Dramatic element in the Poetry of T.S. Eliot

Abstract

Eliot has been acclaimed as a major poet and critic of our time, but his dramatic genius has, so far, received tardy recognition. Within its limited scope, the present paper aims at an assessment of the essentially dramatic nature of Eliot's poetry. It is impossible to separate his work as a critic from his work as a poet and a playwright. Edmund Wilson emphasizes "the essentially dramatic character of his imagination. Eliot's early poems are novel experiments in dramatic situation - kind of poetry. Here the poet employs the method of dramatic monologue by which he presents a number of personae or characters, who act as the central link or as the unifying force in series of disparate experiences that are recounted in these poems. Mostly these personae are flat or static. They are caught in certain attitudes and have hardly any individual quality. But by urging us to sympathize with them the poet wants to help us in obtaining a superficial understanding of the events or actions that set the pattern of emotions in the poems.