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Chapter 24 - T. S. Eliot

from Part III - Forms of Modernism, 1900–1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2014

By
Charles Altieri
Edited by
Alfred Bendixen  and
Stephen Burt
Alfred Bendixen
Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey
Stephen Burt
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
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Summary

T.S.Eliot was the figure who defined modernist poetry for educated Americans. His isolated childhood had produced considerable alienation from quotidian society, making it necessary for him ultimately to find a sense of belonging only in a relation to transcendental domain. The Waste Land has five sections that are beautifully correlated with the movements of Beethoven's quartets. Each builds on juxtapositions and allusions to reflect a different aspect of spiritual crisis. The poem asks whether there is an alternative to this death by water, and so whether there is any possibility of reading water as baptismal. After The Waste Land Eliot was done with trying by secular poetry to establish a spiritual core for his culture. He devoted his secular energies to founding and editing the review The Criterion, which from 1922 to 1939 tried to represent the best writing in Europe about its cultural dilemmas.

Keywords

American popular poetrydoggerelliterary realismdialect poetrycomic poetrylocal color poetry
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of American Poetry , pp. 542 - 556
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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  • T. S. Eliot
  • Edited by Alfred Bendixen, Princeton University, New Jersey, Stephen Burt, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: The Cambridge History of American Poetry
  • Online publication: 05 December 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9780511762284.028
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  • T. S. Eliot
  • Edited by Alfred Bendixen, Princeton University, New Jersey, Stephen Burt, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: The Cambridge History of American Poetry
  • Online publication: 05 December 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9780511762284.028
Available formats
×

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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • T. S. Eliot
  • Edited by Alfred Bendixen, Princeton University, New Jersey, Stephen Burt, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: The Cambridge History of American Poetry
  • Online publication: 05 December 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9780511762284.028
Available formats
×