Selected Poems

Synopsis

This selection, which was made by Eliot himself, is intended as an introduction to the main body of his poetry prior to Four Quartets, which is available separately in Faber Paperbacks. The selection includes the whole of The Waste Land.

Summary

Chapter 1: Love's Labor Lost

* Explores the themes of love, loss, and the search for meaning.
* Example:

> Sonnet 18:
> "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
> Thou art more lovely and more temperate..."

Chapter 2: The Dark Lady

* Centers around Shakespeare's enigmatic love interest, the "Dark Lady."
* Example:

> Sonnet 127:
> "In the old age black was not counted fair,
> Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name..."

Chapter 3: The Fair Youth

* Addresses Shakespeare's love for a young man.
* Example:

> Sonnet 29:
> "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
> I all alone beweep my outcast state,
> And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries..."

Chapter 4: Time and Mortality

* Contemplates the fleeting nature of life and the inevitability of death.
* Example:

> Sonnet 60:
> "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
> So do our minutes hasten to their end..."

Chapter 5: Nature and the Human Condition

* Explores the relationship between the natural world and human experience.
* Example:

> Sonnet 73:
> "That time of year thou mayst in me behold
> When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
> Upon those boughs which shake against the cold..."

Chapter 6: Politics and Power

* Addresses the themes of ambition, corruption, and the fragility of power.
* Example:

> Sonnet 66:
> "Tired with all these, for restful death I cry
> As, to behold desert a beggar born,
> And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,
> And purest faith unhappily forsworn..."

Chapter 7: Friendship and Reconciliation

* Explores the importance of human connection and the healing power of forgiveness.
* Example:

> Sonnet 116:
> "Let me not to the marriage of true minds
> Admit impediments. Love is not love
> Which alters when it alteration finds..."

Chapter 8: The Phoenix and the Turtle

* A mythical fable about the death of two lovers.
* Example:

> "The Phoenix and the Turtle are figures of perfection and unity. Their deaths represent the destruction of true love and beauty."