Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, MO. on September 26th, 1888. He was the youngest child in a family that had seven children, and very well known ancestors. Some of these ancestors include Reverend William Greenleaf Eliot, who founded Washington University in St. Louis, and Isaac Stearns, who was one of the original settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Eliot's father Henry Ware Eliot, was a prosperous industrialist, and his mother, Charlotte Eliot, was a writer.

He attended school at Smith Academy in St. Louis, and Milton Academy in Massachusetts. Growing up with so many older people helped him to gain a high sense of maturity, even at such a young age. He also became more mature through the different cultural, and community interests that his parents had. He even more

Through The Criterion, a journal that Eliot founded in 1922, and through his essays and volumes of literary criticism, he became a great influence. Some of Eliot's essays disappointed his admirers, especially when he expressed a liking for a society that was organized around the Christian Church and 'suggested that such a society could afford only a limited number of "free-thinking Jews.'(Literature)

It is almost impossible to overstate Eliot's influence or his importance to 20th Century poetry. Through his essays, and especially through his own poetic practice, he played a major role in establishing the modernist conception of poetry. First and last, it was through the example of his own superb poetry that he carried the day, and the poetry will survive undivided as the details of his career withdraw into literary history.

Religious themes became increasingly important to his poetry as well. From "Journey of the Magi," "Ash Wednesday," "Murder In The Cathedral,"(which was based on the death of St. Thomas Beckett), and other lyrics published in a series of pamphlets. Others included "The Family Reunion," and "The Cocktail Party," which became a popular success right away.

'The speaker of this ironic monologue is a modern, urban man who, like many of his kind, feels isolated and incapable of decisive action. Irony is apparent from the title, for this is not a conventional love song. Prufrock would like to speak of love to a woman, but he does not dare.' (Prufrock Notes)

In 1917, he left his job as a teacher's assistant, and began working at Lloyd's Bank. Even though he was working in a bank, he continued to write poetry. His first important poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," was released during this time. On the narrator of Prufrock:

His last major work of non-dramatic poetry was "Four Quartets." This collection was a gathering of one volume of four previously published long poems. It talked about issues of time, and spiritual renewals. To some, it was the top of Eliot's work, but to others it was missing something that his earlier works had. In any event, "Four Quartets" proved to everyone how good of a poet he was. This let to him being awarded both the Order of Merit and The N

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