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About

Genius Annotation

First printed in 1910 (specifically January 26th, 1910, in The Harvard Advocate, lxxxviii, 8) when Eliot was 22, but uncollected until the 1967 publication of Poems Written in Early Youth, this is a glimpse at the poet Eliot might have been.

It’s almost too mellifluous: every rhyme in its extremely fussy scheme is perfect (down to the agreement of masculine/feminine rhymes), every line break agrees with the grammar, and its tone is extremely assured.

In title and subject matter, the poem is undoubtedly influenced by Charles Baudelaire’s ‘Spleen’ poems. ‘Spleen’ is used not to mean the organ, but the more literary sense: melancholy with no apparent cause.

Jules Laforgue was another important early influence on Eliot. He wrote numerous poems with the title ‘Dimanches’; sundays. ‘Spleen’ has been linked to Laforgue’s poem ‘Dimanches’ from Derniers Vers; see this article..

Q&A

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Credits
Release Date
January 26, 1910
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