book data
447 ratings,
4.44
average rating, 37 reviews
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published
1963
by Hartcourt Brace & Company
binding
221 pages
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avg 4.44
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
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...more
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Read in February, 2008
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 t...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 t...more
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22 comments
Read in January, 1993
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 atti...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 atti...more
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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.
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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.
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My only disappointment with this collection is that it does not include the poems from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
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Read in January, 2007
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
R...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
R...more
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Read in January, 2007
Everything's here--even unfinished poems--but there is no intro or annotations, so you're kind of on your own!
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Beautiful. "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" and "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" are my absolute favorites.
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Read in March, 2009
I love this guy. Even though he's hard to get it has always been worth the study for me.
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Read in February, 2009
This collection includes all of TS Eliot's classic poems. I do not read poetry often but I have been told, and think it is true, that being familiar with poetry helps you become a better and more concise communicator.
In this volume I especially enjoyed "The Love Song of J. ALfred Prufrock", "The Hippopatmus", "The Waste Land", "Hollow Man" and "Ash Wednesday". Especially "The Waste Land" and "Hollow Man" for th...more
In this volume I especially enjoyed "The Love Song of J. ALfred Prufrock", "The Hippopatmus", "The Waste Land", "Hollow Man" and "Ash Wednesday". Especially "The Waste Land" and "Hollow Man" for th...more
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Read in June, 2008
This rating is not based on the poetry, but the collection. Elliot wrote some of my favorite poetry, but this book simply did not give any notes except for a couple short ones after "The Waste Land". It did organize them nicely, but there were still many places where a line or two would be written in another language, and I was searching for any place where the book could translate those few words for me.
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hmmm, he's dark and i find his keen-ness
sometimes too sharp for my tender hands
but i appreciate the tartness of his scathing vision...
i imagine him writing with a skewer in his hand, jabbing it in the direction of anyone coming near him, but to protect a thin skin, a frog like fragility
i think i will keep reading...
he has moved me to tears so many times now.
sometimes too sharp for my tender hands
but i appreciate the tartness of his scathing vision...
i imagine him writing with a skewer in his hand, jabbing it in the direction of anyone coming near him, but to protect a thin skin, a frog like fragility
i think i will keep reading...
he has moved me to tears so many times now.
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Read in June, 2009
We read and discussed some short poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, and The Four Quartets for our "literary circle. Reading Eliot is mindbending, and I highly recommend discussing his poetry with a teenager. I learned as much from the teenager's perspectives and insights as I did from reading and studying the poems myself.
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
big hearts of poetry
As a sort of disclaimer, I had to give this three stars only because the copy I bought at the Salvation Army is so filled with someone's underlinings and notes and drawings and scribbles that I had a really hard time focusing on the words. But still the words were so beautiful and I could read The Waste Land every day for the rest of my life.
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
the melancholiacs
Like the pretentious English major that I am, this is my current read. But current love? "Portrait of a Lady" is pretty damn topical. And from "Rhapsody on a Windy Night," (bad title, good poem): "Midnight shakes the memory/ As a madman shakes a dead geranium" may well persist as a love beyond current days.
Who are you, TSE?
Who are you, TSE?
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