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1Author:  Eliot, T. S.Requires cookie*
 Title:  The Possibility of a Poetic Drama  
 Published:  1996 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text 
 Description: THE questions—why there is no poetic drama to-day, how the stage has lost all hold on literary art, why so many poetic plays are written which can only be read, and read, if at all, without pleasure—have become insipid, almost academic. The usual conclusion is either that "conditions" are too much for us, or that we really prefer other types of literature, or simply that we are uninspired. As for the last alternative, it is not to be entertained; as for the second, what type do we prefer? and as for the first, no one has ever shown me "conditions" except of the most superficial. The reasons for raising the question again are first that the majority, perhaps, certainly a large number, of poets hanker for the stage; and second, that a not negligible public appears to want verse plays. Surely here is some legitimate craving, not restricted to a few persons, which only the verse play can satisfy. And surely the critical attitude is to attempt to analyse the conditions and the other data. If there comes to light some conclusive obstacle, the investigation should at least help us to turn our thoughts to more profitable pursuits; and if there is not we may hope to arrive eventually at a statement of conditions which might be altered. Possibly we shall find that our incapacity has a deeper source: the arts have flourished at times when there was no drama; possibly we are incompetent altogether; in that case the stage will be not the seat, but at all events a symptom, of the malady.
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