10-23-2013, 10:22 AM
I come and go over Eliot, mainly, I go. He is held to be such a towering figure in 20th century poetry, and perhaps that's so. And terribly deep. Hmmm....
I am now wondering if that is what he wanted to be, but really didn't succeed, whereas he was good at the odd pithy, if not overly complicated, line or phrase. The bang and the whimper is memorable, but could have been slipped into a thousand poems. April being the cruellest month is somehow touching. Or Prufrock:
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
What do you think? Did he succeed in his ground-breaking attempts? Or were his one-liners his best shot?
(The coffee-spoons resonates with me, btw)
I am now wondering if that is what he wanted to be, but really didn't succeed, whereas he was good at the odd pithy, if not overly complicated, line or phrase. The bang and the whimper is memorable, but could have been slipped into a thousand poems. April being the cruellest month is somehow touching. Or Prufrock:
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
What do you think? Did he succeed in his ground-breaking attempts? Or were his one-liners his best shot?
(The coffee-spoons resonates with me, btw)