Many prominent critics have considered T. S. Eliot as a serious poet, while ignoring some pivotal elements of nonsense verse in his poetry. On the basis of Eliot's definition of poetry expounded in The Sacred Wood as "a superior amusement" or "some monstrous abuse of words", this paper examines some fundamental aspects of nonsense verse in the tradition of English poetry, and moves on to investigate some nonsensical aspects of Eliot's poetry.

• 이창배(동국대 명예교수) | Chang-Bai Lee