Thomas Stearns Eliot, on (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965), distinguished himself as a great poet, critic and dramatist. His contributions to modern English poetry and modern criticism are as valuable and significant as that of Dryden’s and Arnold’s contributions to English poetry and criticism. Eliot is a trend setter in poetry. He brought in a new technique and a new style to enrich English Poetry. Eliot is as great poet as Chaucer and Milton. The systematic progress of his poetic technique, attracted a host of poets and they were so much so influenced by the poetic technique and style of Eliot that they sincerely tried to emulate hi style.
The new poetry was inaugurated in 1910, by the publication of Eliot’s LOVE SONG OF J.A. PRUFROCK. Its influenced was volatile but by 1920’s. Eliot was a force in English poetry and in 1922 the great poem. The Base land appeared and no wonder it was considered to be the poetic masterpiece of Eliot. In 1925 appears. The Hollow Man. Another important poem Ash Wednesday was published and since then his influence was steadily growing. In his attempt to find a new medium for poetry. Eliot took interest in the experiments of Ezra Pound, the leader of the Imagist movement. Like Ezra Pound Eliot also suit to extend the range of poetic language by introducing words in common speech. In his poems one finds colloquial expressions along with archaic words used by ancient poets, philosophers and prophets. His poems roughly fall into two groups despair and hope. The poems of despair generally belong to the early period. These poems are : THE LOVE SONG OF J.ALFRED PRUFROCK AND PORTRAYED OF A LADY. In his first two volumes of 1917 and 1920 up to early 1930’s his poems present the picture of an intellectual young man with inner divisions and uncertainties. The 1920’s volume opens with gerontion, depicting an old man in whom passion and religion become a force. The poem THE WASTELAND catapulted Eliot into a great fame. This poem had a powerful effect and it delighted everybody by its artistic achievements. In 1925 THE HOLLOW MAN appeared with the similar view of Eliot changed poetry. In ASH WEDNESDAY Eliot records spiritual experiences beginning with renunciation and ending with the hope of life renewed. Four shorter poems between 1927 and 1930 appeared by product of this spiritual transitions. In four quartets Eliot expresses his philosophical thought and approach. It reveals Eliot’s solution of the problem which he had put at the end of The Wasteland.
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In brief, Eliot was the most gifted and the most talented poet of the modern age. He is the pioneer of the new trend in poetry and the march of his poetic progress in a long way from the Love Song of J.A.P. to the philosophical religious and spiritual poems. What is more, the use of symbols and scientific images and varied allusion enriched his poems. In his poems Eliot expresses the modern problem of human beings and his growing tendencies towards materialism. The mechanical life of the people has made him sans sensibilities sans feelings and sans passions. All the social maladies and spiritual bankrupt of modern men have been mirrored in his poems. What is more, his sincerity and the cataract of his honest feelings abound in all his poems. And true in Eliot’s poems. We find not only the forceful presentation of the disease of the modern age but the presentation of great music. In fact, Eliot represented the crisis, the disease and the hollowness on modern poems. Eliot is hitherto reckoned to be a great poet and critic of this modern era.
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