The Waste Land and Other Poems - T.S. Eliot

Advantages: Great poetry.
Disadvantages: Elitist, snobbish and racist.

The Waste Land is deliberately difficult. It is crammed with obscure allusions, indecipherable footnotes and lines in foreign languages. it was also heavily edited by Ezra Pound, who got rid of many of the anti-semitic elements of the poem. However, it still reeks of a public school education and upper-class values. Most of the poem is deliberate pastiches of other poets' work. Yet it is hauntingly beautiful and poetic and is technically one of the ...
...it demands your attention. The Waste Land is unashamedly modernist. One technique used by modernists was to employ myths as a parallel text to the poem and the Waste Land is one of the best examples of this. Right from the start "April is the cruellest month" - this echoes the beginning of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - the poem's epic pretensions are demonstrated. The Waste Land has been called the longest poem in the English language because of ... Read review

Advantages: Beautiful, really beautiful
Disadvantages: I suppose I have to admit that its ever so slightly snobbish

...pages in before throwing at the wall, or that the last modern poetry you read was just random sentences, please please try this. It's one of the starting points of modern literature and it is accessible (well ... it's not as bad as the Canto's or Ulyssess) and it is some of the most beautiful poetry your ever likely to read. Now selections of Eliot's poetry vary from publisher to publisher editor to editor, which means that mine isn't likely to ...
...recently. However, the big three poems (ignoring the Four Quartets - although breathtaking a lot of collections leave them out because of length, and because they are of a leter period than the mythic Wasteland) are generally all included. The big three, are The Wasteland, Portrait of A Lady (which i am really slipping in as a personal favourite) and The Love Song Of J Alfred Prufrock. These are the three I'm going to review, they are pretty typical ... Read review

Advantages: Ground-breaking, complex, brilliant
Disadvantages: Over complex, unnecessary showing off with literary allusions.

The Waste Land is not an accessible poem. Crammed full of allusions to literary works you may not be familiar with, Eliot predicts this sufficently to off er you notes at the back. But he notes are often as obscure as the orginal refernces, if not more so. One, for example, Eloit quotes in the orginal GReek. Well that helps a lot.Thanks. Complex, brilliant, irritating and inspiring by turn; there is no doubt this poem makes a major contribution ...
..."il milior fablio" - the better craftsman - because apoparently Pound cut and shaped the work to make the poem we have today. It explores language and themes in a way that broke ground. You have to read it out loud to your self (at least in your head) to getthe best out of it, as the cadences, rhythma and structure sing meaning as much as the words. As Miss Piggy would say: "Pretentious? Moi?" Yes, Eliot. But it is still brilliant. Irritatingly. ... Read review

Advantages: Essential Eliot poems, collected into one volume
Disadvantages: If you don't like Eliot, you'll hate this

...this book because it includes The Waste Land and The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, two of my favourite Eliot poems. I would say that if you like Eliot's more experimental poetry, this is a must. If, however, you are a diehard fan of Old Possum's, you might want to steer clear of this. Some find these particular poems quite pretentious, due to their length and language. I would agree with this in part, but I also think that anyone who reads these ...
...English, or just anyone interested in poetry. It was a groundbreaking poem at the time, thanks to its mostly free verse structure, and its satirical tone. All in all, I would recommend this book for readers who appreciate Eliot already, as opposed to people just getting into him. Enjoy! ... Read review

Advantages: Excellent to study, brilliant to read
Disadvantages: Snobbery, too many allusions?

...perplexing and charming. The Waste Land is a bit of a mammoth of a poem, but takes you on a journey through despondency, hope and suffering, and is a must-read, taking up the Holy Grail Legend in a new light. His characters throughout are often depressed souls, whose lives have little purpose, and he tries to show you how spirituality can be your salvation from average, routine, mundane life. At times, however, Eliot loses us with his allusions to ... Read review