Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
English (Ph.D.)
Department
English
First Advisor
Stephen Sicari
Abstract
This dissertation examines some of the major poems of T.S. Eliot, including The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash-Wednesday, “Journey of the Magi,” “A Song for Simeon,” Choruses from ‘The Rock’, and Four Quartets. The poetry is examined against the background of the poet’s life and through the theological lens of Luigi Giussani’s The Religious Sense. Put in a biographical and theological context, this study attempts to exhume and bring alive some of the most burning and pulsating questions that the poetry raises for the poet and us through his religious sense. Also, seen as a poetic pilgrimage, or a journey of faith, Eliot’s life and poetry during his middle and late periods is examined in the region where his religious sense gains a poetic perspective and expression, which I term as a poetics of religiosity. This study attempts to supplement T.S. Eliot studies in religion and literature and understand some of the poetry from a new theological perspective in order to approach classic works of literature in new and fresh ways. Far from being exhaustive of its subject, this study, while building on previous knowledge of Eliot and his work, carves out new paths at looking at his poetry in the 21st century. The entire aim of the project is to deepen the mystery of the poetry and the poet and bring us closer to living lives of poetic fulfillment through our own religious sense. Like T.S. Eliot’s life in poetry, our lives may crisscross in poetry and theology in the space that might be called religious experience. We go back to the poetry not only to study literary classics, but to feel more alive in the poetic realm that responds to our religious sense and corresponds with the needs of our heart.
Recommended Citation
Agolli, Endrit, "POETICS OF RELIGIOSITY: T.S. ELIOT’S POETRY AND RELIGIOUS SENSE" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 988.
https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations/988