Merton acknowledged the fact
that his life as a young man was one of “a great rebel.”[1] He believed his intelligence allowed him to
rise above the pettiness of an average life and spent this time drinking beer,
smoking cigarettes, listening to records and reading modern literature. “Popular literature of the time was centrally
occupied with the analyses of the loss of the individual self.”[2]
One such modern writer he approached who
focused on this culture was T.S. Eliot, a popular poet and cultural critic. In an effort to stay above modernity, Merton
recalled selling T.S. Eliot’s essays “in a conscious reaction against artiness”[3] as
if he had surpassed the writers of the day.
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Nonetheless, Merton still wanted Eliot’s opinions and prepared an
article for his magazine Criterion
which stopped publication during that time.[4] His impact held steady regardless of what
Merton thought of the poet, which infiltrated Merton’s own future writing.
Though Merton
was drawn to Eliot’s writings in his life prior to conversion, he later
critiqued the literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century
because it was “deeply concerned with authenticity and the problem of finding
one’s ‘true self’ in an artificial and inauthentic society.”[5] As a more mature Christian at the time of
this critique, he recognized the problems with Eliot’s use of “traditional
spiritualities and symbols to rise above identity”[6]
and to find freedom through oneself.
Nevertheless, the poetry of T.S. Eliot still influenced Merton’s
spirituality.
According to Lawrence S.
Cunningham, after entering the monastery Merton “treasured the quiet moments
when he could find a quiet place to sit while he read slowly something like
Eliot’s Four Quartets which “had
profound influence on him.”[7] His attempts at crafting complex poems
like, Cables to the Ace, was heavily
influenced by Eliot and even utilizes similar imagery of urgency. Later in life he even had correspondence with
Eliot, yet did not heed advice given to “write slowly and with great care and
publish less.”[8] Merton was less invested in polished pieces
of work, but rather focused his efforts on getting his thoughts down on paper
to share with others.
Still, his
interactions with T.S. Eliot influenced the way he wrote whether he
acknowledged it or not.
