T.S. Eliot & Neo-Classical Poetry

This book is a comprehensive probe into a relatively unexplored aspect of Eliot, i.e., the close affinity underlying his poetry and that of his Neo-Classical counterparts. Basing her discussion chiefly on the major poetical and prose works of T.S. Eliot, Alexander Pope, John Dryden and Dr. Johnson, the author. demonstrates how their principal poetical concepts and techniques are inherently. identical. Barring some minor differences, Eliot emerges as a rich inheritor of the Neo-Classical legacy. The study, which is a step far ahead of his much-debated predilection for the metaphysical poets, offers a fresh appraisal of an original theme.

Dr. Indrani Mukherji, who holds a Ph.D. Degree from the University of Allahabad, has been teaching in the Department of English, University of Allahabad, since 1988. A recipient of two national fellowships by the U.G.C.-the Junior/Senior Research Fellowship and the Research Associateship, she has been actively involved in scholarly academic pursuits. An Assistant Editor of the Journal of Literary Criticism, she has also contributed articles to leading journals like the Indian Journal of American Studies, Journal of Literary Criticism and the like. Presently working on a D. Litt. project, she seeks to explore the religious themes in the poetry and of T.S. Eliot and Rabindranath Tagore.

T.S.Eliot (1888-1965) has been acclaimed as a towering genius in the realm of modern English poetry, an astute craftsman in his plays, and a thoughtful scholar in his criticism. As a poet, he has been designated "an integral poet" (Kristian Smidt), "an international hero" (Delmore Schwartz) and a "universal poet" (Octavio Paz). Being a major poet of our age, Eliot has invited too much of critical attention from various scholars the world over. His poetry has already been explored from different angles, leaving little room for fresh investigations and that too despite its baffling obscurity and allusiveness, its unsettling complexity and variety. In his essay on "The Metaphysical Poets" (1921) included in Selected Essays (1932), Eliot claims as follows:

Our civilization comprehends great variety and complexity, and this variety and complexity, playing upon a refined sensibility, must produce various and complex results. The poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate if necessary, language into his meaning.

This claim, in reality, serves as the motto for the practising poets in the twentieth century. Eliot's being the representative voice, it has gained greater recognition and popularity than even Pound's. The publication of The Waste Land - Eliot's magnum opus-in 1922 put a seal on his undying reputation as a poet.

At a time when the Eliot industry is growing so fast, it is time to critically examine him in the light of the Neo-Classical impact upon him, for both Eliot and the Neo-Classicals cultivate an identical attitude towards literature and their shared attitude is the 'classical' one. Rightly does Dr. (Mrs.) Indrani Mukherji point out in her Preface: "It is unfortunate that... Eliot's affinity with the Neo-Classicals who had influenced him most deeply, has not received much attention so far." As such, it is in the fitness of things that Dr. Mukherji undertakes to explore this apparent 'affinity' with a good deal of sincerity and scholarship.

**Contents and Sample Pages**