T.S. Eliot

I have a book of T.S. Eliot's poetry out of the library at the moment, and I've sat down with it a few times to try to understand (in an experiential kind of way) why he is considered such a great poet. Thus far, I've experienced mainly frustration - I know there's something going on here, but I can't quite figure out what. There are parts that resonate:

...music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.
[The Dry Salvages]

You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more
Than an order of words, the conscious occupation
Of the mind praying, or the sound of the voice praying.
[Little Gidding]

But there are also large parts where I'm not quite sure what's going on, and where it all just seems a mass of words. Can anyone suggest a good introduction to his work that might help me come to grips with it?