolescent writing that thought itself more clever than it actually was. ... Read more

Book Description

Modernist poetry heralded a radical new aesthetic of experimentation, pioneering new verse forms and subjects, and changing the very notion of what it meant to be a poet. This volume examines T.S. Eliot, T.E. Hulme and Ezra Pound, three of the most influential figures of the modernist movement, and argues that we cannot dissociate their bold, inventive poetic forms from their profoundly engaged theories of social and political reform.

Tracing the complex theoretical foundations of modernist poetics, Rebecca Beasley examines:

• the aesthetic modes and theories that formed a context for modernism
• the influence of contemporary philosophical movements
• the modernist critique of democracy
• the importance of the First World War
• modernisms programmes for social reform.

This volume offers invaluable insight into the modernist movement, as well as demonstrating the deep influence of the three poets onthe shape and values of the discipline of English Literature itself. Theorists of Modernist Poetry is relevant not only to students of modernism, but to all those with an interest in why we study, teach, read and evaluate literature the way we do.

Book Description
A study of a literary success, and the forces that combine to create a successful literary movement, Discovering Modernism places T.S. Eliot in his cultural context to discover why his poetry and criticism answered the needs of a particular moment.Menand's analysis, which includes a
reevaluation of the influence of Eliot's doctoral dissertation if philosophy on his later work, yields fresh readings of some familiar features of Elito's style--the use of literary allusion, the valorization of "tradition," the critical formulae of the objective corrolative and the dissociation of
sensibility, and the notes to The Waste Land.But this book is about more than T.S. Eliot.Because Menands's larger subject is the crisis in literature that produced Eliot and the entire Modernist movement, he examines the ways in which the literary values of the 19th century became problems for
their 20th century counterparts.With its duscussion of such topics as Conrad and the rise of professionalism, Darwinism and the late 19th century notion of style, Tennyson's posthumous reputation, and Pater and the Imagists, its strenghtens our knowledge of the ties that bound Modernism to the
19th century, and sheds new light on how writers go about "making it new." ... Read more

Product Description
This volume brings together three of T. S. Eliot's powerful collections into one. It includes such classic poems as "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Portrait of a Lady," "Preludes," "Gerontion," "Sweeney Among the Nightingales," and "The Waste Land." ... Read more

Amazon.com
Published in the fiery days of World War II, Four Quartets stands as a testament to the power of poetry amid the chaos of the time. Let the words speak for themselves: "The dove descending breaks the air/With flame of incandescent terror/Of which the tongues declare/The only discharge from sin and error/The only hope, or the despair/Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre--/To be redeemed from fire by fire./Who then devised this torment?/Love/Love is the unfamiliar Name/Behind the hands that wave/The intolerable shirt of flame/Which human power cannot remove./We only live, only suspire/Consumed by either fire or fire."Book Description
T. S. Eliot reads his famous cycle of poems, a testament of faith even for those who profess no faith, a book of far-from-common prayer for many who rejectprayers and prayer books and formal religion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Eliot's Four Quartets
The Four Quartets by TS Eliot is a classic and should not be missed. It is of the type of poetry that evokes meanings from their hidden places in us through the use of word trails that are only partially logical. Our own emotions connect things, so when it is read, don't approach it with the usual straining to decipher the meaning. The ring of a gong lingers after it is struck, something of a parallel to how the poem works. Fascinating, too, is its approach to understanding the elusive sense of time, but it is couched more in the sensibilities of the East than the West.

All art ... approaches the condition of music.
Among all these reviews, not one comes to terms with the very title of this opus: Four Quartets. When was Eliot anything but precise in his choice of word?

The inspiration for these poems -- or reflections -- are the late string quartets of Beethoven, those numbered from 12 through 16. It is the 5-movement No.15 in A Minor,Op.132, that seems to have exerted the strongest influence, with it's famous adagio movement, which Beethoven inscribed as the thanksgiving song of a convalescent.

