Lecture 10 - T. S. Eliot |
The early poetry of T.S. Eliot is examined. Differences between Pound and Eliot, in particular the former's interest in translation versus the latter's in quotation, are suggested. Eliot's relationship to tradition is considered in his essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent." The early poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is read, with emphasis on the poem's resistance to traditional forms and its complicated depiction of its speaker's fragmentary consciousness.
T.S. Eliot: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Preludes," "Gerontion," "Sweeney Among the Nightingales"; Norton: from The Metaphysical Poets, from Hamlet, Tradition and the Individual Talent (pp. 941-53)