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T. S. Eliot

4 free books by T. S. Eliot. 4 you can read right here.

Born 1888 in St. Louis · Died 1965 in Kensington

writer, poet, playwright, essayist, screenwriter · United States, United Kingdom · associated with modernist literature

Notable works: The Waste Land, Four Quartets, The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday

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Facts from Wikidata (Q37767), retrieved 2026-09-26.

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Quotes from T. S. Eliot’s books

Verified word for word in the text: each quote is copied exactly from the book’s text in this site’s reader (the Project Gutenberg e-text named under each book) and links to its passage; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against that text. How RedLectern is built.

The Waste Land

From Project Gutenberg e-text #1321 (public domain in the USA).

April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.

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Only There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

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Ezra Pound: His Metric and Poetry

From Project Gutenberg e-text #7275 (public domain in the USA).

Any poet, if he is to survive as a writer beyond his twenty-fifth year, must alter; he must seek new literary influences; he will have different emotions to express.

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Beauty is a very valuable thing; perhaps it is the most valuable thing in life; but the power to express emotion so that it shall communicate itself intact and exactly is almost more valuable.

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Ash-Wednesday

From Project Gutenberg e-text #78023 (public domain in the USA).

Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)

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If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent If the unheard, unspoken Word is unspoken, unheard; Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard, The Word without a word, the Word within The world and for the world; And the light shone in darkness and Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled About the centre of the silent Word.

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