'Each year Eliot's presence reasserts itself at a deeper level, to an audience that is surprised to find itself more chastened, more astonished, more humble.' Ted Hughes
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 Four Quartets (1943), and includes such literary landmarks as The Waste Land and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table; THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUTFROCK
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(@FaberBooks, 18 February 2001, first published 1963, paperback, 238 pages, bought from Borders, a now defunct bookstore)
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T. S. Eliot is one of my favourite poets. I've had this book since not long after it was released in 2001 and have read it at least twenty times. I don't love every poem contained in this volume but some of my favourites are here such as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Lands and The Hollow Men. The Waste Lands and The Hollow Men are among the best poems ever written. They are incredibly pieces of work. I know some people take spiritual or religious meaning from the poems. I don't take that because I'm an atheist. I just love the language used and the imagery; they're haunting especially The Hollow Men. This volume does not have Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats despite what the blurb says. I've never read it but would love to so I can see how much it inspired the musical Cats which I love and have seen dozens of times. Every time I read The Waste Lands I'm delighted to stumble across lines and phrases which crop up in Stephen King's The Dark Tower books such as I'll show you fear in a handful of dust. This is a poetry collection I turn to again and again.