T. S. Eliot’s writings for the stage have never competed critically on equal terms with his poetry despite his openly stated conviction that the greatest poetry is invariably dramatic and should speak to all audiences. The essays contained in this volume revolve around the question of Eliot’s life-long interest in and later development of verse drama incorporating the latest research and archival resources – most importantly, his recently published letters to Emily Hale. This book fills a gaping hole in the critical appreciation of Eliot’s commitment to drama from the mid-1920s to the end of his career by principally exploring the tensions in his work between the playwright and the poet. It does so by presenting Eliot’s drama as a fruitful ground for the newest critical approaches about an artist who has too long been a prisoner of his persona as the leading poet of Modernism.
