Waste Land and Other Poems

Amazon.com Audiobook Review
After sitting through T.S. Eliot's reading of "The Waste Land," listeners may be inclined to hang up the earphones for a spell. There are no flaws to Eliot's steady-toned interpretation; in fact, his delivery is quite remarkable in its ability to match the poem's constant, somber mood. It's just that 25-plus minutes of Eliot's desolate landscapes--rendered even more real by the author's incessant tones--can wear on the emotions.

In addition to the full-length version of "The Waste Land," this recording includes Eliot's stirring narration of "The Hollow Men," "Sweeney Among the Nightingales," and "Macavity the Mystery Cat." Listen to Eliot read from "The Waste Land." Visit our audio help page for more information. (Running time: 47 minutes, 1 cassette) --Rob McDonald


From Library Journal
Along with the two title pieces, this collection includes "Portrait of a Lady," "Rhapsody on a Windy Night," "Gerontion," and numerous other Eliot greats. To have these poems in a single volume that costs roughly the price of a candy bar is nothing less than a miracle. (Classic Returns, LJ 12/98)Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
This all-new Signet Classic contains many of T.S. Eliot's most important early peoms, leading to perhaps his greatest masterpiece, The Waste Land, which has long been regarded as one of the fundamental texts of modernism. By combining poetic elements from many diverse sources with bits of popular culture and common speech linked in a fragmented narrative, Eliot recreated the chaos and disillusionment of Europe in the aftermath of WWI.
* The Waste Land is a modernist literary masterpiece.
* Contains a number of early poems, including Spleen, The Death of St. Narcissus, The Love Song of J. Prufrock, Preludes, Gerontion, The Hippopotmaus, and Sweeny Among the Nightingales.
* T.S Eliot is the winner of the 1948 Nobel Prize for Literature, and is one of America's greatest poets.
* Edited and with an Introduction by Helen Vendler, a foremost scholar of moderism at Harvard University who writes regularly for the New Yorker and The New Republic.
* Vendler is also the author of books on other essential poets, including W.B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, John Keats, George Herbert, and the forthcoming The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnete.


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Written when Eliot was working as a bank clerk and heavily edited by his friend Ezra Pound, 1922's The Waste Land could probably take the prize as the most important English-language poem of the 20th century. This 75th-anniversary edition includes the full text plus notes and an afterword by scholar/editor Christopher Ricks.


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