Thomas Stearns Eliot born Sept. 26, 1888, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.,
died Jan. 4, 1965, London, Eng. American-English poet, playwright, literary critic, and editor, a leader of the modernist movement in poetry in such works as The Waste Land (1922) and The Four Quartets (1943). Eliot exercised a strong influence on Anglo-American culture from the 1920s until late in the century. His experiments in diction, style, and versification revitalized English poetry, and in a series of critical essays he shattered old orthodoxies and erected new ones. The publication of The Four Quartets led to his recognition as the greatest living English poet and man of letters, and in 1948 he was awarded both the Order of Merit and the Nobel Prize for Literature.
I don't believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates.
For every life and every act Consequence of good and evil can be shown And as in time results of many deeds are blended So good and evil in the end become confounded.
I do not approve the extermination of the enemy; the policy of exterminating or, as it is barbarously said, liquidating enemies, is one of the most alarming developments of modern war and peace, from the point of view of those who desire the survival of culture. One needs the enemy.
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
A people without history Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern Of timeless moments.
The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.
|
Writing Poetry
