Sam

You have a very valid point - I ought to feel ashamed of myself for being a snob when I watch Abigail's Party. But I don't!. Class snobbery is bred in the English bone, unfortunately. What that means nowadays is that everyone looks down on everyone else. I mean, stone the crows guv'nor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0DUsGSMwZY

I was reflecting, just, that this thread began in Margate and was roughly about Eliot and his poetry. What a tangled journey it has made.

I lke this:

Lines for an Old Man

The tiger in his tiger-pit
Is not more irritable than I.
The whipping tail is not more still
Than when I smell the enemy
Writhing in the essential blood
Or dangling from the friendly tree.
When I lay bare the tooth of wit
The hissing over the archèd tongue
Is more affectionate than hate,
More bitter than the love of youth,
And inaccessible by the young.
Reflected from my golden eye
The dullard knows that he is mad.
Tell me if I am not glad!

Dunno why, just do, innit?

Philip

Regarding poets and their personal history, I try to read the poetry first and then delve into the biography later. The biographical information many times adds to the reading of the poem, but I always seem able to hang on to my first memories. I don't remember any of Lorca's work that told me that he was gay, but when I learned he was it added something important to the reading. And how can anyone read Dickinson without wanting to know more about her?

Interesting sidelight on Eliot, and perhaps actors who read verse, in today's Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...w-neuroscience

Thanks, Jerome. Very interesting.

Well, I hope she recites the poetry better than most actors manage. They bloody ACT it instead of reading it. I except the great Richard Burton.