T.S Eliot

Due to my excessive ignorance toward poetry, the name T.S Eliot did not sound too familiar to me. In fact, I didn't even know he was a poet - oddly enough. I hope there are none out there who could possibly be as silly as I am but just in case, I would like to provide some background information on who Eliot was. Through this, I will be able to learn about this person also.

[Wikipedia]

Thomas Stearns Eliot OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965) was an American-born English poet, playwright, and literary critic, arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century......

Poetry

• Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)
  • The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
  • Portrait of a Lady (poem)
  • Aunt Helen
• Poems (1920)
  • Gerontion
  • Sweeney Among the Nightingales
  • "The Hippopotamus"
  • "Whispers of Immortality"
  • "Mr. Eliot's Sunday Morning Service"
  • "A Cooking Egg"
• and etc...

Just a general info. More info here There are more poetries he wrote, and I was amazed at the quantity.

Thomas Stearns Eliot

About the actual text - for one thing, I don't like this poet's seemingly arrogant attitude. He is too much of a critic, considering his vague validation phrases. Not direct from Eliot, the passage still starts out with, "Hamlet the play is the primary problem." Eliot goes on to criticize the play in general: "they knew less about psychology than more recent Hamlet critics, [...] in their old-fashioned way, to the secret of dramatic art in general." I can't agree to this statement as Hamlet is not SCIENCE. Although it's true that the major theme of this play copes with emotions of various of people, I still think it's only a PLAY, that could sometimes go against scientific theories. The only part I actaully like about this passage is the section where the poet agrees with the causes of Hamlet's madness - which I thought it was a feign to escape his thereabout's situation: " and that the "madness" of Hamlet was feigned in order to escape suspicion, and successfully."