T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” was published in the 1915 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. According to the author’s headnotes in the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, the editor of Poetry, Harriet Monroe, had to be convinced excessively by Ezra Pound to publish Eliot’s poem (Ramazani, 460).
After researching some information about Monroe, I think it’s debatable just how much convincing it actually took for her to publish the poem. The Norton Anthology makes it sound as though Eliot was struggling to get published (which he probably was) and Monroe was extremely reluctant—and possibly averse—to allow him in her magazine (Ramazani, 460). After reading the entire 1915 issue in conjunction with what I read about Monroe, I think it is safe to assume that Monroe was simply waiting on the right time and the right issue to situate Eliot’s debut poem.
Monroe herself was an imagist, but she firmly believed in representing all philosophies and techniques of poetry. You can see this credo in her own corpus if you follow her poems chronologically. There is a noticeable transition from heavy Romantic language to more experimental Modernist language and form with each published poem. It is interesting to me that Monroe is not included in the canon for her poetry, and is rather remembered (and not very often) simply for her contribution in publishing other famous authors when they were in obscurity. So why isn’t she included when she was on the forefront of innovative poetry, as seen in her poem “Azaleas”?
The only explanation that I can come up with is that Monroe was all over the place, an experimentalist, an embracer of all forms and practices. Though you can see a definite transition between Romantic and Modern techniques and forms within her work, she doesn’t stick to a hard line transition. She often jumps around from form and language, making it difficult to say she is an ‘exemplar’ of the Modern era. For example, in her poem “Chicago 1933“, published during the later portion of the era, she sounds very old fashioned.
When 11 years before, she published an extremely radical poem in terms of form, punctuation, and style.
So what does all of this have to do with T.S. Eliot and the supposed claim that Monroe had to be convinced to let him in? Because Monroe was open to all forms of poetry and prose, even if it disagreed with her own imagist philosophy—even going so far as to publish a letter from Hart Crane within her magazine that subtly attacked her views—and was an obvious experimentalist, it’s difficult to believe she would have been turned off from publishing Eliot. Several sources emphasize Monroe’s penchant for having an open mind and fostering an excellent community for unknown writers (whom were turned away by others).
In actuality, I think Monroe did a great service to Eliot by waiting a few years to insert him into the magazine at the time she did.
In 1915, a poet of great respect to several other writers, Rupert Brooke, was killed by heatstroke while in battle. The first essay included in the 1915 Poetry issue is a commentary on his life, works, and death by Monroe herself. She continuously comments on the beauty within his character and his verse. She then goes on to condemn the Romantic notion of glorifying war as beautiful, linking this false notion to Brooke’s tragic death while simultaneously commenting on how this particular war was a very Modern aspect of the times.
This commentary complements the poetry presented previous to it. Not only is there an elegy within the first half of the magazine that is dedicated to Rupert Brooke, but all of the poems are related in their lyrical form. All of them are songs (such as Eliot’s “The Love Song” and Skipwith Cannill’s “Songs of Hunger”), lyrical “instrumentals” (William Griffi’s “Woodwinds”), or elegies (Ajan Syrian’s “I Sing of My Life While I Live It”).
There is a somber tone throughout the magazine intermingled with images of beauty and grace produced from loss or frustration. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by Eliot is conducive to this tone, situated snugly amongst his contemporaries. By waiting to publish Eliot until this issue, Monroe ended up exemplifying his dexterity of language and showing he can hold his own and even excel amongst similar writers.
The magazine ends with more essays that illuminate its aim to advance its Modern appeal while keeping an open mind. For example, Ezra Pound was included with his article on New Criticism, where he condemns the Classics and the Romantics and states, “I am, reader, tired…of the New York school of reviewers…discovering each week a ‘new Shelley’ or a ‘new Keats’…dead tired of…forever making comparisons of ‘magnitude’ and never definitions of quality—are we to have no more individuals!” Pound’s eschewing of idolizations of the past and embrace of the Modern aligns with Monroe’s commentary on Brooke’s death attributed to Romantic sentiment.
By inserting Eliot’s poem within this forum, it is implied that the poem functions in a unique and modern way with exceptional talent and skill.
Azaleas must, at all costs, be kept out of the cannon, because it encourages exposing your privates to mother nature–a perverted, lesbian gesture. !
Excellent post! I find Monroe’s themes slightly modern (azaleas!), but her language seems to strike a high poetic tone sometimes that, for me, keeps her from being included fully or consistently amongst the modernists. This is a great example of what an archival post should do–fully situate a poem within its publication context. Another option is to reflect on another writers relative absence from the canon of modern poetry, and you do that too. Indeed, you do a lot of different things here, and you really only needed to do one–but I appreciate the time and care you took with the post. I also appreciate the inclusion of media: archival posts should link to their sources and capture their sources in an image–you do both. Rather than save the links for the end, though, I would embed them as you go. Great post!