Actually, No.15 was the 13th in order, but the Quartets were published out of sequence, which was not uncommon in Beethoven's time. The Late Quartets progress from the classic 4-movement No.12 and add a movement to each work up to the 7-movement Op.131 in C-sharp Minor. The 16th and final quartet returns to the classic 4-movement form. There is an expansion of form concluding with a contraction and return over the course of 5 works.

Like Eliot's Four Quartets, Beethoven's Late Quartets reflect upon time and faith -- and the 'speech' is often plain: repeated phrases that appear stuck in a groove, hammered chords, cheap tunes that seem to be lifted from a band in a local inn; fromlong-breathed melodies that look beyond what Wagner and Mahler will eventually bring to music, to cell-like motivs not heard again till Bartok and Webern.

The 'learned' aspect of Eliot's verse can lead us astray, so that we are forever parsing the meaning of the lines. I am taken with the sounds he makes as I read the poems aloud, and the sounds he chose to convey what the poems mean are, in a sense, the essence of meaning. From the first I was struck by the sheer sound of 'time' in the context of these Quartets, which are Eliot's swan song.

Four Quartets
This is a tiny book, more like a pamphlet, only 58 pages long with large print and some blank pages as part of the design.But it is mighty in its impact.These "four quartets" are four of T. S. Eliot's poems meditating (among other things) on the nature of time- time past, time present, time future...If you are of my generation and have read the poems before, you might love carrying this little book around just to dip into it for a line or two, and maybe understand something you never understood before.(T. S. Eliot is not always an easy read.)If you have never read them before, I envy you!

T.S. Eliot for Sikhs
I am a deeply religious Sikh living in America.The Four Quartets is to me a shining example of a man of deep understanding of God and reality.I have read this poem many times since I first read it back in college.It speaks directly to my soul.There is no passage, no phrase, which does not work for me.

I read some sections to my wife when we were first married, and she thought that it was an English translation of the Sikh holy texts.

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time"

There is no better explanation of Eastern religion than this.I am eternally grateful for this work.

The Warrior and the God: T.S.Eliot and The Four Quartets
There is a line in Section III of "The Dry Salvages" that has bothered people: "I sometimes wonder if that is what Krishna meant--" as perhaps being too overdone, or even unnecessary to the poem...but, the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna does give some insight into Eliot's comments on time and reality...when Arjuna is faced with the possibility of killing his own relatives in the opposing army, he can't handle it...Krishna then tells him that it doesn't matter....because of the immortal aspect of The Atman (man's inner spirit) which is not touched by our reality....no one really dies and so, only the doing is important:"Realize that pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, are all one and the same."And so, in relation to the poem, Time is looked at in much the same way...We have the illusion of leaving and arriving: "You are not the same people who left that station Or who will arrive at any Terminus"...it doesn't matter what you think or your regard for the fruits of your actions...the only important duty is to make the trip: "Not fare well,/but fare forward, voyagers." Being in the flow of time, living moment to moment, doing what is necessary is all....perhaps, at the quantum level, as another reviewer has suggested: normal perceptions are topsy-turvey, we're in the rabbit hole and if we can see that, then:"...the way up is the way down, the way forward is the/way back./You cannot face it steadlly, but this thing is sure,/That time is no healer:the patient is no longer here." When the insight is achieved, time disappears, all duality vanished and you are left with that still point of consciousness only seeming to act...so, what the hell?: "Fare forward." or as Krishna would put it: "That which is non-existent can never come into being and that which is can never cease to be."----Don Hildenbrand/Eugene, OR., USA ... Read more

Book Description
T. S. Eliot reads

• The Four Quartets,
• The Waste Land,
• The Hollow Men

and some of his other poems."It is always something of a revelation to listen to a poet reading his or her own words, and this is no exception. Eliot clearly and evenly characterizes and reveals the voices of some of his most important works in this excellent reading."-Library Journal

Customer Reviews (5)

A Perfect Pairing
As someone who has spent months studying Eliot, I can say with conviction that the people who have given this work unfavorable ratings do not understand his poetry.Eliot reads his work with a dry, depressing voice that does not necessarily pay attention to the punctuation and is, admitedly, not always pleasant to listen to.
His reading of the poetry, however, is exactly how it is meant to be read.His interpretation of his poems becomes clear through the reading, and this harsh unmoving voice serves only to further the mood that each poem evokes.While it is not something to listen to at a party or other lighthearted gathering, if one wants to get the most realistic view of Eliot's poetry, it is necessary to listen to his recordings.

