This study seeks to establish the significance of old age as a theme running throughout Eliot’s work. In addition to works whose titular subjects are old men, more than thirty of his poems contain references to old age and ageing. His poetry, plays and critical prose all employ old age as a device, while for most of his life, Eliot himself projected an age and maturity greater than his actual years. The study traces an arc from his youthful depictions of decrepitude in old age; through a period, following his religious conversion, of elderly characters turning unfulfilled towards death; to a later expression of his personal and emotional experience of senescence. It also examines the incorporation of his attitudes towards age into his critical approach, his use of ‘maturity’ and ‘immaturity’ as critical criteria, and the intersections between age, tradition, tribute and legacy in his works.