T.S. Eliot's poetry is well known for its allusiveness and reference to a wide range of historical and literary subjects. At the same time, the roots of explanations and critical readings necessary to elucidate and contextualize Eliot's poetry have seldom been available. This book offers a carefully explanatory as well as critical reading of Eliot's Selected Poems. It tackles each poem individually, offering comments and explanations that draw from secondary as well as archival and unpublished sources. In particular, there is an exhaustive section explaining and contextualizing the manifold difficulties encountered in The Waste Land. A long Introduction outlines Eliot's life, career and thought, and a Select Bibliography provides up-to-date information on useful secondary literature. Dr. Jain's use of various new critical approaches, alongside her use of primary data from Eliot holdings in the UK and the USA, makes this an important source for comprehending Eliot's difficult poetry. It will be of great use to students, as well as to people who teach the poetry of T.S. Eliot.
A collection of T. S. Eliot's poetry.Included are:The Waste LandGerontionBurbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a CigarSweeney ErectA Cooking EggLe DirecteurM�lange adult�re de toutLune de MielThe HippopotamusDans le RestaurantWhispers of ImmortalityMr. Eliot's Sunday Morning ServiceSweeney Among the NightingalesThe Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockPortrait of a LadyPreludesRhapsody on a Windy NightMorning at the WindowThe Boston Evening TranscriptAunt HelenCousin NancyMr. ApollinaxHysteriaConversation GalanteLa Figlia Che PiangeThe Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockPortrait of a LadyPreludesRhapsody on a Windy NightMorning at the WindowThe Boston Evening TranscriptAunt HelenCousin NancyMr. ApollinaxHysteriaConversation GalanteLa Figlia Che Piange
A selection of the most significant and enduring poems from one of the twentieth century’s major writers, chosen and introduced by Vijay Seshadri T.S. Eliot was a towering figure in twentieth century literature, a renowned poet, playwright, and critic whose work—including “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915), The Waste Land (1922), Four Quartets (1943), and Murder in the Cathedral (1935)—continues to be among the most-read and influential in the canon of American literature. The Essential T.S. Eliot collects Eliot’s most lasting and important poetry in one career-spanning volume, now with an introduction from Vijay Seshadri, one of our foremost poets.
Twentieth Century English Literature Was Shaped To A Great Extent By The Genius Of T.S. Eliot. His Towering Personality Illuminates The Major Genres Of English Literature. No Study Of The Early Twentieth Century British Canonical Literature Is Possible Without Encountering The Icon T.S. Eliot Poet, Critic, Dramatist.Images And Symbols Have Been Always Employed By Writers Of All Literatures Down The Ages. But, Movements Like Imagism And Symbolism Gave An Entirely New Focus To Images And Symbols. Archetypal Criticism Was A Parallel Emergence. In An Age Torn By The Anxiety Of Two World Wars, And Dissatisfied With Scientific And Materialistic Concept Of Man, The Archetypal Approach Sought To Restore To Man The Entire Humanity.The Present Volume Offers An Indepth Study Of The Major Archetypes And How They Are Interwoven In The Imagery And Symbolism In The Poetry Of T.S. Eliot. The Complexities Of The Modern Age And Their Expression In Eliot S Poetry Cannot Be Understood Without Archetypes, Myths And Legends. This Domain Had Not Been Explored So Far. Hence, This Volume Presents A Systematic Structuring And Evaluation Of Archetypal Imagery And Symbolism In Eliot S Major Poems As Well As Other Minor Poems. It Is Hoped That Teachers, Researchers And Students Of Literature Will Find The Volume To Be Of Considerable Interest And Use.
