Dante. Poets on the Poets 2

1929

Brasch PQ4390 ED6

London: Faber and Faber

Like Pound and James Joyce, Eliot was greatly influenced by Dante’s works, particularly The Divine Comedy. He considered Dante’s poetry ‘the one universal school of style’ for writing poetry in any language; no other poet ‘stands so firmly as a model for all poets.’ In Dante’s writing, Eliot found ‘lessons for the present time,’ and he admired the way Dante combined style with spiritual direction. In his own work, Eliot attempted to translate the medieval into the modern in order to renovate, restore, and renew.