T. S. Eliot: The Making of an American Poet, 1888–1922

4 1906-1910: Harvard Influences: Teachers, Texts, Temptations

. Irving Babbitt: Human Imperfectibility The secret of how—and perhaps why—Eliot became such an allusive (and therefore elusive) poet is revealed in part in the authors and texts he studied at Harvard. From any point of view, the lists are overwhelming: During his first year at Harvard, –, Eliot enrolled in the following courses: Mediaeval History, Greek Literature, Constitutional Government, German Grammar and Prose, and English Literature. For the latter course there were four lecturers: Professors LeBaron R. Briggs, Barrett Wendell, George Lyman Kittredge, and George Pierce Baker—all with national and some with international reputations. The Mediaeval History and Constitutional Government courses were large lecture courses, popular because they were relatively easy to pass. In –: French Prose and Poetry and German Prose and Poetry, Greek Prose Composition, Greek Literature (Aristophanes, Thucydides, Aeschylus, Sophocles), History of Ancient Art, Philosophy, and Modern Philosophy— the latter course taught by George Santayana. [4] –  : , ,  Teachers: () Irving Babbitt: Human Imperfectibility, ; () Barrett Wendell: The Inexperience of America, ; () George Santayana: Philosopher of Reason, ; () William Allan Neilson: Poetic Theorist, ; Texts: () Dante and Eliot’s “Persistent Concern with Sex,” ; () Petronius’s Satyricon: A “Serene Unmorality,” ; () Symons/ Laforgue: The Ironic Mask, ; () Havelock Ellis, “Sexual Inversion,” ; () John Donne: Thought as Experience, ; Temptations: () The Lure of Europe: Brooks’s The Wine of the Puritans, ; () “T. S. Eliot, the Quintessence of Harvard,”  His third year, –: The Literary History of England and its Relations to that of the Continent from the Beginning to Chaucer, The Literary History of England and its Relations to that of the Continent from Chaucer to Elizabeth, Tendencies of European Literature in the Renaissance, English Composition, General View of Latin Poetry, The Roman Novel: Petronius and Apuleius. Eliot earned his undergraduate degree in , the end of his third year, and his overall grade average was . (out of a possible , straight As). He decided, however, to wait a year and graduate with his class in  (Powel, –). During – Eliot took the following courses for an M.A. in English: Studies in the History of Allegory, taught by Professor William Allan Neilson ; Chaucer, by Professors Neilson and Fred Norris Robinson; The Drama in England from the Miracle Plays to the Closing of the Theatres, by Professor George Pierce Baker; Studies in the Poets of the Romantic Period, by Professor Neilson; Literary Criticism in France, with Special Reference to the Nineteenth Century, by Professor Irving Babbitt; Philosophy of History : Ideals of Society, Religion, Art, and Science, in their Historical Development , by Professor Santayana. Eliot’s grade average improved considerably for his graduate year: .—verging on straight As (–). Eliot’s most extensive comment on the nature of his education at Harvard was made in a series of lectures delivered at the University of Chicago in November , under the title “The Aims of Education”:“On the wrong side of the balance sheet, I must put the unrestraint of the free elective system as practiced in my time. By passing examinations in a certain number of wholly unrelated subjects one could, in three or four years, obtain the certificate of education—the diploma of bachelor of arts. The only limitation was that you could not follow two courses in the same year if their lecture hours coincided. I knew one man whose principle of choice of courses was that the lectures should all fall on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with no lecture on Saturday: thus, he was free to spend four days a week in New York” (TCTC, –). How did the elective system work? A description appeared in the Harvard Lampoon, October ,  (the advisee is given the name of his graduation year): “Typical Scene: Adviser—Have you chosen your courses? / —Yes, sir. / Adviser—Do you like them? / —Yes, sir. / Adviser—Do they conflict? / —No, sir. Adviser—Then take them” (Powel, , ). The free elective system for courses was adopted by Harvard President Charles William Eliot (a distant relative of T. S. Eliot’s) on his taking over the office in , and had originated in Germany. It was fiercely opposed by many prominent faculty members, including Irving Babbitt and Barrett T. S. Eliot: The Making of an American Poet [80] Wendell, and it is clear that Eliot absorbed their feelings about the system and about the president who imposed it. Indeed, Babbitt had a personal reason for detesting the elective system. He had taken his master’s degree from Harvard’s Department of Classics in  with honors. After teaching elsewhere for a year, he returned...