T. S. Eliot's essay

The text is an extract from T. S. Eliot's essay, written during the second World War. The text is an argumentative text: it means that there is a thesis supported by different argumentation and its function is to persuade the reader about the thesis advanced in the text.

The essay is made up by three paragraphs:

It starts with a statement that the English language is the richest to write poetry, but to qualify the statement he write that this doesn't mean that the English has produced the greatest poets. The reason why English is the richest language for poetry is because it has the largest vocabulary.

In order to support the statement some examples are given:

The English language is the richest for poetry thanks to the variety of elements of which it is made of. First thanks to the Germanic foundation; the Scandinavian contribute, due to the Danish conquest; the Norman French contribute, after the Norman conquest; then there followed French influences; in addition new words coined from the Latin and at last but not least the Celtic contribute.

To persuade the reader about the variety of elements of which English is made of, Eliot wrote elements about the rhythmic variety:

First of all in its variety of metrical elements that depends on the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables; going on there is the rhythm of early Saxon verse; of the Norman French; of the Welsh; and also the influence of generations of study of Latin and Greek poetry.

The second paragraph starts with an restatement that English is a good language for poetry because it is derived from so many linguistic sources, but this does not imply that England must have produced the greatest poets. For example it is generally thought that the greatest peoples excel in one art like Italy and France in painting; Germany in music or England in poetry.

To tell the truth this is not right because, first no art has ever been the exclusive possession of any one country of Europe and second other countries has been the major influence in poetry, for example the Romantic poetry made in France.

Going on it should be clear that even when a country and language leads all other, it does not mean that its poets are the greatest. To give an example, no English poet contemporary with Wordsworth can enter into comparison with Goethe at all.

In the third paragraph conclude Eliot's essay with an statement about the ability of European literature to renew itself. All this depends of two things:

First its ability to receive and assimilate influences from different countries, and second its ability to go back and learn from its own sources.

At last every literature must have some sources, deep in its own history, also the common literature of Rome, of Greece and of Israel.