T.S. Eliot: A Lifetime of Old Age

This is the first book to identify and trace a theme of old age running throughout T.S. Eliot’s oeuvre. Previously unacknowledged, Eliot’s concern with ageing can now be seen as a significant element in his work, resonating throughout his poetry, his literary criticism and his dramas. Beginning with the works Eliot is known to have read as a youth, and examining his first unpublished poems, the book explores the origins of his concern with old age. It shows that the theme occurs with surprising frequency in the writings of a young man – a quarter of the poems in Eliot’s first published collection contain references to old age. It establishes the significance of “old men” throughout his canon; as the subject of three dramatic monologues; as “the most important personage” (Eliot) in ’The Waste Land’; and as the perspective behind Four Quartets. For the first time this theme is identified and shown through close reading and analysis of its use to be a recurring and significant aspect of Eliot’s poetry.