wee te ore iesuZ Lae otha tin bi get erie ove, GEL ATromas Steams Eliot tk E Ute BAI Pedy Sid lta OE bre Aleve toy CS Heed fe Ge ht blew oP alb Kee OA bb Je dh ot Ct oe Sg ANT cu Pier edi A tears —l (Criterion) of A pb Srl pibelvrdid Ae Fle S Seo A Se Ste 1922 Gee SshSbs Ie temtnOe ) Junin ond £ ES 7S (The Wasteland) oom FEAL IA St Pnbet. 1026 oh (PASI a (Bumt HI 2% > tbe € (Four Quartets) 2, 1149 Ut +1936 ea J sete esiew! Cnt EEA PY ety (Norton) SEWN Eatin sLead fh Sin son heaun wale = ieSn tinh Pe 20 6h Nehlar SL 1s Bryhiesd shbirtse Shas LS ms, wy ee Sesic i ets, bes KS weds Ne farple 5151/10 4" (Tradition And Individual She reclSzselinnc AUCs " Byki Mute fein fe Jt ea ; heed loi Lew i we mute ig phoae ~< Renn sl louie eet LO LEE Fig ie Gul teok by peep Cee rasp d_J, re See EL i Mapeindividual poets in different periods. He establishes a ¢| connection between tradition and the writing of Successtil poetry. A poet's work may remind us of his ancestors It is a general tendency, says Eliot, to emphasize those aspects of the work of a poet in which he least resembles anyone else. In such aspects of his poetic work, we claim to find what is individual or what is the peculiar essence of that poet. We feel pleased with that poet's difference from his predecessors, especially his immediate predecessors. We try to discover those qualities by which he can be differentiated from those poets who have lived and written poetry before hint, In actual fact, says Eliot, the best and the most individual parts of a poet's may be those in respect of which he reminds us of his ancestors, the dead poets, However, by "tradition" Eliot does not mean that a poel should follow the ways of the preceding generation blindly 0 imitate the Successes of the writers of that generation. In other words, tradition does not mean repetition of what has beet done before, Indeed, novelty is preferable to repetition, A poet has to work very hard if he is to benefit by tradition, becals? tradition is not a matter of automatic inheritance. Tradiliol involves the historical sense. The historical sense is almos indispensable to say one who wisl is life to the Paine pietry. The hive ishes to devote his life rical sense means a perceptiol © the pastness of the past but it also at the same time means !and \ whol " imultaneous existence and simultaneous order, The historical sense may, therefo defined as "a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together". It is this sense which makes a poet traditional and it is this sense which at the same time makes a Poet most acutely conscious of his place in time and of his own existence in the present, No poet, Eliot goes on to say, has his complete meaning alone. In order to understand his significance, and in order to appreciate him, we must understand his relation to the poets Who have gone before him. No poet can be assessed or valued alone. He must be placed, for contrast and comparison, among the dead poets. When a new work of art is created, something happens to all the works of ant which were created in the past. The works of art already in existence form an ideal order among themselves. This order is modi fied by the appearance of a new work of art among them. When the new work arrives, is altered, may be to a very slight extent. As a consequence, the relations of each work of art toward the whole are readjusted. This is the meaning of Conformity between the old and the new. What needs to be Fécognized is that the past is altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past. poet has therefore to realize that he is inevitable to be Judged by the standards of the past. This does not mean that the Poet has to be curbed or restricted by past standards; nor does this mean that he is to be judged as being better or worse than the dead or as being equal to them; nor yet does this mean that he is to be judged by the principles formulated by past This only means a comparison between his work ; 4 comparison in which two thi gs are the whole existi:‘in the works. A new work \ the appear to conform; and it will conform though it individual. It is most unlikely that it will be one and no other. : Enlarging upon this idea of the relation of a poet to past Eliot says that the poet can neither take the past as a lump, not form himself wholly on one or two past poets whom he admires nor form himself wholly upon one chosen period of literary history, which attracts them. The poet must be very conscious of the main current which does not at all flow always through the most famous names in literary history. He must be quite aware of the fact that art never improves but thal the material of art keeps changing. He must be aware that the mind of the nation is much more important than his own individual mind and that the mind of the nation keeps changing, though this change is a development which does not discard anything on the way, which does not supersede either