Pearce: Chesterton Was Wrong

Carl Olson recently interviewed Joseph Pearce about his new book Flowers of Heaven: One Thousand Years of Christian Verse (IgnatiusInsight.com, Jan 13, 2006):

IgnatiusInsight.com: One of your favorite authors, G.K. Chesterton, was frank about his dislike for modern poetry, including the work of T.S. Eliot. What do you think of Chesterton's assessment of Eliot's poetry?

Joseph Pearce: He was wrong! Frankly, I don’t believe Chesterton understood Eliot’s poetry, though he admired Eliot’s play, Murder in the Cathedral. Like many others of his generation, Chesterton disliked the novelty of Eliot’s avant garde approach to meter and rhyme. I like to think that Chesterton would have grown to admire Eliot if he had lived longer. Eliot’s Four Quartets, a deeply mystical and religious work and arguably his masterpiece, was not published until several years after Chesterton’s death.

Click here for the entire IgnatiusInsight.com interview with Joseph Pearce.