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T.S. Eliot: Portrait of a Mind Eastern Illinois University The Keep Plan B Papers Student Theses & Publications 7-15-1960 T.S. Eliot: Portrait of a Mind Mildred C. Miller Follow this and additional works at: https://thekeep.eiu.edu/plan_b Recommended Citation Miller, Mildred C., "T.S. Eliot: Portrait of a Mind" (1960). Plan B Papers. 65. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/plan_b/65 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Plan B Papers by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. r Mildred c. Miller Plan B Paper July 15, 1960 L __)' T. S. ELIOT PORTRAIT OF 1~ :MIND "Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata. Shantih shantih shantih11 The quotation above, seeming like meanint:less babble to the uninitiate, forms the concludin~ lines of one of the most controversial poems of the En~lish lan~uage, T8e Waste ~' written by one of the rnost enizmatic of modern minds, T. 5. Eliot. A madman speaks these words at the end of the poe~, durin~ the "awful darin5 of a n:oment's surrender,t' mouthins in Sansl;;:rit words too fraught with meaning to be voiced in his native En::li sb. Translated, the words "contain the oldest and most l permanent truth of the race": Give. Sympathize. Control. Peace that passeth understandin~. The poet's ovm an~uisbed efforts to come to terms with hirrself and his world, seem summed up in these words. Eliot bas a great deal to say to those wbo have the intellectual curiosity and the mental stamina required to discover for theroselves the poet's rreaning. Eliot, who has been the object of much misinterpretation, urges caution in trying to reconstruct his life from bis writing. As biographical dEtta are not wantins, it may be well, before attempting an appraisal of some of his works, to look into the background of this n1 an who has been bailed as "the most important 2 single influence in the English poetry of our time • 11 Thonias Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 26, 1888, the seventh and youngest child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Stearns. It was Eliot's paternal 3rand.fatber who transplanted the New England branch of the family to St. Louis, where be helped found Washington University. 1. Elizabeth Drew, !· s. Eliot, The Design£!~ Poetry (New York, Scribner and Sons, 1949), p -:-8"8. 2. Brenner, Rica, Poets of Our Time (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1941), p. 159. 1. -2- Henry Ware Eliot, the poet's father, was graduated from ';J"asbinzton University, after wbi ch he be cane a highly successful businesswan in St. Louis. Eliot was also fortunate in having a mother of unusual intellectual attain1rents, her published works includin3: a biography of her. father-in-law and a dramatic poerr based on the life of Savonarola. Eliot's educational achievements are impressive. Eis forn1 al education besan at S:ri th Ac2dercy, after which be received furtber prc1~1s.ration for colle~:e 2.t Mil ton Academy. Already evincin;3 a. "'.:een interest in JJoetry, particularly in the works of Byron, Shelley, Keats, and Swinburne, Eliot matriculated at Harvard in 1906. His conce:cn wi tb rnan 1 s place in the un:i.verse led hi:-2 to ma:or in philosophy and reli:::;icm, providin3 excellent background for the reflective ty;;:ie of verse in which he vras later to excel. In four years Eliot c,::,rr:)leted h1 s und.er··~:rad.ua te work and the year's work leadin3 to the master 1 s degree, re- ceivin~ his in 1910. in Harvard, Eliot triej bis hand at a few verses, conventional little son~s written in four-line stanzas which rhymed, giving no svjdence of the new literary movement which was then rnakins itself felt and wbi ch the fledglin.s poet admired.. As a. tribute to his literary 3 activities, he was made Class Poet. Eliot's desire to be near the leaders of the Imagist move:nent, of which the leading exponents ':Jere the French symbolist poets, led him to spend the year 1910-1911 at the 3. Brenner, Rica,££• cit., p. 160-163. -3- Sorbonne ln Paris, working toward the doctorate. Returning to America, tbe next three years were passed at Harvard in 4 the study of metaphysics, logic, and psychology. At the end of the academic year (1913-1914), Eliot was awarded a travelling fellowship. The beginning of World War I found him studying in Germany. Prevented by the war from returning home to submit his dissertation, the following winter he began reading Greek philosophy at Oxford. It was during this same period that he began contributing reviews and essays to leading periodicals. