The essay by Eliot, was originally written as one of a series of talks broadcast to Germany after World War II.

T. S. Eliot wants to discuss the fact that English has always been considered the richest for the purpose of writing poetry. He immediately makes it clear that does not mean England has produced the greatest poets or amount of poetry.

Eliot clarifies his thesis saying that English is the richest language for poetry because it has the largest vocabulary and to support the statement of its richness he says English due to the variety of elements of which English is made of. He provides examples about this. He says there is a Germanic foundation, a Scandinavian one, and Norman-French elements together with French influences and finally there are new words coined from Latin.

 In addition, the English language is also rich because of  its rhythm variety. The examples of this are: the early Saxon verse, the Norman- French verse, the Welsh one, and the influence of Latin and Greek poetry.
Afterwards, T.S. Eliot states it is generally thought that the greatest peoples excel in one art and the examples given to the audience are  that Italy and French are rich in painting, Germany in music and England in poetry. But, according to the poet,  this is not correct because no art has ever been a possession of any country of Europe, and because there have been periods in which some other country than England has taken the lead in poetry.

Besides, T. S. Eliot states that a nation which leads in a particular art form in a particular period does not necessarily produce the greatest artist.

To justify his thesis, Eliot concludes that the ability of European literature to renew itself depend on two factors: it receives and assimilates influence from abroad, and it goes back and learns from its own sources.