The greatest poems by the greatest poet - Rated 
The book itself consists of a good-quality hardcover, and whilst the cover illustration isn't that good, the main merit of this edition is that it combines portability with durability at a cheap price.
The poems contained are probably the best ever written and certainly the greatest I have ever read. T. S. Eliot manages to make the poems sound as if they had been written only yesterday rather than in the 1920s, and this modernity combined with the epic almost biblical language used is a key feature of the poems. Classic lines such as `April is the cruellest month' and `I will show you fear in a handful of dust' will stay with you and you can easily read the poems again and again. Many of them take the forms of streams of consciousness and include brilliant language contrasted with a more everyday Larkin style in a style distinctively the poet's own, yet including lines in a variety of languages and also referencing other works.
Although some may dislike the poems for perhaps being hard to get into they're worth the attempt and include some of the most memorable lines ever written in English. For this price T.s. Eliot's poems are definetly worth getting into.
special - Rated
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.
A warning about the book description - Rated
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.
Striking - Rated
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.
The greatest poet of the 20th Century. - Rated
This is a fantastic book from the greatest poet of the 2oth century. I am a 16 year-old and having just started A level courses, ihave found that my readings of Eliot have helped enormously with my understanding of other poetry. I would argue that if one can come some way to understanding Eliot, then there is nothing out there that one will not understand. He is known for his complexity but this must not be labelled impenetrable, though Eliot's poems are often obscure and challenging there is always a message that Eliot wanted us to see. I have been reading Eliot since I was 15 and my liking of him has grown with age, I also love the victorian poets such as Browning, Empson, Baudelaire, Blake etc and many of the modern poets such as Thomas, Plath and so on but I have always found that there is something extra special about Eliot. His range of poetry is one thing, from the masterpiece of "The Waste Land" to the phillisophical genuis of "Four Quartets", to the humour and sadness of "Prufrock" to the mystery and brilliance of "The Hollow Men" Eliot has everything. I think his poetry is widely mis-understood and critics argue over meaning and miss the point that Eliot placed one's own perception so much higher than accepted views and ideas, hence the fact that he never answered questions on "The Waste Land". Definately buy this book and make up your own mind, learn and gain pleasure from a truly remarkable mind.
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