FOUR QUARTETS

The Anglo-American Nobel winner T. S. Eliot is one of the most important poets of the century. This essay (1943) brought him his first popular recognition. Described as an "austere and rigorously philosophic poem on time and time's losses and gains," it unified war-torn Britain by extolling Christian fundamentals. Ted Hughes, England's poet laureate, gives an appropriately austere reading in soft, mellifluous Yorkshire cadences. Like those of many poet-reciters, his intonations are mannered. One either likes this approach or doesn't. Still, the sense, as well as the beauty, of the lines shines through. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAR/APR 98]