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufroclt," Eliot's first mature poem to appear in print, was published in Poetry in 1915. "Here indeed was modern sophistication dealing with the tag ends of over­ worldly cosmopolitanism,u wrote Miss Harriet Monroe, editor ana founder of Poetry, adding that publication of Eliot 5 drew "loud protests from shocked critics." Packed with rich and vivid ima~ery, this poem further commands our attention by virtue of the maturity of the insight into the mind and soul of a disillusioned, midjle-aged man. Such penetration is rare enough at any a·:!e; in a young man of twenty-three it is practically unique. Eliot's marriage in the spring of 1915 necessitated his giving serious attention to the pedestrian demands of earning a living. Little information is to be found concerning Miss Vivienne Haigb-'dood of London wbo became Mrs. Thomas Eliot. 4. F. o. Ivlatthiessen, The Achievement of T. s. Eliot (New York, Oxford University Press, 1947), p:-xvi.- 5. 11 A Birthday for Poetry,"~' Vol. 33, No. 21 (November 24, 1952), p. 114. -4- Mrs. Eliot died in 1947 after a lon~ illness that bad confined 6 her to a ~ospital for most of her arried life. IITmodiately after bis marria , tbe un~~ lrn sband accepted a position as teacher in Hi sate School near London, handling all subjects from Latin to mathematics to history to drawj_nc. Ho1c.'eve.c-, tea.chin~~ coul:J not hold tbe neophyte author, wbo next beca:ce cl er• L• Lloyd 's -bfH11"...1 .iorld WEi.r I proved to be no threat to tbe developin= writer's career as Eliot was in poor bePlth at tbet ti~e. ~~erica bad enterod the 1:rar jn 1°, )r:11, 1Sl7; Eliot re,~lsterl'::cl for th:: U. s. lfavy in 1Sl8 7 ~ut was not accepted. It \·-T2.s tt-Je fj_.r~st tlcr~l::l ;//ar ·~fhi c''n ssc:}Gd It wss bis for~uitous purs~its be love~. ,- , '• \,.; . : . ':.) . t ~~~· :~ ~:.:; -~·.:- D , n ·r • ..:) • 3.:;: - (Fa·,:.J1~·u<:~r;~l 1, lS~.~·.4 ~,, f'. 56. e. T . .3. l·::J.tttev;s, op. ei t., ·~l-' • :~6. _r::, _ _, An individual who r.7Ust preserve his integrity a. t what- ever cost, T. S. Eliot tool:: the decisive step of renouncing his U. 3. ci tizensbip when he was al:rost forty yeers old. Knowing well the kind of adverse criticism to which such an act would r:iake him vulnerable, he nevertheless became a 3ri ti sh citizen in 1S·27, find.ing the European way of life wore congenial to hi~ than tbst of bis own country. Con- siderin5, as one rrust, the rronumental stature of Eliot's intellect, this repudiation of the land of his birth consti- tutes a subtle dB.rmation of tb:ls countrJ 's culture wbicb un- joubtedly is shared by a legion of silent sufferers, trapped here by the accident of birth. A ~rowing interest in the Enslisb Church, furtbermore, caused hi~ to repudiate the Unitarianism of his forebears and e0brace the tenets of An~lo-Catbolicism. Perhaps bis own words w:ill explain his position. I am a classicist in literature, a royalist in politics, and Anglo-Catbolic in reli5ion. I a~ quite aware that the first terw is co~pletely vague, and easily lends itself to clap-trap; I a0 aware that the second terrr is at present without definition, and easily lends itself to what is alr~"ost worse tban clap-trsp, I rre.sn te:I:perate conservatisJI1; the third tern: does not rest with rre to define. 9 As Eliot's farre in the world of letters grew, many honors came bis way. Invited to lecture in the United StRtes, be returned to tbi s country in 1~:32 for bis first visit to A~erica in ei3bteen years, having accepted the app'..:lintr:>ent of Chcrles Eliot Norton Professor of ?otry at Harvard for 1932-33. He a.lso save lect:.ires at tl-:ie Uni varsity s. Brenner, Rica,££• cit., p. 175. -6- of Virginia. He has since msde two or three other trips back to A~erica, though rnos~ of his time continues to be spent at his home in London. Eliot has received honora.ry degrees from the universities of Cambridge, .Bristol, an;] J::dinburgh. In 1933, Columbia University presented him with the Doctor of Letters, paying due homage to the wan wbo "is spruns from well-knov-m American stocl~ and given the best preparation for a life of letters that Harvard, the Sorbonne, and Oxford could afford; a poet, essayist and critic who refuses to write without thinking; a noteworthy survival of classicism in a generation that falls 10 or.:· so easily into practical romanticism." Eliot's literary output, which is prodigious, falls naturally into three classifications: the poetic works, the critical writings, and the plays • .Although be has actually written more critical works than poetry, Eliot seems to me to speak most directly throu~h the medium of his verse to us, his fellow citizens of the twentieth century.
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