Part one of term paper
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) began his spiritual enquiry as a young man. At university he studied comparative religions and the medieval mystics. His thinking was greatly influenced by the philosopher Bertrand Russell and the poet Ezra Pound. Eliot’s experimentation with forms of poetry were a kind of literary journey which may have ref ...

Part two of term paper
... (written and published 1927-30) are examined for evidence of Eliot’s pilgrimage towards a Christian faith and his membership of the Anglican Church. The earlier poem, The Hollow Men, was published when Eliot was experiencing extreme personal difficulty in his work and with his first wife’s poor health. Writing himself about an even earlier work, The Waste Land (1922), Eliot concluded that ‘some forms of illness are extremely favourable to religious illumination’. I have not had persona ...