Tristan Corbière and T. S. Eliot’s Salt-Encrusted Poetry

Abstract

Abstract The name of Tristan Corbière (1847–1875) appears repeatedly in T. S. Eliot’s criticism, notably in his Clark and Turnbull lectures where Eliot characterized Corbière as a metaphysical poet and observed that he is a ‘finer poet, though a lesser intellect, than Laforgue’. Corbière’s influence on Eliot has long been recognized, but few critics acknowledge the particular resonance of his maritime poems. It is time to revisit Corbière’s crucial influence on Eliot, who drew on his writing for Poems (1920), and most significantly in the draft sea passages of The Waste Land. Identifying Corbière’s presence in the draft allows us to hear the French poet in the final version of ‘Death by Water’, and reveals that Eliot owes more to Corbière than has previously been acknowledged. I argue that Eliot was captivated by Corbière’s resolutely unsentimental depiction of maritime elements in Les Amours jaunes, and that this Breton poet offered Eliot a new voice.