One thinks of Pound's, MAKE IT NEW, and wonders how Lear fits. I suppose Alice might have liked the ODD cat. 
P

On 1 Aug 2015 5:20 pm, James Loucks <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> P,  --  Thanks very much for sending the information and newspaper account to me. The Lear topic was one he used very often in his US lectures in 1932-33, and it cannot have been among his more popular subjects. 
> --  Jim 
>
>
> -------------------------------------------- 
> On Fri, 7/31/15, P <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
>
> Subject: Re: Attention Jim, Eliot's whereabouts on January 26, 1933 
> To: [log in to unmask] 
> Date: Friday, July 31, 2015, 12:06 PM 
>
> I'm glad he disposed 
> of the essay. 
> P. 
>
> On 31 
> Jul 2015 4:25 am, "Rickard A. Parker" <[log in to unmask]> 
> wrote: 
> > 
> > The 
> following are two cut and pastes from the web page at 
> >    http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/blog/?cat=24 
>
> > 
> > 
> > This first one tells of his visit at the 
> University of Buffalo: 
> > 
> > On January 26, 1933, T.S. Eliot, poet and 
> critic, was in Buffalo, N.Y. to appear before an audience 
> for a Fenton Foundation lecture held under the auspices of 
> the University of Buffalo in the Twentieth Century Club at 
> 595 Delaware Avenue. (see “Meaningful, Sonic Poetry Termed 
> Best” Buffalo Courier-Express, 27 January 1933) 
> > 
> > Between 1932 and 
> 1933, T.S. Eliot wrote and presented a series of lectures 
> while touring U.S. universities. His topic while in Buffalo 
> was Edward Lear and Modern Poetry. 
> > 
> > Apparently Eliot was not happy with the 
> Lear lecture. T.S. Eliot was once asked why it was absent in 
> his “Collected Essays.” He replied, “I am flattered 
> that you should retain any interest in the lecture I gave on 
> Edward Lear, and am therefore sorry to say that I destroyed 
> the script of this and of a number of occasional lectures 
> which I delivered in the United States in 1932-33.” 
> > 
> > For more information 
> on poetry, visit the Poetry Collection, a part of the 
> University at Buffalo Libraries Special Collections. 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > This second cut and 
> paste is the text of a newspaper article written about that 
> visit: 
> > 
> > 
> MEANINGFUL, 
> > SONIC POETRY 
> > TERMED BEST 
> > 
> > — 
> > 
> > T. S. Eliot, poet and critic, 
> > contrasts style of various 
> > writers 
> > 
> > — 
> > 
> > There are two types of poetry, one in 
> which the words are used simply to give meaning, the other 
> in which the words are used for their sonic effect, but in 
> great poetry the words do both. T. S. Eliot, English poet 
> and critic, told an audience last night in his Fenton 
> Foundation lecture held under auspices of the University of 
> Buffalo at the Twentieth Century Club. 
> > 
> > Mr. Eliot’s subject 
> was Edward Lear and Modern Poetry, and one of his themes was 
> that modern “unintelligible” poetry derives from Lear as 
> one of its sources. Lear, a contemporary of Lewis Carroll, 
> the author of Alice in Wonderland, was a writer of light 
> verse, in which there was more nonsense than sense, and in 
> which the words were chosen not to convey ideas, but 
> emotional effects—the emotion being of the whimsical sort. 
>
> > 
> > Compares Carroll, 
> Lear 
> > 
> > Mr. Eliot 
> drew this contrast between Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear: 
> Carroll’s whimsy, with its detective story elements, its 
> logical procedure, appeals to the adult element in children, 
> whereas Lear’s poetry, which is more “poetic” and 
> less, logical, appeals to the childish side of adults. 
> > 
> > Quoting Walter 
> Pater’s essay which makes the point that all the other 
> arts only approach music which stands above them, Mr. Eliot 
> made a defense for this sonic, musical, somewhat 
> unintelligible poetry, which makes no pretense at sense, but 
> pleases the ear, or creates an emotional effect. 
> > 
> > Swinburne, another 
> contemporary of Lear, also was held up for comparison to 
> this effect: that Swinburne was an adolescent who pretended 
> to be writing poetry with much meaning, though it was really 
> meaningless, whereas Lehr didn’t even pretend to be making 
> sense. 
> > 
> > Following 
> the lecture, Mr. Eliot, author of The Sacred Wood, and The 
> Waste Land, read from his own poems. 
> > 
> > — Buffalo 
> Courier-Express, January 27, 1933 
>