Sources
There is a connection between Gerontion and Eliot's understanding of F. H. Bradley's views. In Eliot's doctoral dissertation, later published as Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy of F. H. Bradley, Eliot explores Bradley's philosophy in order to determine how the mind relates to reality. By relying on Bradley, Eliot is able to formulate his own skepticism and states: "Everything, from one point of view, is subjective; and everything, from another point of view is objective; and there is no absolute point of view from which a decision may be pronounced." In terms of poetic structure, Eliot was influenced by Jacobean dramatists like Thomas Middleton that relied on blank verse in their dramatic monologues. Lines within the poems are connected to the works of a wide range of writers, including A. C. Benson, Lancelot Andrews, and Henry Adams's The Education of Henry Adams.
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