T.S. Eliot

A name everyone knows, but one that I personally never paid much attention to. What do you think of his work?

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a bit long and kinda tedious for my taste but there's some amazing lines in there. I haven't read The Waste Land yet.

I will show you fear in a handful of dust

>Prufrock is kinda tedious
what?

Also, he's one of the best of all time.

Perhaps it's because I read it in a classroom setting, but it felt like it too forever to get through. I'm going to read it again now, though.

I think he's one of the best English-speaking poets of all time.

The only other Modernists who compare can be counted on one hand.

You're right about the Modernists, desu

was being right part of his plan?

yep. one.

it's one of the most beautiful things you can read. Better than the 3/4 of the four quartets

He's incredible. I can't think of a better poem than Ash Wednesday.

He's incredible. I can't think of a better poem than Howl & Leaves of Grass.

I like him but he got a lot worse after he converted to Christianity.

HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME

That part is next level spooky.

OP is really showing how much of a pleb he is here. He also sounds kind of underaged/casual.

LET US GO THEN, YOU AND I

People here love HD. Makes me kinda sad. The only word to describe her is "unimpressive".

I've only read prufrock and the waste land but they're two of the best poems I've ever read. Waste land is so dense and allusive, I discover new things every time I read it

I agree with you there. Same with the other lady-poets, such as Gertrude Stein, Marianne Moore. They seem like interesting people from the anecdotes you hear about any other modernist, but these women and their work have no blood.

I don't know what to say man. She's the most concise writer I've ever read.
Helen in Egypt layers its complexities so carefully and consistently, until I didn't even realize I was confused for about 10 pages. It was a weird sensation.
Also I love her rhyme, and how subtle it is.

Her stuff is in a different league, but it isn't as flashy (although quotes from HERmione remind me of Woolf's prose).

Gerontion has my favorite line by him. You should try it out.

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?

Because I do not hope to know again
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again

Eliot's incredible. I did my MA thesis on him, and have been reading and studying the Quartets for years: the amount of wonder hidden in those is beyond belief.

HD has some fine work. It's more early-Pound Imagist classicism than like Eliot, but work like Helen and her Trilogy have a lot to offer if you take the time and like her voice.

>Howl

An MA on Eliot sounds awesome. His work is definitely worth a year or two's studies. Good on you, user.

This might seem like an odd question, but which of The Four Quartets is seen as the outlier? I've heard this before and never thought to ask.

>not seeing the eternal footman hold your coat and snicker
>not being afraid

Prufrock is well worth revisiting. It's fantastic. Same goes for The Waste Land. Ash Wednesday might be my favourite Eliot though.

BECAUSE

How do I get into the Quartets? Can you give me a basic gestalt on them?

I like the third one a lot.

No, that is not what he meant at all.

Ah, my mistake. I thought you meant that three of the four are brilliant. I've heard elsewhere that one of the four is weaker than the others and I'm curious to know which one it is, having read and enjoyed them all.

four is a good deal weaker. he missed the mark and tried to wrap it too prettily.

3>=2>1>4

Eliot didn't care for Keats
called him an adolescent poet - Eliot can be infuriating but he reached the sublime, no doubt about it

>mfw try to read eliot
>don't get any of it

Macavity Macavity
That monster of depravity
He's broken every human law
He breaks the law of gravity

He was a New Critic, he put footnotes of all his allusions in his poems so you didn't have to look them up.

Get it together dude.

>Prufrock
>long
>tedious

It's probably because you read it in a classroom, which should have the opposite effect on you but education is shit. There's a lot going on in that poem. It deserves a closer reading when you're more relaxed and in the mood for poetry.

ineffable effable effanineffable

He wasn't a New Critic, and the pedantic, footnoted appeals to intentionality are precisely what makes him not one.

Cows

Of all the beasts that God allows
In England’s green and pleasant land,
I most of all dislike the Cows:
Their ways I do not understand.
It puzzles me why they should stare
At me, who am so innocent;
Their stupid gaze is hard to bear —
It’s positively truculent.
I’m very inconspicuous
And scarlet ties I never wear;
I’m not a London Transport Bus,
And yet at me they always stare.
You may reply, to fear a Cow
Is Cowardice the rustic scorns;
But still your reason must allow
That I am weak, and she has horns.
But most I am afraid when walking
With country dames in brogues and tweeds,
Who will persist in hearty talking
And stopping to discuss the breeds.
To country people Cows are mild,
And flee from any stick they throw;
But I’m a timid town bred child,
And all the cattle seem to know.
But when in fields alone I stroll,
Oh then in vain their horns are tossed,
In vain their bloodshot eyes they roll —
Of me they shall not make their boast.
Beyond the hedge or five-barred gate,
My sober wishes never stray;
In vain their prongs may lie in wait,
For I can always run away!
Or I can take sanctuary
In friendly oak or apple tree.

Really makes you think.

read prufrock, its fairly intuitive. if it still eludes you, read it on genius