Christof3 Sep 2004

I think yiu need to dearch for what Eliot called the 'objective correlative' - that image, character, object, phrase on whcih you can hang your thoughts. It's not enough to write just as the thoughts come to you. You have to do something to crystallise it, to make it feel real to your reader. Otherwise there is a danger of drivelling off up blind alleyways. Essentially, Eliot wrote this very same poem when he wrote 'The Love Song of J. Alfred prufrock' and it's sublime because he sank his own fears into those of his character; he stood back and crafted his verse; he didn't just let it flow. You could do that, too.