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A review by stephenmeansme
Collected Poems, 1909-1962 by T.S. Eliot
4.0
Five stars through "The Waste Land" and "The Hollow Men," three stars afterwards.
It feels a bit glib to give a star rating to a Nobel laureate and one of the more important English-language poets of the 20th c., but here we are. The collection is put more or less chronologically, and I think I agree with the critical consensus (as conveyed by Wikipedia) that Eliot peaked with "The Waste Land" - the later works seem too structurally cute (rhyming adjacent words annoys me) and self-consciously religious. The "Minor Poems" section is interesting for certain lines/images that show up in better works ("The Hollow Men," most obviously).
I would put "Prufrock and Other Observations" (the first section, and a published collection in its own right) as essential, then "The Waste Land" (but it's a complicated beast, to put it mildly). Read on to your taste in Eliot's style.
It feels a bit glib to give a star rating to a Nobel laureate and one of the more important English-language poets of the 20th c., but here we are. The collection is put more or less chronologically, and I think I agree with the critical consensus (as conveyed by Wikipedia) that Eliot peaked with "The Waste Land" - the later works seem too structurally cute (rhyming adjacent words annoys me) and self-consciously religious. The "Minor Poems" section is interesting for certain lines/images that show up in better works ("The Hollow Men," most obviously).
I would put "Prufrock and Other Observations" (the first section, and a published collection in its own right) as essential, then "The Waste Land" (but it's a complicated beast, to put it mildly). Read on to your taste in Eliot's style.