[240 Crescent St., Northampton, Mass.]
I was very grateful for your letter (marked Cabin!) and especially for your wire which I found in my luxurious entire cabin as we came down the river: but for the wire I should have been too stirred by compunction for not having got a letter to you sooner, though I don’t know how I would have found time. The rush of the last few days, after leaving you, was probably the best thing for me – andBoston Evening Transcriptinterviews TSE;a3 having Tuesday taken up first by a reporter from the Transcript 1 andWellesley College1936 poetry reading at;a6 then by preparations for Wellesley crowded more into the next two. (IPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle);c6 saw Dr. Perkins for a moment afterwards, but not Mrs. Perkins, to whom I am writing). IPeters, Haroldmakes bizarre appearance;a8 prefer to dwell at the moment on the more absurd incidents, as Harold Peters turning up at the train to see me off, with a present of two washable reversible adjustable & indestructible bow ties, such as he wears: they are quite ugly. I am wearing your beautiful brown one at the moment.
The instinct of self-preservation, after the fever of the last few days, has turned to another form of anaesthesia – extreme sleepiness. I think this will last for a day or two, but occasionally of course sharp pangs come through. IAmericaWoods Hole, Falmouth, Massachusetts;i2TSE and EH's holiday in recalled;a2 can dwell however on the great happiness you gave me, astravels, trips and plansTSE's 1936 American trip;c4the moment of parting from EH;b4 welltravels, trips and plansTSE's 1936 American trip;c4TSE's birthday during;b5 as on the pain we both felt (I shall see your dear sad face at the train window until you give me new images to supersede it) and on THE Birthday out of all my life, every moment of it. The week at Woods Hole, but still more the concentrated communion together of Saturday & Sunday, brought a conviction of such peculiar calmness to you as is a new revelation of experience. It was fortified and confirmed by finding how close our feelings had become during this recent phase of our life (I say ‘our’, and not ‘your’ – it all seemed somehow to be literally happening to both of us as one). I mean a level deeper than just ‘understanding’ – I mean throbbing with one life.
Yourflowers and floraroses;c7given to TSE as EH's parting gift;a6 ‘Sweetheart’ rose is still in my pocket – the rest kept elsewhere for preservation – and I treasure your gifts, the little as well as the big, for Your loving care and thought.
God bless you & keep you, my heart’s treasure: from one who is more than ever yours and in you.
If possible, I will send a short cable to announce my arrival.
1.‘U.S. CultureBoston Evening Transcriptinterviews TSE;a3 Satisfies T. S. Eliot, Back from “Exile” in Great Britain: Former Boston Author Notes Drift of Modern Poetry to Deal with Social Problems’, Boston Evening Transcript, Weds. 30 Sept. 1936, 22: ‘T. S. Eliot, poet and critic, back in America after an interlude of three years, said in an interview today that his self-imposed exile in England had nothing to do with any lack of cultural inspiration for him in this country, but was merely a habit into which he had drifted through circumstance.
‘“AEnglandTSE on his 'exile' in;b4nEast Coker, Somerset
‘Interviewed in the Cambridge home of his sister, Mr Alfred D. Sheffield, Mr Eliot was in the last stages of the traditional English breakfast of tea, toast and marmalade. With a teacup poised delicately in his long, white fingers, he replied slowly and deliberately to questions, choosing his words carefully in hesitant phrases.
‘MrMurder in the Cathedralunsolicited 1936 New York production;e2TSE to the Transcript on;b2n Eliot expressed great interest in the observation that his recent excursion into the dramatic field had been most favourably received in New York. Of the play in question, “Murder in the Cathedral”, a dramatization of the death of Thomas à Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, he said: “From all reports, the larger theater made for a much more effective presentation of the play than that given it in London.”
‘Mr Eliot, whose poetry is noted for its intellectual subtlety, said simplification of thought and speech was essential in the dramatic medium. Words spoken on the stage must be immediately intelligible to the audience, he remarked, whereas poetry, to be read in private, can convey closer thought and more subtlety of emotion.
‘Asked if his poetic credo had not been misunderstood because of his pre-occupation with subjects in their nature difficult and obscure, Mr Eliot admitted that people had read all sorts of things into his poems which he had no intention of conveying when he wrote them. He referred to “The Waste-land” [sic] in this connection, a poem often criticized for its attitude toward modern life.
‘He believes the poet should not attempt to be merely the voice of his own age, but should attempt to express, in their present form, problems of universal validity. “In the long run,” he said, “the poet must have something of importance for all ages.”
‘MrDryden, JohnTSE on;a3n Eliot was asked what significance a poet like John Dryden, for example, could possibly have for an age such as the twentieth century, of which he had not the slightest conception. In reply, the poet said, “I believe that Dryden expressed something in his own time which is valid for all ages. In addition, he has a special pertinence to a particular age like our own as a kind of corrective for the faults of that age.”
‘ConcerningHopkins, Gerard Manleyhis influence;a6 the influence and importance of Father Gerard Hopkins. Nineteenth century Catholic poet, Mr Eliot said he doubted whether Father Hopkins had given anything more than an accidental stimulus to present-day poets. “I don’t think his influence is a very deep one,” he remarked. “Most of the interest which he has aroused is due to the curiosity of the fact that his poems were written so long before they became accessible through publication.”
‘While refusing to name any specific poets because of his connection with a London publishing house, Mr Eliot said there were several very good poets in England of a younger generation than his own. He thought the most striking phenomenon in modern poetry was the pre-occupation with social problems. “Since these problems are present in the mind of every individual who thinks and feels,” he said, “it was inevitable that the younger poet should develop an acute social consciousness.”
‘Questioned for his opinion on modern religious tendencies, the poet declared, “The whole religious situation is obscured politically by the tendency to divide into two forms of strongly held political convictions. People are inclined to assume that because one form of political faith is overtly opposed to Christianity, the other must be favorable to it. I see no reason for that assumption. In my opinion, there is just as much danger in exploiting the churches for national ends as in subjecting them to ruthless oppression.”
‘Mr Eliot said he thought the Catholic Church was concerning itself with social problems from a Christian point of view. “Up to the present, however,” he remarked, “the Church has had no great success in producing any change in the present organization of society.”
‘In the realm of political affairs, Mr Eliot was asked whether he thought an Anglo-American alliance might provide a solution for the peace of the world. “Ignoring the question of practicality,” he remarked, “the question of justice would have to be considered in any such entente. We should first have to ask ourselves how the other people of the world would feel about it.”’
3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.
6.HaroldPeters, Harold Peters (1888–1943), close friend of TSE at Harvard, 1906–9. After graduation, he worked in real estate, and saw active service in the Massachusetts Naval Militia during WW1, and on leaving the navy he spent most of the rest of his life at sea. Leon M. Little, ‘Eliot: A Reminiscence’, Harvard Advocate, 100: 3.4 (Fall 1966), 33: ‘[TSE’sPeters, Haroldas TSE's quondam sailing companion;a2n] really closest friend was Harold Peters, and they were an odd but a very interesting pair. Peters and Eliot spent happy hours sailing together, sometimes in thick fog, off the Dry Salvages. In 1932 Peters sailed round the world for two years as skipper of an 85-foot auxiliary schooner, Pilgrim, having previously participated in the transatlantic race from Newport to Plymouth, and in the Fastnet Race. In 1943 he died after falling from a motor-boat that was in process of being hoisted into a dry dock at Marblehead.