Selected Prose Analysis

This book narrates a modern poet's long struggle against "possession" by the Victorian poet and translator Edward FitzGerald. It traces the journey of T. S. Eliot's intense initial acceptance of FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, illustrating his enduring conflict with both the poet and the poem. Ultimately, it culminates in his release from their grip. The narrative reveals how the crises in this prolonged battle led to remarkable outcomes—specifically, how some of the significant works of modern poetry emerged from it.

Despite the Rubaiyat's reputation having reached a low point for the past fifty years, its influence on Eliot and the broader landscape of modern poetry has been far more substantial than most, except for the Persianists, might realize. Even towards the end of the Rubaiyat's popularity, Eliot's friend and mentor, Ezra Pound, remarked that it was "the only good poem of the time that has gone to the people"—and indeed, it impacted many with great force.