The article presents an attempt to highlight the historical and cultural background of formation of Eliot’s canon, as well as to analyse certain aesthetic paradigms that formed its basis (the theory of tradition, the conception of impersonal poetry, and the concept of “dissociation of sensibility”). In the article, the key figures belonging to the canon are mentioned, and the reasons for their canonization are identified. A particular attention is paid to Eliot’s take on the problem of dialogue of cultures, and of acquisition of a foreign poetical tradition, as well as to the principles that, according to Eliot, should govern literary translation.