T. S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot was a major modernist poet and critic, widely regarded as one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he moved to England in 1914 and spent most of his adult life there, becoming a British citizen in 1927.

Eliot's early poetry was heavily influenced by the symbolism and imagism movements, and he was also deeply influenced by his study of philosophy and Eastern religion. In 1915, he published his first major poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," which is now widely regarded as a masterpiece of modernist literature. In 1922, he published "The Waste Land," a complex and highly allusive work that became one of the most important and widely studied poems of the 20th century.

In the years that followed, Eliot continued to write poetry, but also became an important literary critic and editor. He worked for several years as an editor at the publishing firm Faber and Faber, where he was instrumental in promoting the work of other important modernist writers, including W.H. Auden, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce.

In 1930, Eliot converted to Anglicanism and began to explore religious themes in his poetry. This culminated in the publication of "Four Quartets" between 1935 and 1942, a series of four long poems that are now considered some of his most important works. These poems explore themes of time, memory, and spirituality, and are noted for their intricate structure and rich use of language.

"Journey of the Magi," published in 1927, is another well-known poem by Eliot. It is a dramatic monologue in which one of the Magi who visited the infant Jesus describes his journey and reflects on its meaning. The poem is notable for its use of imagery and its exploration of themes of spiritual transformation.

Throughout his career, Eliot was deeply interested in the relationship between literature and society, and he was a vocal critic of what he saw as the decline of traditional values and the rise of mass culture. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, and continued to write and publish poetry and criticism until his death in 1965. Today, he is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential poets of the 20th century.