Poetry, Poetry, Poetry!

I just read "The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot and "The Dead" by James Joyce. Neither really did that much for me. I suppose I was impressed by the complexity and vast scope of "The Wasteland," (he alludes to many works, some old, some ancient, some new, like Dante's "Inferno," "Tristan and Isolde," and Ovid's "Metamorphoses") but for the most part I was lost. I know Eliot has said that poetry should be difficult and complex, but that certainly doesn't add to its "enjoyability factor." "The Dead" took a while to get going, but over time I started to relate to the main character Gabriel (once I knew he was the main character, there's so many) and really felt for him by the end, but I think the story is uneven. The ending shows that it should be about Gabriel and his wife's relationship, but there are too many diverting subplots about various attendees at the party and other things that make it difficult to understand what the reader's really supposed to be looking for. That's my opinion, though. Still, it's been good to get into some "new" works. Well, they're new to me.