Certain of these poems first appeared in Poetry, Blast, Others, The Little Review, and Art and Letters. Contents: Gerontion; Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar; Sweeney Erect; A Cooking Egg; Le Directeur; Melange adultere de tout; Lune de Miel; The Hippopotamus; Dans le Restaurant; Whispers of Immortality; Mr. Eliot's Sunday Morning Service; Sweeney Among the Nightingales; The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; Portrait of a Lady; Preludes; Rhapsody on a Windy Night; Morning at the Window; The Boston Evening Transcript; Aunt Helen; Cousin Nancy; Mr. Apollinax; Hysteria; Conversation Galante; La Figlia Che Pianga.
This edited book is the work of four years where the writers try to present a different study and understanding of some of T. S. Eliots poetry and his unique style of being a modern poet, not exactly like the other modernist poets such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. We have found that Eliot, in his poetry and prose writings, was a modernist writer who, unlike other modernist poets, did not accept the way others rejected the values of religion and tradition. Eliot focuses more on the role of religion and tradition in the psychological state of the individual and its impact upon the social stability. His viewpoint regarding the vital role of spirituality in the life of the individual could be clearly seen in his poetic poems and prose writings, but this aspect has been too little or not tackled as it is done with Homer.
In this fascinating and revealing book, first published in 1952, Maxwell shows the development of Eliot’s poetry and poetic thought in the light of his political and religious attachments. This study traces Eliot’s style from the earliest poems to the Quartets, and examines the characteristics of Eliot’s earlier work adumbrate that of his maturity. The Poetry of T. S. Eliot is essential reading for students of literature.
The Waste Land is a long poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of The Criterion and in the United States in the November issue of The Dial. It was published in book form in December 1922. Among its famous phrases are "April is the cruellest month," "I will show you fear in a handful of dust," and the mantra in the Sanskrit language "Shantih shantih shantih." Eliot's poem loosely follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King combined with vignettes of contemporary British society. Eliot employs many literary and cultural allusions from the Western canon, Buddhism and the Hindu Upanishads. Because of this, critics and scholars regard the poem as obscure. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, and time and conjuring of a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures. The poem's structure is divided into five sections. The first section, "The Burial of the Dead," introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair. The second, "A Game of Chess," employs vignettes of several characters-alternating narrations-that address those themes experientially. "The Fire Sermon," the third section, offers a philosophical meditation in relation to the imagery of death and views of self-denial in juxtaposition influenced by Augustine of Hippo and eastern religions. After a fourth section, "Death by Water," which includes a brief lyrical petition, the culminating fifth section, "What the Thunder Said," concludes with an image of judgment. Eliot probably worked on the text that became The Waste Land for several years preceding its first publication in 1922. In a May 1921 letter to New York lawyer and patron of modernism John Quinn, Eliot wrote that he had "a long poem in mind and partly on paper which I am wishful to finish."[5] Richard Aldington, in his memoirs, relates that "a year or so" before Eliot read him the manuscript draft of The Waste Land in London, Eliot visited him in the country.[6] While walking through a graveyard, they discussed Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Aldington writes: "I was surprised to find that Eliot admired something so popular, and then went on to say that if a contemporary poet, conscious of his limitations as Gray evidently was, would concentrate all his gifts on one such poem he might achieve a similar success."[6] Eliot, having been diagnosed with some form of nervous disorder, had been recommended rest, and applied for three months' leave from the bank where he was employed; the reason stated on his staff card was "nervous breakdown." He and his first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot, travelled to the coastal resort of Margate, Kent, for a period of convalescence. While there, Eliot worked on the poem, and possibly showed an early version to Ezra Pound when, after a brief return to London, the Eliots travelled to Paris in November 1921 and stayed with him. Eliot was en route to Lausanne, Switzerland, for treatment by Doctor Roger Vittoz, who had been recommended to him by Ottoline Morrell; Vivienne was to stay at a sanatorium just outside Paris. In Hotel Ste. Luce (where Hotel Elite stands since 1938) in Lausanne, Eliot produced a 19-page version of the poem.[7] He returned from Lausanne in early January 1922. Pound then made detailed editorial comments and significant cuts to the manuscript. Eliot later dedicated the poem to Pound.
