7th out of 196 books
—
189 voters
Collected Poems, 1909-1962
by
T.S. Eliot
There is no more authoritative collection of the poetry that Eliot himself wished to preserve than this volume, published two years before his death in 1965.
Poet, dramatist, critic, and editor, T. S. Eliot was one of the defining figures of twentieth-century poetry. This edition of Collected Poems 1909-1962 includes his verse from Prufrock and Other Observations (1917) to...more
Poet, dramatist, critic, and editor, T. S. Eliot was one of the defining figures of twentieth-century poetry. This edition of Collected Poems 1909-1962 includes his verse from Prufrock and Other Observations (1917) to...more
Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
September 25th 1963
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published 1963)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
That's all the facts, when you come to brass tacks:...more
Birth, and copulation, and death.
I've been born and once is enough.
You don't remember, but I remember,
Once is enough.
Well here again that don't apply
But I've gotta use words when I talk to you
When you're alone like he was alone
You're either or neither
I tell you again it don't apply
Death or life or life or death
Death is life and life is death
I gotta use words when I talk to you
But if you understand or if you don't
That's nothing to me and nothing
Oct 19, 2011
Xavier
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
poesía,
literatura-norteamericana
Me gustó la forma de escribir similar al collage de Eliot, de cierta forma lo asocié a mi propia escritura y por eso me acerque a esta recopilación de textos. Eliot definitivamente fue un gran poeta y sus Cuatro Cuartetos son la muestra definitiva de ello, aunque en Tierra Baldía o Miércoles de Ceniza se pueden encontrar también pruebas de la lucidez de Eliot al escribir. Le puse tres por que a momentos el tono religioso que adquiere su poesía la vuelve aburrida y pierde rasgos vanguardistas com...more
Way too much here for a real review, but I had to write something about the volume that's been my tattered, marked-up, much-loved companion for twelve years now. I feel Eliot's ache for transcendence, his paralyzing frustration at the limitations of language to communicate the depths of our souls. And yet he did it better than anyone ever has. It's intellectual, yes, but it's from an intellectual perpetually pushing across into the visceral, never quite unifying it all fully, and knowing that th...more
Aug 04, 2011
Jacob Aitken
added it
Good theology can be iconic. And being iconic it is poetic. It is an icon put in words. It is like faithful hermeneutics. The Patristics were accused of Platonizing and allegorizing. Not so. Despite all their excesses, they saw (better than the academic professor today) that the Bible yearns to break through with new meaning and simple, surface level interpretations are not enough.
Not to diminish literal interpretation, but not to exalt it either.
T.S. Eliot is probably the supreme example of a...more
Not to diminish literal interpretation, but not to exalt it either.
T.S. Eliot is probably the supreme example of a...more
I'm not going to pretend to have anything original to say about the poetry of T.S. Eliot. My personal reaction to his poetry as presented in this volume (which are poems he chose to represent his work for posterity) is that some of his work is worth close study but that none of it is very appealing.
Perhaps among the many things we can attribute to him is the advent of academic poetry that is only or primarily rewarding to people with a broad and deep education. One thing Eliot saw fit not to in...more
Perhaps among the many things we can attribute to him is the advent of academic poetry that is only or primarily rewarding to people with a broad and deep education. One thing Eliot saw fit not to in...more
Critics of Eliot damn his work for its difficulties - and one cannot deny that its complicated diversions into technical and structural experimentation, mythical reference and multilingual commentary do initially intimidate. The beauty of Eliot's poetry is that it grows with you. Eliot doesn't always succeed, and many of his poems seem trite and pretentious, but when he succeeds he hits dead on with poetry perfect in form, balance, and sound. There is the man here, the poet as reflected in his o...more
Don't really know--
I have a mixed feeling about Eliot's poems. I found his Prufrock impenetrable, The Wasteland annoying, frustrating, and mostly incomprehensible, Ash Wednesday somewhat interesting in parts but too heavily religious. His The Hollow Men, however, resonated with me in all its haunting and chilling overtones. Ariel Poems, Minor Poems, Unfinished Poems were all meh (and can anyone explain to me what the hell's going on in his eerily Beckett-esque Sweeney's Agonistes?!?!?). Four Qua...more
I have a mixed feeling about Eliot's poems. I found his Prufrock impenetrable, The Wasteland annoying, frustrating, and mostly incomprehensible, Ash Wednesday somewhat interesting in parts but too heavily religious. His The Hollow Men, however, resonated with me in all its haunting and chilling overtones. Ariel Poems, Minor Poems, Unfinished Poems were all meh (and can anyone explain to me what the hell's going on in his eerily Beckett-esque Sweeney's Agonistes?!?!?). Four Qua...more
"...You dozed, and watched the night revealing
The thousand sordid images
Of which your soul was constituted..." (preludes)
"...And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties...
