The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism

‘I am a poet, ’ he said, and one, I hope, of no mean imagination, if one can reckon at all by crowns of honour, which gratitude can set even on unworthy heads. ‘Why are you so badly dressed, then?’ you ask. For that very reason. The worship of genius never made a man rich. -Petronius, Satyricon (54 AD)

The Sacred Wood-Essays on Poetry and Criticism (1920) is T. S. Eliot’s first book of criticism. It contains opinions of writers such as Shakespeare and Dante and some of Eliot’s most influential essays, including Tradition and the Individual Talent and Philip Massinger.