Sweeney Agonistes

poetic drama by Eliot

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Article History

Sweeney Agonistes, poetic drama in two scenes by T.S. Eliot, published in two parts in the New Criterion, as “Fragment of a Prologue” (October 1926) and “Fragment of an Agon” (January 1927), and together in book form as Sweeney Agonistes: Fragments of an Aristophanic Melodrama (1932). Although not originally intended for performance, the uncompleted experimental play was first produced at Vassar College (1933). Cast in a music hall format that interspersed scenes with songs, Sweeney Agonistes comments on the meaninglessness of contemporary life and the pettiness and sinfulness of humanity.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.