Impatient to assume the world.
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
To the notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing." (preludes)
"Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised..." (Prufrock)
"For I have known them...more
The thousand sordid images
Of which your soul was constituted..." (preludes)
"...And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties...
Impatient to assume the world.
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
To the notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing." (preludes)
"Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised..." (Prufrock)
"For I have known them...more
Eliot was the first poet that I was drawn to as I began my intellectual and artistic maturation. My high school English teacher showed us "The Hollow Men", and "Preludes". I fell in love with them on first reading, and there is something about Eliot's style that is so affecting; he places words in an order that, from a more objective point of view is quite odd, but create such a vivid mood or atmosphere that you can't help but be moved. This is especially true of his later work, like the infamou...more
American-born T.S. Eliot considered the Irish writer W.B. Yeats to be the greatest poet of his generation. But it's hard to find a writer more influential than Eliot himself, and the Collected Poems shows the full range of his talents. While today his poetry feels energetic and captivating, for his time it was considered quite radical, its free-verses and mundane images of city life moved away from conventional meters and florid landscapes that characterized 19th century poetry. Among his most w...more
I've spent my life reading Eliot. When I was a high school junior I had a teacher who turned me on to poetry. She showed me the truth in Sandburg, but I soon discovered Eliot on my own. A story I still love to tell is how I spent the summer of my 17th year walking around with a library copy of Eliot's poems under my arm. A cousin asked me, "You're not reading that stuff, are you?" Well, I was and still am.
My copy of Collected Poems was the second hardcover book I ever bought, after Sandburg's Co...more
My copy of Collected Poems was the second hardcover book I ever bought, after Sandburg's Co...more
TS ELIOT AND WALLACE STEVENS: A CONTRAST BETWEEN TWO OBLIVIOUS POETS
There are basically two kinds of poets, those who want you to understand and those who don't care. The difference between the poetry they make is simple. The accessible poet writes foremost to communicate, to put himself out there for you the reader to learn from, to like or to dislike. He has a story to tell and uses verse to tell it. Even when he employs obscure terms, they are like rare ornaments or odd accessories to a cent...more
There are basically two kinds of poets, those who want you to understand and those who don't care. The difference between the poetry they make is simple. The accessible poet writes foremost to communicate, to put himself out there for you the reader to learn from, to like or to dislike. He has a story to tell and uses verse to tell it. Even when he employs obscure terms, they are like rare ornaments or odd accessories to a cent...more
It's weird. I'm pretty sure I dislike reading T.S. Eliot's poetry. I was trying to find some words to explain this, and here's what I came up with. They remind me of the monuments in good old Washington DC. The first time you see them, there they are, all towering stone and wrought figures, some very human, some quite abstract representational polygons, full of whatever amount of symbolic subtext. Mighty. Intimidating. White. Symmetrical. Immovable. Seemingly there from the outset of time, meani...more
Jan 25, 2008
Paul
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
poetry-is-language-on-drugs
What the hell does this mean? Anybody?
SWEENEY AMONG THE NIGHTINGALES
Apeneck Sweeney spreads his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to maculate giraffe.
The circles of the stormy moon
Slide westward toward the River Plate,
Death and the Raven drift above
And Sweeney guards the hornèd gate.
Gloomy Orion and the Dog
Are veiled; and hushed the shrunken seas;
The person in the Spanish cape
Tries to sit on Sweeney’s knees
Slips and pulls the table clot...more
SWEENEY AMONG THE NIGHTINGALES
Apeneck Sweeney spreads his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to maculate giraffe.
The circles of the stormy moon
Slide westward toward the River Plate,
Death and the Raven drift above
And Sweeney guards the hornèd gate.
Gloomy Orion and the Dog
Are veiled; and hushed the shrunken seas;
The person in the Spanish cape
Tries to sit on Sweeney’s knees
Slips and pulls the table clot...more
Poetry is funny stuff. Either you "get" it or you don't. And there are as many different kinds of poetry as there are of prose, and what differs in style and form can convey a simlar message, and vice versa.
T. S. Eliot has some lovely pieces that can be read on their own, with pleasure and profit, things like The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock or The Boston Evening Transcript or things like that. The key, though, is to read enough of Eliot to ascertain not only the attitude of individual pieces...more
T. S. Eliot has some lovely pieces that can be read on their own, with pleasure and profit, things like The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock or The Boston Evening Transcript or things like that. The key, though, is to read enough of Eliot to ascertain not only the attitude of individual pieces...more
Quite simply, this collection is one of the best books I have ever read. 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', 'The Waste Land', 'Ash Wednesday' and 'Four Quartets' are among my favourite poems- they have a complexity of thought and imagery which can be possessed only by great works of poetry, and have led me to meditate on their meaning for much time. Read them, and I'm sure you'll enjoy them as much as I have and find a new intellectual rigour to your understanding of life and reality.
