I agree entirely with Mary. And I'm not so sure, Bob, that nobody is allowing the bad things Eliot said to affect the way they read his poetry. I am one of those nobodies. A great fan of Eliot - no one has influenced me more - and greatly troubled by his racism, snobbery, monarchism, religiosity etc etc etc. The main reason why The Waste Land lasts better than Four Quartets and Ash Weds is that it lacks the didacticism of the later work. And it's what he was didactic about, that is the problem.
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