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Enthusiastic Persons at a Distance

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"I admit that my own experience, as a minor poet, may have jaundiced my outlook; that I am used to having cosmic significances, which I never suspected, extracted from my work (such as it is) by enthusiastic persons at a distance; and to being informed that something which I meant seriously is vers de société; and to having my personal biography reconstructed from passages which I got out of books, or which I invented out of nothing because they sounded well; and to having my biography invariably ignored in what I did write from personal experience; so that in consequence I am inclined to believe that people are mistaken about Shakespeare just in proportion to the relative superiority of Shakespeare to myself."

T. S. Eliot

Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca

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Rosy Cole on Thursday, 09 March 2023 13:04

The question is: Should it have mattered to him? It would be interesting to know at what stage of his career he said this.

Thanks for sharing!

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The question is: [i]Should it have mattered to him?[/i] It would be interesting to know at what stage of his career he said this. Thanks for sharing!
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Stephen Evans on Thursday, 09 March 2023 16:34

From a lecture in 1927, after The Wasteland and well into his tenure at Criterion. I am reading some of his criticism now - such a sharp mind.

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From a lecture in 1927, after [i]The Wasteland [/i] and well into his tenure at Criterion. I am reading some of his criticism now - such a sharp mind.
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Rosy Cole on Saturday, 11 March 2023 22:05

Well, that was (significantly) before Ash Wednesday marking a wholesale change of perspective and values which lasted the rest of his life. He hoped and sought Grace not 'to turn again''. Yes, a razor-sharp mind. Perhaps it's one that's only tolerable in retrospect in these days of cancel culture.

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Well, that was (significantly) before [i]Ash Wednesday[/i] marking a wholesale change of perspective and values which lasted the rest of his life. He hoped and sought Grace not 'to turn again''. Yes, a razor-sharp mind. Perhaps it's one that's only tolerable in retrospect in these days of cancel culture.
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