BIB_ID
157834
Accession number
MA 22853
Creator
Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965.
Display Date
London, England, 1937 October 6.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 25.2 x 20.3 cm
Notes
Addressed to "S. Winston Esq. / 3 College Road / N.W.3." Though Eliot gives his addressee's name as "S. Winston," based on the provenance of the letter it is most likely Samuel Winsten, editor of the anthology discussed in the letter.
Written on the letterhead of "The / Criterion / A Quarterly Review / Edited by T. S. Eliot / 24 Russell Square / London, W.C.1."
Eliot may be referring in his postscript to the four pages of poetry currently housed with the autograph manuscript of Winsten's essay on children's verse, in which he quotes from this letter. The manuscript of this essay is held by the Morgan and it has been catalogued separately. The author of the poems has not been identified.
Removed from PML 61742, "Children's Verse : an Anthology of poems written by the pupils of the Elementary Schools of Tottenham", a Souvenir of Education Week, 1937.
Written on the letterhead of "The / Criterion / A Quarterly Review / Edited by T. S. Eliot / 24 Russell Square / London, W.C.1."
Eliot may be referring in his postscript to the four pages of poetry currently housed with the autograph manuscript of Winsten's essay on children's verse, in which he quotes from this letter. The manuscript of this essay is held by the Morgan and it has been catalogued separately. The author of the poems has not been identified.
Removed from PML 61742, "Children's Verse : an Anthology of poems written by the pupils of the Elementary Schools of Tottenham", a Souvenir of Education Week, 1937.
Summary
Commenting on the merits of teaching children to write poetry and on the anthology Winsten sent him; writing "I should say that up to about fourteen - no age of course can be definitely fixed - the most that can be said is that there is no harm in children writing verse if they want to. I mean that before that age I cannot see any particular reason for encouraging them to write verse, or for using it as a school exercise [...] After about that age, I think that there is a good deal to be said for a certain amount of verse writing in connexion with their work in prose composition;" mentioning poetic forms and free verse: "It ought I think to be set in traditional forms, because this is what they need, whether they are poets or not. Even quite complicated forms, such as the sonnet or the sestina, might be tried, and an intelligent and enthusiastic teacher could make the attempt to solve the technical problems very exciting. I should certainly discourage young people from writing in that formless and rhythmless speech which is called vers libre. Nobody ought to attempt free rhythms until he has served an apprenticeship in strict ones;" adding, in a postscript on an additional page and with a typed signature of "T. S.", "Which is worse: a child writing as an adult or an adult as a child? Just received enclosed from fellow poet. Guess ... / T. S. / Liked: SWINGING on Page 19 / The MISER on Page 22 / and especially YOUNG and OLD on Page 23 / But as I was born old, I wouldn't know."
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