Shakespeare of Homer. This development is not an artistic improvement! though it may be a refinement, and though it is certainly @ complication. The difference between the present and the past is that the conscious present is way and to an extent which the p show. an awareness of the past In# ast's awareness of itself caine! = EE _ SS eae Eliot then proceeds to answi be raised against his view of poetr view demands a vast amount of erudition, This objection eee to Eliot, not valid at all, as cat be verified a a ‘ ae of any number of poets. While it lecessary ome al : 'O possess excessive erudition, it Ie straints upon his, acquiring knowl ceree. What is necessary is that the P the consciousness of the | er an objection which 7 y. The objection is that_ something more valuable. The progress of continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of a This may be called a process of depersonalization. In depersonalization art may be said to approach the condition of science. Eliot next expresses the view that honest criticism and appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon his work. What we find, he says, is a greater emphasis upon poets than upon poems. Having already pointed out the importance of the relation of a poem to other poems by other authors, and having thus suggested the idea of poetry as a living whole of all the poems that have ever been written, Eliot now points out the other aspect of his impersonal theory of poetry. This aspect is the relation of the poem to its author. The mind of the mature poet differs from that of the immature one by being a more finely perfected medium in which special, or very varied, feelings can freely enter into new combinations. The mind of the poet is a kind of catalyst. The experience, the elements which enter the presence of this catalyst are of two kinds: emotions and feeling. The effect ofa work of art upon a person may be formed out of one emotion or may be a combination of several; and various feelings may be added to compose the final result. Or, great poetry may be Written without the direct use of any emotion whatever; it may be composed out of feelings only. Canto XV of the Inferno is a working up of the emotion evident in the situation; but the effect, though single as that of any work of art, is obtained b: _ Considerable complexity of detail. A poet's mind in fact seizes. and. stores up numberless feelings, phrases, images : femain there until all the particles which can unite to new compound are present together. ad There are many ways in wlin KA ch matters. The episode ot Francesca employs a definite emotion but the intens: "poetry is something quite different from whatever inte the supposed experience it may give the impression of, variety is possible in the process of transmutation of emotio The Nightingale Ode of Keats contains a number of feelin which have nothing particular to do with the nightingale but” which the nightingale, partly perhaps because of its attractive name and partly because of its reputation, serves to bring? together. The poet has not a "personality" to express but a particular medium in which impressions and expericnets combine in peculiar and unexpected ways. Impressions and) experiences which are important for the man or the personality may take no place in the poetry and those which become important in the poetry may play little part in the man or the personality. Eliot then quotes a passage of poetry to show @ combination of positive and negative emotions; an intensely strong attraction toward beauty and the equally intense fascination by the ugliness which is contrasted with it and which destroys it. The whole effect, the dominant tone of this passage, is due to the fact that a number of floating feeling’ have combined with the structural emotion to give us a new emotion. It is not in his personal emotions, the emotions excl by particular events in his life, that the poet is in an y femarkable or interesting. His particular emotions may le 2 ide, or flat, The emotion in his poetry will At the same time, it is a mistake because this s¢ {call. And he may ; not oF ich he is familiar but which he has never exp view of this, the formula that poetry is the expre u "emotion recollected in tranquillity" is not quite an accurat one. For it is neither emotion, nor recolléction, nor tranquilli in a real sense. It is a concentration and a new thing resulting from the concentration, It is a concentration which does not take place consciously or as a result of deliberation. This is, of course, not quite the whole story, There is a great deal, in the writing of poetry, which must be conscious and deliberate. In fact, the bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought be conscious, and vice versa. Both errors tend to make him personal. Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only these who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things Eliot concludes this essay by remarking that it is a commendable aim to divert interest from the poet to the poetry, because this would lead to a juster estimation of actual poetry, good and bad, There are many people who appreciate the expression of sincere emotion in poetry, and there is a smaller humber of people who can appreciate technical excellence, But very few know when there is an expression of significant emotion, which has its life in the poet and not in the history of the poet, The emotion of art is impersonal, And the poet cannot attain this impersonality without surrendering himself wholly. to the work to be done. The poet must too, live in what is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past; he must. be conscious, not of what is dead, but of what is already living. The Metaphysical Poets =e The phrase "metaphysical poetry", says El time been used as a term of abusi or asIt is difficult, says Eliot, to find any preci metaphor, simile, or other conceit, which 1s Common to poets who are described as "metaphysical", and at the lime important enough as an element of style to isolate { poets as a group. Donne, and often Cowley, employ a device which is sometimes _ considered characteristically "metaphysical"; it is the elaboration (contrasted with the condensation) of a figure of speech to the furthest Stage to which ingenuity can carry it. Thus Cowley develops the commonplace comparison of the world to a chess-board through many stanzas in one of his poems. Donne develops, in one of his poems, a comparison of two lovers to a pair of compasses. But elsewhere we find, instead of the mere explication ofsthe:content of a comparison, a development by rapid association of thought, which require considerable mental agility on the part of the reader. At the same time, some of Donne's most successful and characteristic effects are obtained by briefs words and sudden contrasts. There is, for instance, the following line: "A bracelet of bright hair about the bone." Here the most powerful effect js Produced by the sudden contrast of associations of "bright hair" and of "bone". This telescoping of images and multiplied associations is characteristic of some of the dramatists of the period which Donne Knew: not to mention Shakespeare, it js f; Frequent in Middleton, Webster, and Tourneur and is one of the Sources of the vitality of theif language. » enough ex: nd to justify Di setae Neeshnson's own poetry we can find lines where ey ‘fo a contrast of ideas, different in degree but the principle, as that which Johnson mildly condemned, Eliot then quotes some lines from a poem by George Herbert. These lines, says Eliot, would be immediately recognized as those of the metaphysical school. But there is nothing in these lines which fits Johnson's general observations on the metaphysical poets (in his essay on Cowley). A good deal resides in the richness of association-which is at the same time borrowed from and given to the word "becalmed"; but the meaning is clear, the language simple and elegant. It as rule simple and pure; in the work of George Herbert this simplicity, is carried as far it can go. The structure of the sentences, on the other hand, is sometimes far from simple, but this is nota vice; itis a fidelity to thought and feeling If so shrewd a critic as Johnson failed to define Metaphysical poetry by its faults, we can, says Eliot, inquire whether we can assume that the poets of the 17th century were the direct and normal development of the preceding age, We have Jo ask whether the virtue of these poets was not something permanently valuable, something —_ which subsequently disappeared but ought not to have disappeared. Dr. Johnson hits on one of the peculiarities of these poets when he observes that their attempts were always analytic, though — Johnson would not agree that, after the dissociation, th succeeded in btne the material together aoa in anew unt duhk Jacobean poets expresses a degree of good as it 0) Chapman especially there is direct sensuous ap thought, or a recreation of thought into feeling we find in Deans. _ A definite cl, p is and they think; but they do as immediately as the odour of a -tose. A onne was an experience; it modified his sensibility, 5 poet's mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it iS constan amalgamating, a disparate experience; the ordinary jy experience is chaotic, irregular, and fragmentary. The ordinary. Man falls in love or reads phi losophy; these two experiences. have nothing, to do with each other or with the noise of the typewriter or the smell of cooking. But in the mind of the Poet such experiences are always forming new wholes. The fact of the matter is that tl ie metaphysical poets were the successors of the dramatists of the sixteenth centiiry, They possessed a mechanism of sensibility which could devour any kind of experience They are simple, artificial, difficult, or fantastic, as their edecessors were Of