Books
Guests We'd Like to See at a Rip-Roarin' T.S. Eliot Birthday Party, and What We'd Ask Them to Bring
It seems like just 125 years good old Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in Saint Louis. And whoa, it was! Let us go then, you and I, to a rip-roarin' birthday party for the king of Modernist poetry. Here are the guests we'd invite, as well as what we'd ask them to bring to the bash.
Happy 125th Birthday, T.S. Eliot!
It seems like just 125 years good old Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in Saint Louis. And whoa, it was! Let us go then, you and I, to a rip-roarin' birthday party for the king of Modernist poetry. Here are the guests we'd invite, as well as what we'd ask them to bring to the bash.
Gilderoy Lockhart
He's bringing the lilacs.
Michelangelo
He'll just bring himself — something for the ladies to talk about.
Ezra Pound
Eliot referred to Pound, his good pal, as "il miglior fabbro" — the better craftsman. So maybe he can craft us a Pound cake.
Dante Alighieri
In a lot of his poems, Eliot paid homage to Dante's work. Dante will be in charge of providing the hellfire-flaming shots.
Sibyl of Cumae
Immortal Sibyl may be the only guest so far who's alive and certain to show up, but she may not be the life of the party — she's trapped in a jar and, as she says in the epigraph of Eliot's "The Waste Land," "wants to die." No worries, Sibyl! Your jar will make for a great little votive holder.
Jesus
If he shows, we'll know the party's a success. After he converted from Anglicanism, all Eliot really ever wanted was salvation. Jesus will bring the wine. If he's in a hurry, he can always make it there.
