How T. S. Eliot’s Passion for Knowledge and Experiences Influenced His Prolific Work
T. S. Eliot was a phenomenal poet who mainly wrote in the 20th century. He had many events that happened throughout his lifetime, had a great amount of influences, and wrote lots of poems and plays. Eliot was a very distinguishable author, and his many works still stand out even today.
Thomas Stearns Eliot (hereinafter referred to as “Eliot”) was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 26, 1888. Eliot was the youngest of seven children, and he is the son of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Champe Stearns. Henry Ware Eliot worked as the president of Hydraulic Press Brick Company. Eliot’s mother worked as a teacher and also wrote poetry (Bloom 1). As a child, …show more content…
S. Eliot produced many poems and plays throughout his lifetime. In the years 1916 until 1922, Eliot wrote a myriad of essays and reviews to “The Dial”, “Athenaeum”, “The Egoist”, and “The Times Literary Supplement”, among other journals (Ackroyd 703). Eliot showed his poems to Conrad Aiken, who passed them along to Ezra Pound who then forwarded it to the editor of “Poetry” magazine Harriet Monroe. By June 1915, “Prufrock” was published in “Poetry” (Bloom 2). In July, Eliot’s “Preludes” and “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” also appeared in the magazine “Blast” (2-3). Eliot’s poetry can be divided into three separate eras. The first, early era would contain the poems “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “Gerontion” (Ackroyd 705). “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” was first published in 1915 (collected in “Collected Poems”, 1909-1962). This was one of Eliot’s most interesting but challenging poems to comprehend (706). Eliot dedicated “Prufrock” to his close friend and neighbor from his lodgings Jean Verdenal. He decided to dedicate this poem to him after he was killed in the first World War (Bloom 2). This is a Symbolist poem that explores the narrator’s stream of consciousness in a very peculiar way. Eliot was inspired by Dante’s “Inferno (XXVII)” while writing “Prufrock”. Sensory images are greatly used in this work. Imagery plays a big role in many of Eliot’s poems. “Gerontion” was first published in 1920 (collected in “Collected Poems”, 1909-1962). The situation and dialogue were very dramatic. “Gerontion” is another difficult poem of Eliot’s (Ackroyd 706). The narrator tells his life story alongside universal themes in the poem. This poem could be compared to poems written by the 17th century poet George Herbert (707). The second period of Eliot’s writing would consist of the very popular poems The Waste Land and “The Hollow Men”. Eliot stopped writing secular humanism poetry as well after this era (706). The Waste Land was first published in 1922. This
T. S. Eliot was a phenomenal poet who mainly wrote in the 20th century. He had many events that happened throughout his lifetime, had a great amount of influences, and wrote lots of poems and plays. Eliot was a very distinguishable author, and his many works still stand out even today.
Thomas Stearns Eliot (hereinafter referred to as “Eliot”) was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 26, 1888. Eliot was the youngest of seven children, and he is the son of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Champe Stearns. Henry Ware Eliot worked as the president of Hydraulic Press Brick Company. Eliot’s mother worked as a teacher and also wrote poetry (Bloom 1). As a child, …show more content…
S. Eliot produced many poems and plays throughout his lifetime. In the years 1916 until 1922, Eliot wrote a myriad of essays and reviews to “The Dial”, “Athenaeum”, “The Egoist”, and “The Times Literary Supplement”, among other journals (Ackroyd 703). Eliot showed his poems to Conrad Aiken, who passed them along to Ezra Pound who then forwarded it to the editor of “Poetry” magazine Harriet Monroe. By June 1915, “Prufrock” was published in “Poetry” (Bloom 2). In July, Eliot’s “Preludes” and “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” also appeared in the magazine “Blast” (2-3). Eliot’s poetry can be divided into three separate eras. The first, early era would contain the poems “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “Gerontion” (Ackroyd 705). “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” was first published in 1915 (collected in “Collected Poems”, 1909-1962). This was one of Eliot’s most interesting but challenging poems to comprehend (706). Eliot dedicated “Prufrock” to his close friend and neighbor from his lodgings Jean Verdenal. He decided to dedicate this poem to him after he was killed in the first World War (Bloom 2). This is a Symbolist poem that explores the narrator’s stream of consciousness in a very peculiar way. Eliot was inspired by Dante’s “Inferno (XXVII)” while writing “Prufrock”. Sensory images are greatly used in this work. Imagery plays a big role in many of Eliot’s poems. “Gerontion” was first published in 1920 (collected in “Collected Poems”, 1909-1962). The situation and dialogue were very dramatic. “Gerontion” is another difficult poem of Eliot’s (Ackroyd 706). The narrator tells his life story alongside universal themes in the poem. This poem could be compared to poems written by the 17th century poet George Herbert (707). The second period of Eliot’s writing would consist of the very popular poems The Waste Land and “The Hollow Men”. Eliot stopped writing secular humanism poetry as well after this era (706). The Waste Land was first published in 1922. This