T. S. Eliot of the musical "Cats" by Andrew Lloyd Webber, first produced in London's West End in 1981 and opening on Broadway the following year. Eliot regarded "Four Quartets" as his masterpiece, and it is the work that led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. It consists of four long poems, each first published separately: "Burnt Norton" (1936), "East Coker" (1940), "The Dry Salvages" (1941) and "Little Gidding" (1942). Each has five sections. Although they resist easy characterisation, each poem includes meditations on the nature of time in some important respect—theological, historical, physical—and its relation to the human condition.
T. S. Eliot Prize (Truman State University) poet is chosen each year to judge the collections, and to select the winner and several finalists. The winners, collection titles, and judges of the annual Prize are listed below. In addition to the winner, several finalists are announced for each year's competition. The complete list of winners and finalists is posted at the Truman State University Press website. As examples, Deborah Warren and A. M. Juster were finalists, and both Patty Seyburn and Daniel Bourne have been finalists twice. T. S. Eliot Prize (Truman State University) The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is awarded annually by Truman State