My research approaches the works of T. S. Eliot through an expanded lens of literary consolation. Eliot's ouevre would be markedly out of place in any traditional compendium of consolatio; yet, recent research recognises literary solace as a site of contestation, rather than mitigation. I argue that Eliot’s poetry generates solace through the interplay of two key elements: moments of ‘recognition’ which evoke elements of the sufferer's life-world, and intimations of ‘meaning’, which facilitate a powerful, spontaneous shift of perspective. I also explore the role of style in staging solace in the literary text. Incorporating a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, from the neuro-scientific to the aesthetic and theological, I aim to contribute to an expanding scholarly understanding of the forms and functions of literary solace and to show why generations of readers return to Eliot’s ostensibly ‘bleak’ vision of the world, only to find some comfort there.