Okay, so he was one of the most politically conservative poets in the world, and I only just recently learned that he virtually ripped off quite a number of lines in "The Waste Land" from other famous myths and historical works.
But his verse is completely gorgeous and perplexing, and I read it in a state of wonderment for years with unquestioned pleasure. "Four Quartets" remains one of my favorite meditations on living ever.
But his verse is completely gorgeous and perplexing, and I read it in a state of wonderment for years with unquestioned pleasure. "Four Quartets" remains one of my favorite meditations on living ever.
As far as poetry goes, Eliot probably has the most complex style I've ever read. He is (was) elloquent and stylish and yet you need a great deal of esoteric knowledge to get all the references in his verse. His writing makes you think and then research and then think some more.
This particular edition is one I own and has paid for itself many times over.
Any more review by me would be pointless. Read this.
This particular edition is one I own and has paid for itself many times over.
Any more review by me would be pointless. Read this.
There are definitely high and low points in Eliot's work, varying from okay to amazing that makes it difficult to give a rating to the entire collection. Other than "Prufrock" most of his early work is infuriatingly obscure and allusive, and without context, the fragments in "Unfinished Poems" aren't particularly enjoyable to read. "Ariel Poems" and "Choruses from 'The Rock'" were the pleasant surprises for me, and of course "The Four Quartets" lived up to their reputed quality.
I've had various copies of this over the years. And here's how it works: I will always have a copy of Eliot's complete poems on my bookshelf. Every city, every university, every town, every career--- I'll always have "The Waste Land" and "The Four Quartets" and "Ash Wednesday" and "Choruses From the Rock" there ready to hand. I can't imagine being without Tom Eliot's voice and words nearby.
My copy of this little book is also battered and worn with notes written throughout the margins.
Yes, some of his images are a little over the top, but the poems that are slam dunks such as "Journey of the Magi," "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Whispers of Immortality," and The Waste Land are wonderful and do connect with many people.
Yes, some of his images are a little over the top, but the poems that are slam dunks such as "Journey of the Magi," "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Whispers of Immortality," and The Waste Land are wonderful and do connect with many people.
It's been the strangest thing, but for days stray bits of Eliot had been popping up in my conversation. (Don't worry. I sounded less dorky than working Eliot in would imply.) In an effort to get him out of my system, I picked this up again. Yep, he's still fantastic. And that's not just hometown St. Louis pride talking.
REALLY WEIRD. Garlic and sapphires! Eliot has a lot of...rather abstract imagery...argh. I seriously don't think I got the point of what Eliot was saying...my mind is probably just not deep enough. I do like the way he writes, though...If I understood it, I would probably love it. But I don't. So I can't.
Despite the fact that T.S. Eliot was a (likely) anti-Semitic asshole, and the utterly impenetrable pretension of "The Waste Land," his poetry has a rhythm that speaks directly to all the things I love about the written word. I'm not much for poetry, but "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a masterpiece.
Dec 06, 2011
Bee
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
to-reread,
quasi-autobiographical
An excellent collection. <3
My only quibble is that one of my favourites, The Hollow Men, doesn't appear inside.
...Well, except if you write it out on a separate sheet of paper and tuck it into the back. But that was an improvement by me, so I'm not sure that counts. :)
My only quibble is that one of my favourites, The Hollow Men, doesn't appear inside.
...Well, except if you write it out on a separate sheet of paper and tuck it into the back. But that was an improvement by me, so I'm not sure that counts. :)
My only disappointment with this collection is that it does not include the poems from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
I haven't read poetry for a few months, and enjoyed the
escapism of the wordplay here. Here's one of my favourite passages,
from a poem titled "Burnt Norton from Four Quartets." (You must read
it aloud to get the full effect.)
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might ha...more
escapism of the wordplay here. Here's one of my favourite passages,
from a poem titled "Burnt Norton from Four Quartets." (You must read
it aloud to get the full effect.)
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might ha...more
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is one of my all time favorite poems and of course The Waste Land, the poem that changed the history of poetry in the 20th century. The only poems I wasnt familiar with in the collection was the Choruses from "The Rock". It was really interestign to witness the more mature Eliot and his religious preoccupation later on in his life.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
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 Individ...more
More about T.S. Eliot...
Share This Book
2 trivia questions
1 quiz
More quizzes & trivia...
1 quiz
“music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but
you are the music
While the music lasts.”
—
45 people liked it
That it is not heard at all, but
you are the music
While the music lasts.”
“You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends,
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!”
—
40 people liked it
More quotes…
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!”

Loading...










view all 21 comments


















