I would meet you upon this honestly.
I that was near your heart was removed therefrom
To lose beauty in terror, terror in inquisition.
I have lost my passion: why should I need to keep it
Since what is kept must be adulterated?
I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch:
How should I use them for your closer contact?

It's not that Eliot isn't a brilliant poet—he is—it's just that he seems to have a stick up his ass regarding women (especially their sexuality), Jews, and Christian heterodoxy. Even when he is writing beautifully and sympathetically (which he often does) about pathetic yet compelling characters, there is an undertone of something stern and uptight. Perhaps it's just a general chauvinism underlying his work. All that being said, this collection is certainly worth reading, if only for "Gerontion" and the Sweeney poems. ( )