The sacrificial rituals of the Mass dramatizing Death and Resurrection are
what attracted Eliot to Xianity, I think; the rudiments of Xian ritual can
be found in Frazer's catalogue. Eliot was attracted to Anglicanism in
particular no doubt  because of its high formality and its "Britishness".
Tim Romano
P.S. I once baptized a British girl (who at the time needed all the help
she could get) when she and her brother were having an early lunch with me
in a pub in Tuebingen. We had no water on the table and so for the ablution
one had to choose between dregs of weissen bier and tea.  In nomine patri
et filii et cetera. Her brother remarked that she was now a proper
Anglican, for I had chosen the tea.


At 07:11 AM 1/27/03 -0500, charles moyer wrote:
>     Did Eliot ever say why he became an Anglican? It seems he starts out
>very far from such a position reading Jessie Weston and James Frazer. Still
>I've always thought a possum would more resemble a Southern Baptist- "Do
>folks keep eatin' possum 'til they can't eat no more?" I remember seeing
>their carcasses lying about in the French Market in New Orleans.
>
>     "How confusing your religion is anyhow." -from a letter of Pound to
>Eliot
>
>Charles
>
>----------
> >From: Tim Romano <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: Canto ergo possum
> >Date: Sun, Jan 26, 2003, 8:42 PM
> >
>
> > Tom,
> > I don't know that Pound regarded Eliot as "spiritually dead"; the nickname
> > suggests a poet-persona whose voice has a disembodied quality--  the voice
> > of a poet who  is "playing dead" -- holding his own severed head in his
> > hand, as it were. This quality is one that William Carlos Williams did not
> > like at all; he refers to Eliot as "frozen" or "sub-zero" or something like
> > that--I can't remember his exact words or where he says this. But In
> > _Paterson_ where the frozen lettuces or cabbages are tossed off the bridge
> > and smash onto the frozen river below, I think Williams must be dealing
> > with Eliot.
> > Tim Romano
> >
> >
> > At 02:50 PM 1/25/03 -0500, you wrote:
> >>Interesting, how TS Eliot's nickname was Possum, one known to Pound, and
> >>here it is on the listserv. The quote you gave us from EP is great. Did
> >>Pound view Eliot as spiritually dead? I know Pound edited "The
> >>Wasteland." Or, was it more of a friendly shove? Tom NJ
> >>
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>
> >>"Mr. Eliot who is at times an excellent poet and who has arrived at the
> >>supreme Eminence among English critics largely through disguising
> >>himself as a corpse once asked in the course of an amiable article what
> >>'I believed'."
> >>-- E.P., Credo (1930)