by Anthony Domestico Published in 1920, The Sacred Wood solidified T.S. Eliot’s status as one of the preeminent critical voices of his generation. Containing the canonical “Tradition and the Individual Talent” as well as essays on Ben Johnson, Swinburne, and others, the collection shows Eliot working through a number of his most pressing critical interests:… Continue Reading The Sacred Wood
Tag: Anthony Domestico
“‘Ulysses,’ Order and Myth”
by Anthony Domestico Published in The Dial in November of 1923, T.S. Eliot’s essay “‘Ulysses,’ Order, and Myth” is a rare opportunity to see one of modernism’s giants grappling with one of modernism’s greatest works. Having met Joyce for the first time while delivering a pair of old shoes on behalf of Ezra Pound on… Continue Reading “‘Ulysses,’ Order and Myth”
T.S. Eliot
Biography by Anthony Domestico and Pericles Lewis For many readers, T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) is synonymous with modernism. Everything about his poetry bespeaks high modernism: its use of myth to undergird and order atomized modern experience; its collage-like juxtaposition of different voices, traditions, and discourses; and its focus on form as the carrier of meaning. His… Continue Reading T.S. Eliot
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
by Anthony Domestico Hilda Doolittle (H.D., 1886-1961) was an avant-garde poet and novelist known in her own days primarily for her work in the Imagist movement. Her early poems published in Poetry were exemplars of Imagistic principles: austere in structure and diction, they blended mythology and symbolist techniques to create a verse form… Continue Reading H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
The Shadow-Line
by Anthony Domestico In a 1924 TLS tribute upon the death of Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf wrote, “He must be lost indeed to the meaning of words who does not hear in that rather stiff and sombre music, with its reserve, its pride, its vast and implacable integrity, how it is better to be good… Continue Reading The Shadow-Line
Joseph Conrad
Biography by Anthony Domestico Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), a Polish expatriate born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, worked as a sailor on French and British ships before becoming a naturalized British subject in 1886. He developed an elaborate, beautiful English prose style and probed many of the deep questions of modern fiction in his short stories and novels. His work was… Continue Reading Joseph Conrad