Shorten introduction to Eliot's poem, is it ruined? (9)
I believe the answer is:
epitomise
'shorten' is the definition.
('shorten'->'epitomize' is in my internal thesaurus and 'ize'->'ise')
'introduction to eliot's poem is it ruined?' is the wordplay.
'introduction to' says to take the initial letters.
'ruined?' is an anagram indicator.
The first letter of 'eliot' is 'e'.
'poem'+'is'+'it'='poemisit'
'poemisit' anagrammed gives 'pitomise'.
'e'+'pitomise'='EPITOMISE'
(Other definitions for epitomise that I've seen before include "Abstract" , "to be a perfect example" , "Act as representative" , "Embody perfectly a stated idea" , "Typify (S, not Z)" .)