T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) was a modernist poet, playwright, and critic whose works include “The Waste Land,” “Murder in the Cathedral,” and “Four Quartets.”

The Waste Land: A 1922 modernist poem by T. S. Eliot depicting cultural fragmentation and spiritual desolation through shifting voices and allusions. Its collage of voices and traditions made Eliot a defining modernist poet.
Dante Alighieri: An Italian poet of the Middle Ages, best known for the epic poem The Divine Comedy. Eliot treated Dante as a model of poetic language and spiritual vision.
Ezra Pound: An American-born poet and critic who became a central figure in modernist literature. Pound edited “The Waste Land,” substantially shortening its manuscript.
Tradition and the Individual Talent: A 1919 essay by T. S. Eliot arguing that new poetry enters into relation with the existing literary tradition. Its theory of tradition became one of Eliot’s most influential critical arguments.
The Second Coming: A 1919 poem by W. B. Yeats depicting historical upheaval through apocalyptic imagery. Yeats’s visionary lyric offers a contrasting modernist response to cultural crisis.
Four Quartets: A sequence of four poems by T. S. Eliot meditating on time, memory, spiritual practice, and redemption. The sequence gives his late poetry its most sustained expression of spiritual reflection.
John Donne: An English poet and cleric whose metaphysical poems unite intricate argument with striking imagery. Eliot helped revive critical attention to Donne and the metaphysical poets.
Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot: T. S. Eliot’s first wife, whom he married in 1915 and lived apart from for many years. Their difficult marriage forms part of the personal history surrounding his early career.
Objective correlative: A literary principle in which a concrete set of objects or events evokes a particular emotion. Eliot’s essay on Hamlet helped popularize this critical term.
The Cantos: An unfinished long poem by Ezra Pound combining history, economics, and cultural fragments. Pound’s expansive collage contrasts with Eliot’s more tightly shaped poetic sequences.

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