Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:Portrait of a LadyThou hast committed —Fornication: but that was in another country,And besides, the wench is dead.The Jew Of Malta.Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoonYou have the scene arrange itself as it will seemto do —With " I have saved this afternoon for you "; And four wax candles in the darkened room, Four rings of light upon the ceiling overhead, An atmosphere of Juliet's tomb Prepared for all the things to be said, or left unsaid. We have been, let us say, to hear the latest Pole Transmit the Preludes, through his hair and finger-tips. " So intimate, this Chopin, that I think his soul Should be resurrected only among friends Some two or three, who will not touch the bloom That is rubbed and questioned in the concert room." — And so the conversation slips Among velleities and carefully caught regrets Through attenuated tones of violins Mingled with remote cornets And begins. " You do not know how much they mean to me, myfriends,And how, how rare and strange it is, to find In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends, (For indeed I do not love it ... you knew? you are not blind!How keen you are!) To find a friend who has these qualities, Who has, and gives Those qualities upon which friendship lives. How much it means that I say this to you — Without these friendships — life, what cauchemar! " Among the windings of the violins And the ariettes Of cracked cornets Inside my brain a dull tom-tom begins Absurdly hammering a prelude of its own, Capricious monotone That is at least one definite " false note." — Let us take the air, in a tobacco trance, Admire the monuments Discuss the late events, Correct our watches by the public clocks. Then sit for half an hour and drink our bocks. Now that l... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

confused
I am only able to read the titles on this download.My kindle is new.Can anyone tell me how I'm meant to read the actual poems?

Many important poems are missing from this selection.
Caveat emptor: nothing later than 1922 in this collection - i.e. nothing from 'The Hollow Men', 'Ash-Wednesday', 'Ariel' poems, the Four Quartets,etc. etc. A seriously deficient selection. ... Read more

Product Description
A. David Moody's Thomas Stearns Eliot: Poet was published to acclaim in 1979, with a successful paperback following in 1980. This carefully revised and corrected second edition, with a specially written preface and a new appendix, meets the demand for one of the classic studies of the twentieth century's best-known poet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Thomas Stearns Eliot Poet by A. David Moody
I have taken many notes from this beautifully written book about Eliot by A. David Moody. Never have I read anything on Eliot that has so moved me as a poet, both on the professional and personal level. I was impressed by Professor Moody's incisive, original insights and finely shaped prose. I read literary criticism, as I read literature in general, for the knowledge gained, for intellectural stimulation and for the sheer pleasure of "a good read."Moody achieves all this and more. As a reader I was taken for the first time into the complex workings of Eliot's mind, emotions and creative life via the poetry, as presented by Moody. This is imaginative and thought-provoking book, while all the time expressed inbeautiful prose. A poet of Eliot's stature deserves the best of critical writing and this is what Moody brings into the field of Eliot criticism.I recommend this book to all who are interested in Eliot and also to those who enjoy a book for the sheer pleasure it brings, as a literary work in itself. You can't go wrong with Thomas Stearns Eliot Poet by A. David Moody.
-- Carolyn M. Grassi, poet, creative writing teacher (Pacifica, CA)
author: Transparencies, Poems (Patmos Press, San Francisco CA)
Journey to Chartres (Black Swan Books)

Useful in some respects, but overall somewhat disappointing
A. David Moody's THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT: Poet first appeared in 1979 and proved a very popular account of the Eliot's entire body of poetry. This second edition appeared in 1994, and besides minor corrections it features a new preface and a new appendix.

Moody's focus here is on Eliot's poetry in itself. The poet's biography is kept to a minimum, and there is little discussion of the role of Vivien Eliot, let alone Emily Hale or Jean Verdenal. The poems are, however, linked to Eliot's thoughts as a critic. In the main, Moody examples the metre and imagery of Eliot's writing, and in the later poetry the social and political concepts that the poet sought to express.

While the book is useful, I was unhappy with it for several reasons. One is that Moody's writing is extremely plodding. I read criticism frequently, and I find this probably the most unfriendly accounts of a poet's work that I've yet encountered. The poor typesetting and printing don't help either, and one expects better of Cambridge University Press.

Furthermore, the book is also dated in many respects. One can rejoice that it appeared after the discovery of the manuscripts of "The Waste Land", saving us from the old conjectures such as "The Hollow Men" coming out of TWL scraps. Nonetheless, the discussion of the early poetry lacks all the material revealed after the discovery of the drafts collected in Inventions of the March Hare Poems 1909-1917. Furthermore, the main body of the work was left alone when the second edition appeared, and the author says outright that he did not want to include recent developments in Eliot studies. What kind of scholar intentionally ignores progress in the field?

And finally, Moody's discussion of the "Burbank" poem completely ignores its anti-Semitism. Now, since Moody is examining the work instead of the man, I don't expect him to hammer Eliot for it, but no one can deny that the crude reference to the Jew in the poem makes it very weak poetry.

If you are a fan of T.S. Eliot's work, this is worth seeking out in your university's collections. Copies are now priced economically, so getting your own copy might be appealing, but I still think that it's not worth it. ... Read more

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A concise survey of Eliot's poetry and prose. Discusses the influence other writers had on his work and the manner in which Eliot's religious feelings found expressions in his poems and essays. ... Read more

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The Wast Land is both the most controversial and the most influential poem of the 20th Century. Every sizable anthology of modern verse includes it, and when smaller collections leave it out, the anthologists feel called upon to explain themselves. Critics and historians of modern literature invariably discuss its meaning and influence, and literary autobiographers give accounts of their first meeting with it. If The Waste Land is not Eliot's finest poem, about this there is also dispute, even Mr. Eliot recognizes it as his most famous, his inexpensive paperback collection is significantly called The Was Land and other Poems. What The Rape of the Lock was to the Augustans and Tintern Abbey to the Romantics, The Waste Land has become to the Moderns. It is inescapable ... Read more