TS Eliot was a British poet, essayist, literary critic and playwright famous for the poetry in The Waste Land and Four Quartets. He is considered one of the major poets of the 20th century. Also, he is widely acclaimed as a central figure in English language modernist poetry. T. S Eliot was very young when he started writing poetry and became a published poet at 18.
Ezra Pound, a prominent early supporter of his work, published Eliot’s first poem, Heather, in 1906. After the success of his first publication, in 1914, he made the editorial decision to make more publications. His major works include The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, followed by “The Waste Land, “The Hollow Men”, Murder in the Cathedral, The Cocktail Party and Four Quartets.
Thus, he became one of the most influential English poets, and one of the most quoted lines in literature is April is the cruellest month from The Waste Land.
Poets Who Influenced T.S Eliot
Early in his career, Eliot was influenced by the poetry of Walt Whitman, A.E. Housman and Edward Thomas. Furthermore, there was another poet, a friend of Housman, whom Eliot called my generation’s greatest master of verse. This man was Robert Frost, who lived from 1874 to 1963 and whose poems are still read today, even after the ages of his demise.
Besides these, Ezra Pound is the one poet who left a lasting impact on his life and works. When the American poet T.S Eliot went to study at Oxford University, he encountered the poet and critic Ezra Pound, who had a significant influence on his work and that of many other poets, including Robert Frost and William Butler Yeats.
Although most people know Pound from his translation of Chinese poetry, such as that of Li Po and Wang Wei, it was through his poetry that he left his most significant impression on the world of literature.
Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound left a lasting impact on the poetry of many writers and poets, including Yeats and Joyce, but his mentorship of a young American poet led to his eventual expulsion from the U.S. in World War I. Pound and Eliot first met in London in 1914.
Though the two were poles apart in terms of their politics and personalities, Pound became one of his most trusted advisors. He guided him on how to write, where he should live (London), and how to achieve intellectual clarity through free-verse prose that mixed cultural history with personal experience.
When Eliot published “The Waste Land” in 1922, Pound helped assemble its final form. Then, when things turned for the worse for them politically after the war and America began putting pressure on Britain to hand over all aliens living there who had been born outside of Britain, Ezra left for Italy. His disciples followed him, transforming Italy’s literary landscape as they did so. During this time, Pound finally completed his poem, “The Cantos”, which would be published in instalments until 1939.
Conclusion
To sum up, undoubtedly, T. S Eliot provided praise-worthy literature to the world, which is still read and admired globally. But the answer to the question Who influenced T. S Eliot is Ezra Pound, Robert Frost and A. E Housman. All these great poets and their scholarly writings helped Eliot achieve his ambitions and goals.
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