Frank Kermode

"This book argues that something extraordinary happened to Shakespeare's language in midcareer, somewhere around 1600." "An initial discussion of some of the language of the earlier plays looks for signs as to what was afoot, and this leads to a treatment of the central turning point. The rest of the book provides close studies of what came after that, in the great works between Hamlet and The Tempest. Special attention is paid to many passages which...

A treasury of Eliot's most important early poems combines poetic elements from diverse sources with bits of popular culture and common speech to recreate the chaos of Europe in the aftermath of World War I.