T. S. Eliot was deeply influenced by Dante, so the presence of Dante permeated many of Eliot’s works. This thesis intends to examine what Eliot learned from Dante and how Eliot used Dante in his own poetry afterwards. Eliot's articles or lectures such as “Dante” (1920), Clark Lectures(1926), Dante(1929) and “What Dante Means to Me”(1950), in which Eliot himself discussed Dante's influence, will be referred to. From his early poetry, Eliot cites and alludes to Dante, but uses Dante in the negative or ironical ways. Only after the conversion to Anglican Church does Eliot spiritually have the same tone as Dante, but still does not use him in the same context. This thesis takes note of this point and intends to reveal how Eliot wrote his poems while utilizing Dante. First, as Dantean poems we will read two Ariel Poems such as “Animula” and “A Song for Simeon”. Next, the heavily Dantean poem, Ash-Wednesday will be discussed with relation to The Divine Comedy and Vita Nuova. In Ash-Wednesday Eliot attempted to applicate the philosophy of Vita Nuova (New Life) to his time. Eliot thought Dante struggled to enlarge the boundary of human love toward the divine love. Dante’s Beatrice serves as a means of transition between such two loves. Such Beatrice-like figure is evident in Ash-Wednesday. Finally, Four Quartets is connected with The Divine Comedy. In both poems, the subject is the journey for spiritual freedom or the exploration of human consciousness. In Dante, the pilgrim’s journey is carried on through the Inferno and Purgatorio and finally towards the Paradiso, that is, the vision world beyond the here and now. Similarly, Eliot’s explorer wishes to go beyond the frontiers of ordinary consciousness. In Four Quartets the vision of heaven and hell alluding to Dante can be seen in many places. And the most vivid Dantean Infernal landscape appears in “Little Gidding” II, from the meeting scene of the ‘compound ghost’. Even though Eliot declared his imitation of Dante on this point, various meanings can be extracted, making his works a rather powerful creation than so-called imitation. To the end of the poem, Dante’s imagery of rose and fire is clearly apparent, but this is also depicted for Eliot’s own purposes. This thesis concludes that while quoting, alluding to, and utilizing Dante, Eliot could create his own unique poems.

• 서광원(인하대학교) | Gwangwon Seo