T S Eliot letters show love for muse but poet downplays it

Recently unveiled letters from T S Eliot to his muse Emily Hale show how much he loved his longtime friend, but a statement from beyond the grave by the poet himself dismisses his feelings and shows how Eliot tries to rewrite the narrative of their relationship, scholars say.

Hale donated Eliot's letters to Princeton University Library more than 60 years ago with instructions that they could only be opened 50 years after she and Eliot died.

The day they were made available at the Ivy League school, Eliot's statement, written five years before his death, was released as per his own instructions.

In it, Eliot downplays his love for Hale.

"I came to see that my love for Emily was the love of a ghost for a ghost," he wrote.

Eliot scholar Frances Dickey, who was among the first to read the letters at the New Jersey school Thursday, said it was "unfortunate" that Eliot felt he had to deny his feelings for Hale.

"That seemed a little harsh," Dickey said. "She was his muse for many years."
"They are extremely passionate," Dickey said. "It's really more than what I expected. They are very emotional, claiming that she inspired a lot of his poetry. She obviously played a really important role in his poetic life."
Eliot scholar Anthony Cuda called that a "cold and untrue statement". "He pursued her," he said. "His earliest letters were ardent declarations of love. It's not as if she chased after him."
"He was looking back on this and felt embarrassed and ashamed at the openness and vulnerability he allowed to come through at the time," Cuda said. "He tried to do damage control."
"But it's a strange protectiveness," Cuda said. "He was so devoted to Valerie and she to him. What the Emily Hale letters reveal (Valerie) wasn't the unique love of his life. He had a unique and tense experience before her."