FROM RITUAL TO MODERNISM: THE DEVELOPMENT OF POETIC DRAMA IN THE WORKS OF T. S. ELIOT AND W. B. YEATS

This article explores the evolution of poetic drama in twentieth-century English literature through the creative visions of W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot, two major poets who revitalized dramatic verse after its long decline since the Elizabethan period. Both writers sought to restore to theatre a sense of ritual, symbolism, and spiritual depth that modern realism had eroded. Yeats approached drama as a medium of myth and archetype, transforming Irish folklore and mystical experience into stage ritual; Eliot, in contrast, sought to merge modern psychology and religious sensibility within a disciplined, liturgical structure of verse drama. By tracing their aesthetic philosophies, sources of inspiration, and dramatic practices, this paper demonstrates how poetic drama evolved from ritual origins into a distinctly modernist form. The discussion situates their works within broader movements of modernist poetics, Symbolism, and philosophical idealism, arguing that both Yeats and Eliot forged a bridge between the communal origins of theatre and the alienated consciousness of modern man.