Conclusion

Amy E. Varela

pp. 273-284

in: F. B. Pinion, A T. S. Eliot companion, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1986

Abstract

All in all, as poet, critic, and dramatist, Eliot still seems to be the major figure in English literature of the twentieth century, his importance assuming greater dimensions because his work as a whole is inextricably related to the main course of our cultural tradition. More than most modern poets, he belongs to the European heritage. How great he is remains a question for the future. The life of art depends as much on the needs, outlook, and vision, of an age as on the insights of the artist, and Eliot is an important voice for a civilization confronted alarmingly with a host of moral, social, and political problems, all of which are fundamentally religious. These will have maintained his significance for some, probably with little extension of his influence in a world which is so consumed with technological communication and other mass-diversions that little time is left for reading or reflection, or for the direct contact of minds seriously engaged in the important issues of life.