Thomas Sterne Eliot

T.S. Eliot: A Pioneer of Modernism

T.S. Eliot was a famous poet, literary critic, and playwright. He was one of the pioneers of modernism, a movement in art and literature that was popular in America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Thomas Stearns Eliot was born on September 26, 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Henry Ware Eliot, a businessman, and Charlotte Champe Stearns, a schoolteacher and amateur poet.

Early Life and Education

Eliot's grandfather was William Greenleaf Eliot, a famous Unitarian minister, educator, and philanthropist, who died before T.S. Eliot was born. Eliot was raised to follow his grandfather's religious and moral teachings, like optimism about the future, the innate goodness and progress of mankind, avoiding selfishness, and making personal sacrifices for the good of the greater community. He was educated in Europe, exactly at Merton College, in Oxford, and he began his career as a schoolmaster.

Influences and Literary Career

Eliot was a poet, playwright, and literary critic. He had an encyclopedic culture and a deep knowledge of all world literatures. He admired Dante because of his capacity to express personal feelings, restraint, and to find a balance between the personal and the impersonal. Eliot was influenced by French symbolists, such as Bergson (about the concept of time). He had knowledge and used as sources Homer, Ovid, Indian philosophy, ancient rites, and civilizations.

First Period: Pre-Conversion to Anglicanism

Eliot's work can be divided into two periods: before and after his conversion to Anglicanism. In the first period, his literary production was characterized by a pessimistic vision of the world, a world without hope, love, or friendship. "The Waste Land" was written in this period. The characters in many of Eliot's poems were lonely, disconnected from other people, and overly concerned about their own unfulfilled wants and needs, as opposed to being selfless and focusing on the greater good of the community. Many poems were set in the present and paid little attention to past traditions.

Instead of optimism and progress, many of his characters felt stuck in difficult situations they were powerless to escape. Eliot's poems usually stressed the darker side of human nature. Nearly all of these themes can be detected in his breakthrough poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Second Period: Post-Conversion

Purification, faith, hope, and love are the keywords of the second period. "Journey of the Magi," "The Hollow Man," "Murder in Cathedral," "Ash-Wednesday" belong to the new phase. As a critic, he explained his poetic vision in works such as "The Sacred Wood" and "On Poetry and Poets." He shared, with Joyce, the idea that the artist must be impersonal.

Objective Correlative

Central in his poetry is the notion of "objective correlative." The poet doesn't describe an emotion directly but presents objects and actions to evoke feelings in the audience.