Product Description

Key Features:

• Study methods
• Introduction to the text
• Summaries with critical notes
• Themes and techniques
• Textual analysis of key passages
• Author biography
• Historical and literary background
• Modern and historical critical approaches
• Chronology
• Glossary of literary terms

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24432 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 127 pages

Customer Reviews

Striking
Eliot's poetry is not for the faint hearted. This collection consits of a range of his poetry from 1917 to 1930.The most famous of course, 'The Waste Land' is all in here. Anyone familiar with the Modernist movenment of the 1920s will easily see why 'The Waste Land' is a firm contender for one of the best pieces of Modernist Literature. It depicts a world that is decaying, spine-less, fruit-less and corrupt. 'The Waste Land' is a very personal analysis of Modern post-war life and I think it's easy to feel that his poetry can be slightly insular, in that it's quite difficult to understand what Eliot is trying to convey to the public, if anything.
However, there are some easier poems in here, with 'The Love song of J.Alfred Prufrock' coming in as one of my top pieces of poetry because of Eliot's striking word play.
I'd really recommend you read this because I think although it's rather personal to Eliot himself, I think it's equally personal to the individual reader, and there will be something in here that attracts you personally to his poetry.

A warning about the book description
I give the book itself 5 stars. I don't have any comments to add to those already made, but did want to point out one thing:

don't be misled by the 'product description', as I was, which you get when viewing the details for this book on Amazon, which states:


Book Description
Key Features-
Study methods
Introduction to the text
Summaries with critical notes
Themes and techniques
Textual analysis of key passages
Author biography
Historical and literary background
Modern and historical critical approaches
Chronology
Glossary of literary terms --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

This description DOES NOT describe the book - none of these are included (there are a few notes on The Wasteland, but that is it).
If you click on the word 'paperback' it takes you to another page showing a book of York Notes - this is what the 'product description' is describing.

special
There has to be something unusual about a post modern poem that can stand the test of time. Thoroughly edited by Ezra Pound, the poem remains a peculiar work which made Eliot famous. He was asked about it throughout his life, sometimes referring to it as trivia, at other times telling people it was genius. In a poem where it is open to interpretation what is really going on, or who it is about, the language is unfailingly provocative. It's easy to see the empty, crushed people flowing over London Bridge - he means office workers whose lives are meaningless. The fortune teller, the fog, the pub at closing time, conjur up such familiar scenes and Eliot drenches them in the boredom and possibility they provide in real life.

Like all poetry, it offers something deeper and more interesting than most prose, and leaves you feeling enlivened. However, Eliot never again wrote something this good, so one wonders whether it was a strange fluke.