Ulysses the Sailor Man
Much of the prose collected here is Eliot’s critical analysis of other writers; very, very famous writers. And, perhaps surprising, not all of the biggest names in the academic canon come out too well. One can make what one will of this metaphorical summarization of Dante, inarguably one of the two or three most influential poets of all time…ever…anywhere:
“The story of Ulysses, as told by Dante, reads like a straightforward piece of romance; a well-told seaman’s yarn.”
John Milton: Zombie Poet
Whatever conclusions one may choose to draw from Eliot’s analysis of Dante, one thing is unambiguously clear: Milton (Paradise Lost) ain’t Eliot’s choice for greatest English poet of all time:
“…it is not so unfair, as it might at first appear, to say that Milton writes English like a dead language.”
The “Mona Lisa of Literature”
Arguably—but only just—Da Vinci’s painting popularly known as the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in history. So what could possibly be the literary equivalent? William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, what else?
The Maturation of Literature
In his essay “What Is a Classic” Eliot expounds upon the idea of what makes a work of literature stand the test of time to be considered a classic. An extension of this consideration is the idea that literature must have time to age and mature before such a distinction can be made. Often, what may seem mature at the time is revealed to be childish and, of course, vice versa. Eliot engages a very creative and apt metaphor to put this distinction more starkly:
“The precocious child is often, in some obvious ways, childish for his age in comparison with ordinary children.”
“Poetry is the most highly organized form of intellectual activity.”
From this metaphor which Eliot references elsewhere as being the words of a distinguished newspaper critic, the author launches into five pages comprising the second section of his expansive essay pondering the vagaries of what elements combine to form “The Perfect Critic.”
