The Ariel Poems - T. S. Eliot

A
cherished part of his oeuvre, the 'Ariel Poems' of T. S. Eliot were
originally commissioned for a pamphlet series of the same name that
first ran between 1927 and 1931. ('Nobody else seemed to want the title
afterward,' said Eliot of the series, 'so I kept it for myself.') That
pamphlet series inventively paired an unpublished poem by a leading
writer of the day with new artwork from an eminent artist. Thomas Hardy,
Siegfried Sassoon, Barnett Freedman and John Nash were among the
contributors to the first set, which broadly carried a Christmas theme
and which sold for one shilling. The publisher's hope was that the
pamphlets might double-up as greeting cards, and Eliot himself sent them
as festive gifts to the writers on Faber's poetry list.

This handsome new
publication brings together, for the first time in a single edition, the
six poems that T. S. Eliot wrote for the series, and in so doing
restores them to the company of the artworks that originally partnered
them.