Eliot Reactions..

Having read a bit of T.S. Eliot now, I have now realized just how daunting of a task it will be construct a paper about his poetry. In a literal sense, yes, I understand what is going on and can probably tell you what the poem is going to be about. But, my problem is I can't seem to go any deeper than that. This is a style I have never studied before, and it has been the source of several headaches I have had in the past week or so. No disrespect to Eliot, he is a very respectable poet, and his work is incredible. There is a reason he is considered a master poet. I am not sure whether or not I like his poetry though! By this point, I can normally tell whether or not I enjoy the literature or not, but I am torn on this. I think my main problem is that I have not yet been able to decide or pinpoint themes and purposes of his poetry. Why does he write the way he does, and why does he write about what he does? Perhaps I should do more research on his life and find out more what drove him to do the things he did, but as of now, I am left speechless about it which is actually what I was told would happen when reading (or listening) to Eliot's poetry. The reason I mentioned the listening is because this poetry is obviously meant to be read aloud or even performed. The poems start to make more sense when read out loud with that accent you could imagine T.S. Eliot would have. And like all other things in literature, there is a reason for that. I plan to use that as an aid as I study more of Eliot's poetry within these next few weeks as I write my paper