“Albert Edwards.” See [Arthur Bullard].

T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot—poet, critic.

Born at St. Louis, Missouri, 1888. A. B., Harvard, 1909; A. M., 1910. Studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, and at Merton College, Oxford. Teacher and lecturer in London since 1913.

Suggestions for Reading

1. Is Mr. Eliot’s poetry derived from a keen sense of life experienced or from literature? What echoes of earlier poets do you find in his work?

2. Does the adjective distinguished apply to his work? What are the sources of his distinction? What evidences of fresh vision of old things do you find? of unexpected and true associations and contrasts? of a delicate sense for essential details that make a picture? of the power of suggestive condensation? of ability to get an emotional effect through irony?

3. Consider the following quotation from Mr. Eliot as illuminative of his method of work: “The contemplation of the horrid or sordid by the artist is the necessary and negative aspect of the impulse toward beauty.”

4. It is interesting to make a special study of Mr. Eliot’s management of verse.

5. What, if any, temperamental defect is likely to interfere with his development?