Arguably one of the first real modern poets of the twentieth century, T.S. Eliot’s poetry came to define the both the restlessness of the Jazz Age and the disillusionment of the “lost generation” that followed the First World War.

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in Missouri in 1888. He lived in St. Louis until he left to attend Harvard at age 18. After graduating from Harvard with undergraduate and masters’ degrees, Eliot traveled to Paris, then returned to work on doctorate studies at his alma mater. However, he soon relocated to England, where he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood and worked as a teacher and a banker.

Poet Ezra Pound discovered Eliot in London, and began to encourage Eliot’s poetry. With Pound’s assistance, Eliot published “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” and soon became one of the foremost contemporary poets in the world. “Prufrock,” with it’s frank sexuality and unusual construction that included a recurring chorus, more like a popular song than a poem, was an immediate success. His critical reputation was forever established upon the publication of The Waste Land, a lengthy, undeniably epic poem, in 1922. The Waste Land was quickly recognized as a work of genius, and with it, Eliot gained renown throughout the world as both a poet and as a literary critic.

His own literary reputation established, Eliot began work at publisher Faber & Faber, where he took pride in discovering and publishing other poets. He would eventually become director of the publishing house. He became a British Citizen in 1927, and in 1933 separated from his wife (he would go on to marry Valerie Fletcher in 1956).

Although many would say his best work was completed early in his career, Eliot was far from content to rest upon his laurels, and continued to grow as a writer, writing and publishing poetry, prose, and plays. Among his best-known works post-The Waste Land include the poem “Ash Wednesday,” the critical works The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism and Notes Towards the Definition of Culture and the plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party.

Eliot was honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. He died in his adopted hometown of London in 1965, one of the most lauded, influential, and indeed famous poets of his age.

As most of Eliot’s poems are lengthy, excerpts are included here:

Excerpt from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:

Excerpt from The Waste Land: