T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot OMwas an American-born British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic and "one of the twentieth century's major poets". He moved to England in 1914 at age 25, settling, working and marrying there. He was eventually naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39, renouncing his American citizenship...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth26 September 1888
CountryUnited States of America
games poetry mug
Poetry is a mug's game.
games careers may
As things are, and as fundamentally they must always be, poetry is not a career, but a mug's game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written: He may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.
british-author failure fear man ought purpose sees
The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
cat except until wind
When a Cat adopts you there is nothing to be done about it except put up with it until the wind changes.
hair hear latest pole transmit
To hear the latest Pole / transmit the Preludes, through his hair and fingertips.
act falls motion reality
Between the idea / And the reality / Between the motion / And the act / Falls the Shadow.
active atmosphere attending believe concentration finally great happen neither nor number passive poet practical resulting seem unite
We must believe that ''emotion recollected in tranquillity'' is an inexact formula. For it is neither emotion, nor recollection, nor without distortion of meaning, tranquillity. It is a concentration, and a new thing resulting from the concentration of a very great number of experiences which to the practical and active person would not seem to be experiences at all; it is a concentration which does not happen consciously or of deliberation. These experiences are not ''recollected'' and they finally unite in an atmosphere which is ''tranquil'' only in that it is a passive attending upon the event.
far possibly risk
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.
assurance hat low silk whom
One of the low on whom assurance sits / As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.
bottoms grow shall trousers wear
I grow old . . . I grow old . . . / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
editors failed suppose
I suppose some editors are failed writers; but so are most writers.
higher redeem unread vision
Redeem / The time. Redeem / The unread vision in the higher dream.
mess success
Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things.
entertainment joke listen medium millions people permits remain television
It is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome.