No Real Distinction Between Poetry of England and America, T.S. Eliot Believes--Good Poets Fairly Well Distributed

"It is hardly fruitful to attempt to make any real distinction between the poetry of England and America," stated T. S. Eliot '10 in an interview last night the first that he has granted since he returned from an 18-year residence in London last week. As the poet laid down Coleridge's "Biographia Literatia," he said, "Harvard looks very different at first sight, but it is gradually taking on its traditional appearance for me. It is good to be in Cambridge, and I am very happy to be back at Harvard. You know that the English consider Harvard to be by far the most outstanding of American colleges."

Eliot believes that wherever a man may write poetry in English he will eventually become sought after and well-read in all English speaking countries. "Interesting poets are pretty fairly well distributed between America and England," he continued as the library became thicker with the aroma of English tobacco. When asked whether or not he noted anything of especial interest now that he is back in Cambridge, the poet, who is an English subject, replied, "People make interest and I haven't had the chance to meet anyone since my return."

Eliot, who is the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry this year, plans to give a series of public lectures tentatively entitled "The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism," and then conduct a course in Modern English Literature the second semester. The plan and extent of this course has not been determined. The poet will return to London sometime next summer after his work is completed here to take up again the reins of a publishing business of which he is a director.

When asked as a parting question what he thought about the coming presidential election, Eliot gasped "It is hard enough to vote in England, but America, well. I am not in very good touch with the problems confronting the people. However, whichever way the election goes, really, what difference is it ultimately going to make!"