Well, he is "great" if that means anything--a view shared by poets like
Seamus Heaney and Norman MacCaig.  Eliot published him, by the way,
though I don't think it was his best poem.

I don't know which poem you mean by "old language."  If you mean the
Braid Scots, it is as old and as new as English.  If you mean the opening
to "On A Raised Beach" below, you must be very up on geology and rocks
if you find it easy.  But it is incredible language.
Nancy


Date sent:              Wed, 19 Feb 2003 21:46:44 EST
Send reply to:          "T. S. Eliot Discussion forum." <[log in to unmask]>
From:                   Kate Troy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:                Re: Wallace Stevens; was Mopius Louse)
To:                     [log in to unmask]

In a message dated 2/20/03 2:20:48 AM !!!First Boot!!!,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> All is lithogenesis--or lochia,
> Carpolite fruit of the forbidden tree,
> Stones blacker than any in the Caaba,
> Cream-coloured, caen-stone, chatoyant pieces,
> Celadon and corbeau, bistre and beige,
> Glaucous, hoar, enfouldered, cyathiform,
> Making mere faculae of the sun and moon
> I study you glout and gloss, but have
> No cadrans to adjust you with, and turn again
> From optik to haptik and like a blind man run
> My fingers over you, arris by aris, burr by burr,
> Slickensides, truite, rugas, foveoles,
> Binging my aesthesis in vain to bear,
>

I like this one . . . He is quite good, Nancy, and surprisingly, easy to
comprehend when he uses the old language.