Ariel Poems Illustrated Poems for Christmas

A beautiful hardback edition of thoughtful poems, accompanied by their original artwork (very angular, modernist and avant garde, and their presence is unique if one remembers that Eliot usually didn't like the idea of illustrations going together with his poetry) reproduced in high quality. A volume to display and keep, holding them in my hands is a lovely experience. These are not conventional, greeting-card style poems (though 'The Cultivation of Christmas Trees' is worthy of being printed on a broadsheet and framed). Tender, poignant, ruminative, they are fully deserving of the word 'meditations'.