"The Metaphysical Poets" that was published by T. S. Eliot in 1921 is as well-known as his essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent". If "Tradition and the Individual Talent" is an essay on art and "Reflections on Vers libre, " "Prose and Verse" and so on are essays on a form of poetry, it seems that "The Metaphysical Poets" is an essay on the essence of poetry. It is said that in recent times the manner of the metaphysical poets has been effectively revived in England and America, especially by T. S. Eliot and his disciples, and in fact a good deal of recent poetry may be described as a fusion of the metaphysicals of the 17th century with the Erench symbolists of the late 19th. Therefore, I intend to elucidate the essential qualities of the metaphysical poetry and to consider the relations between Dante and T. S. Eliot and between the metaphysicals and the symbolists.
