"A Patient Etherised": Modernism and the Legitimation of Poetry‪.‬

Summary This article examines the social and cultural function of the criticism of T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. To read the criticism of these Modernist poets is to examine the ways in which their poetry is inserted into a specific historical context and to view how poetic discourse interacts with the outside world in a manner that raises questions regarding the supposedly autotelic status of poetry. Criticism becomes for these poets a medium whereby they can speak to their reading public, and influence the reception of their work. This emphasis on the social function of criticism had an impact on the institutionalisation of this discipline as a professional pursuit. As is argued here, criticism also offered the Modernist poet the opportunity to construct narratives of legitimation for poetry inside a frequently hostile public context. For Pound and Eliot, the arguments raised in their criticism regarding ideas such as professionalism, culture, and the relationship between poetry and science were not simply interpretative statements regarding poetry, but were arguments designed to ensure the value and legitimacy of poetry in a period where these ideals were being questioned.