He was something of a fascist, and his antisemitism is pretty blatant
in some of his poetry. But hell, I don't have much of a sense of
humor, and anyway if preadolescents like him he must be really great.
Mark
At 01:46 AM 2/23/2007, you wrote:
>Eliot wrote Prufrock when he was 23. Bastard.
>
>I encountered Eliot's short poems when I was about 12 and I was
>absolutely enraptured by their cadences. Every time I return to those
>poems, I remember the initial pleasures of reading them -
>
>Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and
>The winter sun creeps by the snow hills;
>The stubborn season has made stand.
>
>I mean, like wow. Eliot was fabulous, and I simply don't understand
>why people sneer at him. Lines like "short square fingers stubbing
>pipes / and evening newspapers and eyes / assured of certain
>certainties" just took root in my fertile adolescent brain and still
>flower there. (At the same time I thought Tennyson was wonderful.
>Eliot would have fits at the thought, but there is a certain
>musicality the two poets have in common.)
>
>So Keilor getting up there and making smart on how Eliot made poetry
>unpopular and gloomy (as if Swinburne or Hopkins or Donne were real
>comedy festivals) and how nobody (presumably Italians aren't people)
>can read Italian etc etc gives me the shits.
>
>It's a strange piece altogether, that Keilor piece. Maybe American
>liberals are a strange and sadly humourless breed. I know plenty of
>serious, committed people who are the best and most hilarious
>company. But was Eliot a liberal anyway? I thought he was way too
>patrician and high church for all of that...
>
>All best
>
>Alison
>
>(Sorry if I sound bad tempered. My novel is making me neurotic).
>--
>Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
>Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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