ABSTRACT
Eliot’s celebrated essay on The Metaphysical Poets (1921), occasioned by Grierson’s edition of ‘Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems’ (see No. 71), adhered to the latter’s circumscribed response to Herbert. But eleven years later, within the framework of the series Studies in Sanctity published in the ‘Spectator’, Eliot publicly confirmed his drastically changed outlook. The ensuing essay, it should be noted, was to lead to his longer performance in ‘George Herbert’ (Writers and their Work, 1962), the only sustained account of any of the ‘metaphysical’ poets ever written by Eliot. See further above, p. 33.
Source: T. S. Eliot, George Herbert, ‘Spectator’, CXLVIII (12 March 1932), pp. 360–1; reprinted from ‘Spectator’s Gallery: Essays, Sketches, Short Stories & Poems from “The Spectator” 1932’, ed. Peter Fleming and Derek Verschoyle (1933), pp. 276–80.