Tedious and dismal
The poetry itself is great, but you wouldn't know it listening to this tedious depressing voice.I supose it could be good to know how Eliot himself thought the poetry should sound, but I think I will stick with my own fantasy of how it should sound.

I suspect anyone coming to Eliot for the first time through this collection would probably give up and turn to someone else.

How could this not be great!
Eliot's voice reading his own poems.The sound of a pair of ragged claws scratching across the shores of silent seas...Anyway, although a rough reference there, I know, his dry, almost detached demeanor reflected in hismonophonic, monotonic voice perfectly captures the true tenor and substanceof the poems.I would highly recommend these tapes for anyone intoElliot's work.

Unpleased
Dear Amazon reader (or listerner for this matter) please read this before you buy T.S. Eliot's tapes. When I first opened the box and placed the tape into the player, it was as though I had let a demon out into my room. T.S.Eliot's voice is very unattractive, and utterly disgraceful. I love T.S.Eliot's works and to listen to him read them (with absolute no rythym)wasunbearable. Rather than buying this, you should just buy His completeworks. Thank you.

Eliot's excellent oratory enhances his poetic genius.
T. S. Eliot is a fantastic orator. Listening to him read his masterpieces-arguably the best body of work written in English in this century- hasimmeasurably enhanced my appreciation of the bizzarre and beautiful musicof his lines. Before hearing these tapes, I had been indifferent to someof Eliot's poems; now his tapes have shown me how to read his rhythms andstart to untangle his tropes, allowing me to better appreciate his verbaland metaphysical mastery. Anyone who likes Eliot's poetry, and anyone whohas trouble appreciating it on the printed page alone, should definitelybuy these tapes, and more. ... Read more

Book Description

Includes:

The Waste Land

The Hollow Men

"Journey of the Magi" from the Ariel Poems

La Figlia che Piange

Landscapes: New Hampshire; Virginia; Usk; Rannoch by Glencoe Cape Ann

Morning at the Window

Difficulties of a Statesman from Coriolan

Sweeney Among the Nightingales

Whispers of Immortality

Macavity: the Mystery Cat

Customer Reviews (2)

Not quite essential
I love these recordings, particularly the one of The Wasteland.However, Prufrock is missing.

Inadequate content.
Buyer beware! It is wonderful to hear Eliot read his poetry, but this CD collection is much reduced in content from Caedmon's audiotape collection: T.S. Eliot Reads: The Wasteland, Four Quartets and Other Poem. One can hardly imagine Eliot without "Four Quartets," "Ash Wednesday," and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," so one cannot call this CD "Essential Eliot." Because of this, the word "unabridged" on the cover appears misleading, even deceptive. Caedmon & HarperCollins need replicate the audiotape content on compact disc, so that superior content can be wedded with the superior medium. ... Read more

Book Description
Certain of these poems first appeared in Poetry, Blast, Others, The LittleReview, and Art and Letters. Contents: Gerontion; Burbank with a Baedeker:Bleistein with a Cigar; Sweeney Erect; A Cooking Egg; Le Directeur; Melangeadultere de tout; Lune de Miel; The Hippopotamus; Dans le Restaurant; Whispersof Immortality; Mr. Eliot's Sunday Morning Service; Sweeney Among theNightingales; The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; Portrait of a Lady; Preludes;Rhapsody on a Windy Night; Morning at the Window; The Boston Evening Transcript;Aunt Helen; Cousin Nancy; Mr. Apollinax; Hysteria; Conversation Galante; LaFiglia Che Pianga. ... Read more