The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical EditionVol. 2: The Perfect Critic, 1919-1926

The Metaphysical Poets. To the Editor of the TLS

Times Literary Supplement, 1033 (3 Nov 1921) 716

Sir, – I am obliged to Professor Saintsbury for his suggestions, of which I shall make use, if he will permit me, on some later occasion. ¹ As I greatly respect Mr. Saintsbury, so I would not be behind him in my testimony of that great neglected poet, great neglected dramatist, and great neglected critic, John Dryden.

I only regret that the conclusion to be drawn from Mr. Saintsbury’s letter appears to contradict my own conclusions from the study of Caroline verse. Mr. Saintsbury appears to believe that these poets represent not merely a generation, but almost a particular theory of poetry. The “second thoughts” to which he alludes are, I think, and as I tried to point out, frequent in the work of many other poets besides, of other times and other languages. I have mentioned Chapman, and the contemporaries of Dante. I do not believe that the author of Hamletand Measure for Measurewas invariably satisfied with “the first simple, obvious, natural thought and expression of thought”; or that the author of the “Phoenix and Turtle” whistled as he went for want of thought. ² Nor can I believe that Swinburne thought twice, or even once, before he wrote

Time with a gift of tears, Grief with a glass that ran. ³

On the subject of Caroline poetry, there is no one to whom so much gratitude is due, or to whom I should listen with as much deference, as Mr. Saintsbury. ⁴

I am, Sir, your obliged humble contributor