T.S. Eliot’s Christmas Poems : An Essay in Writing-as-Reading and Other “Impossible Unions”

This is the first full-scale analysis of T.S. Eliot's six "Ariel Poems" as Christmas poems. Through close readings, Atkins argues that these poems considered together emerge as clearly related representations of the "impossible union" that occurred in the Incarnation. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Challenging Critical Orthodoxies, Confronting Binary Oppositions: The Commentator par lui-même....Pages 1-9 The Gift Half Understood, or Eliot’s Ariel Poems: Beyond the Old Dispensation....Pages 10-17 Triumphal March: The Problem Lies in Our Perceiving....Pages 18-28 The Cultivation of Christmas Trees: Through the Eyes of Children (and the Child-like)....Pages 29-38 Journey of the Magi: A Fable of Commentary: With a Second Coming to the Inexhaustible....Pages 39-53 Animula: What the Simple Soul Knows, or “Living first in the silence after the viaticum”....Pages 54-63 A Song for Simeon: The Difference the Letter Makes: Prayer, Self-Criticism, Validity....Pages 64-71 Marina: “Living to live in a world of time beyond me”: Recognizing, Perceiving, and Understanding....Pages 72-85 Back Matter....Pages 86-93 Cover 1 Half-Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Preface 7 1 Challenging Critical Orthodoxies, Confronting Binary Oppositions: The Commentator par lui-même 10 2 The Gift Half Understood, or Eliot’s Ariel Poems: Beyond the Old Dispensation 19 3 Triumphal March: The Problem Lies in Our Perceiving 27 4 The Cultivation of Christmas Trees: Through the Eyes of Children (and the Child-like) 38 5 Journey of the Magi: A Fable of Commentary: With a Second Coming to the Inexhaustible 48 6 Animula: What the Simple Soul Knows, or “Living first in the silence after the viaticum” 63 7 A Song for Simeon: The Difference the Letter Makes: Prayer, Self-Criticism, Validity 73 8 Marina: “Living to live in a world of time beyond me”: Recognizing, Perceiving, and Understanding 81 Bibliography 95 Index 99 "Here G. Douglas Atkins presents T.S. Eliot's six "Ariel Poems" as dramatizations of the meaning and significance of Christmas: Journey of the Magi, A Song for Simeon, Animula, Marina, Triumphal March, and The Cultivation of Christmas Trees. Commissioned to commemorate the season, these short poems, of around 40 lines each, considered together emerge as clearly related representations of the "impossible union" that occurred in the Incarnation. In commentary with a narrative drive rhyming with the poems' own progress, Atkins brings the reader along on a "journey toward understanding," to the ultimate Mystery. The fresh, new readings demonstrate the artistic achievement of these remarkable poems"-- Provided by publisher