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"Ash Wednesday" (sometimes "Ash-Wednesday") is the first long poem written by T. S. Eliot after his...

"Ash Wednesday" (sometimes "Ash-Wednesday") is the first long poem written by T. S. Eliot after his 1927 conversion to Anglicanism. Published in 1930 (see 1930 in poetry), this poem deals with the struggle that ensues when one who has lacked faith in the past strives to move towards God. Sometimes referred to as Eliot's "conversion poem", Ash-Wednesday, with a base of Dante's Purgatorio, is richly but ambiguously allusive and deals with the aspiration to move from spiritual barrenness to hope for human salvation. The style is different from his poetry which predates his conversion. Ash-Wednesday and the poems that followed had a more casual, melodic, and contemplative method. Many critics were "particularly enthusiastic concerning Ash-Wednesday", while in other quarters it was not well received. Among many of the more secular literati its groundwork of orthodox Christianity was discomforting. Edwin Muir maintained that “Ash Wednesday is one of the most moving poems he [Eliot] has written, and perhaps the most perfect.” " The poem was first published as now known in April, 1930 as a small book limited to 600 numbered and signed copies. Later that month an ordinary run of 2000 copies