Essay - Developing an argument - Analysis and content

Right from the first lines of the essay express the statement Eliot is going to support: the English language is the richest for poetry.

The essayist, in lines 3-10, adds a qualification of his statement; he affirms that he does not mean that England has produced the greatest poets or amount of poetry.

After that he clarifies again his thesis: English is the richest language for poetry because it has the largest vocabulary.

Eliot provides a supporting statement and some examples. He states that this richness of the language is due to the variety of elements of which English is made of. He furnishes some dialects and languages from which English developed: German, French, Norman French, Scandinavian, Latin and Celtic.

After that, the essayist presents a further clarification of his opinion: the English language is also rich in its rhythmic variety.

To support such idea, the man provides some quantitative data about the elements which combined to make-up the language, which are: early-Saxon verse, the rhythm of Norman French, the rhythm of Welsh and Latin and Greek poetry.

Subsequently, Eliot restates his thesis two times to make the reader better understand and not to be disguised. Firstly he asserts that English is a good language for poetry because it is derived from so many linguistic sources, and then that England has not necessarily produced the greatest poets.

After that the essayist introduces a new statement; he states that it is generally thought that the greatest peoples excel in one art.

He also provides some examples to support such idea:

-        Italy and France excelled in painting

-        Germany excelled in music

-        England excelled in poetry.

Eliot immediately refutes the thesis, providing various reasons and examples:

a-     No art has ever been the exclusive possession of any one country of Europe

b-     There have been periods in which some other country than England has taken the lead in poetry

c-      In the second half of the nineteenth century, the greatest contribution to England poetry was made in France (with Baudelaire and Valery)

A further refutation, in the essayist's opinion, comes from the fact that a nation which leads in a particular art form in a particular period does not necessarily produce the greatest artist. An example supports the refutation: no English poet contemporary with Wordsworth can enter into comparison with Goethe.

To conclude, Eliot adds two more statements. He states that no European nation would have accomplished what it has, as far as culture is concerned, if other countries had not developed the same art forms.

Subsequently, and finally, he affirms that the ability of European literature to renew itself depends on two factors:

a-     Its ability to receive and assimilate influences from abroad

b-     Its ability to go back and learn from its own sources.