sensibility began, from which recovered, This dissociation Was the two most powerful poets of Dryden. Subsequently the | \ftcrwards, a dissociation English poetry has never Aggravated by the influence of the 17th century, Milton and anguage went on and in some fespects improved. The best poetry of Collins, Gr; », Johnson, and even Goldsmith Satisfies some of our fastidious demands better than that of the Metaphysical Poets. But while the language became more refined, the fecling became more ertude. The feeling, the sensibility, expressed in Gray's Elegy, and in the pociry of Tennyson and Browning, is cruder than that if Andrew Marvell's poem, The Coy istress, The sentimental Age began j tinued. The poets : i they:like other poets, v; si, engaged in the task of trying to find t : verbal "Slates of mind and feeling, And this means that t more mature and more lasting than later poets who posses: literary ability of no lesser dextee, i Poets in our civilization have necessarily to write poetry which is difficult. Our civilization offers a greal-variety and complexity, This variety and complexity, operating upon a refined sensibility, must produce results which are various and complex, The poet in our times must therefore become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, and more indirect, in order to force language into his meaning, Hence we get from the modern poet something which looks very much like the Conceit of the metaphysical poets; we get, in fact, a method curiously similar to the method of those poets, similar also in is use of obscure words and of simple phrasing, Some of the modern French poets are nearer to the school of Donne than any modern English poet. But poets more Classical than they have the same essential quality of tfansmuting ideas into sensatior of transforming an observation into a state of mind. In French literature the great master of the 17th century and the great master of the 9th century, namely, Racine and Baudelaire respectively, are in Some ways very much like each other, These, the greatest wo masters of diction, are also the greatest two psychologists, the Most curious explorers of the soul. Two of the greatest masters: Of diction in the English language, Milton and Dryden, achieved their poetic triumphs with a complete disregard of the Soul, Those who object to the artificiality of Milton or Dryden Sometimes advise poets to look into their hearts while writing But looking into one's heart is not enough. Racine ¢ looked into a yood deal more than the heart, A poet ‘into the cerebral cortex, the nervous system, and th ¥and these poets should therefore. jj this standard, They have been praised a good deal which imply limitations, because they are describe "metaphysical" or "witty", "quaint" or "obscure", thou their best they do not have these attributes more than othe serious poets, On the other hand, we must not reject Dr Johnson's criticism of them without first understanding fully the Johnsonian canons of taste. We must remember, for instance, that by "wit" Johnson means something more serious — than we usually mean today. We must also remember that] Johnson chiefly finds fault with the main offenders, Cowley and Cleveland. In his criticism of the versification of the metaphysical poets we must remember in what a narrow discipline he was trained, though trained excellently well. We must also keep in mind the fact that these poets differ among themselves in kind and degree; they represent a wide range from the massive music of Donne to the faint, pleasing tinkle of Aurelian Townshend."It is not the greatness the intensity of emo components, but the intensity of the artistic proc the pressure , so to Speak, under which the fusion takes place, that counts." Explain this statement in. the light of Eliot's essay “Tradition andthe Individual Talent", (2013) OR What relationship, according to T. S. Eliot, must exist between tradition and individual poetic talent? (2012) OR T. S. Eliot says you cannot value the poet alone ‘you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.' In the light of this statement explain Eliot's perspective in the essay, Tradition and Individual Talent. (2010) OR What is the value of originality in the poet's work? Answer with reference to your reading of T.S. Eliot's essay Tradition and Individual Talent. (2010) OR Draw closely on T.S. Eliot's Tradition ¢ Individual Talent and Sidney's An Apolo Poetry to identify and explain the qualities. poet. (2010) a: OR od ‘You cannot value him (artist) alone, you my; him, for contrast and comparison, among the ; Discuss with reference to T.S Eliot's Tradition ' Individual Talent. (2006) i OR Q. Tradition and Individual Talent' -Eliot's Theory of Poetry and The Poetic Process, Impersonality of Poetry, Ans. The essay "Tradition and Individual Talent” may be regarded as an unofficial manifesto of Eliot's critical creed, for it contains all the critical principles of Eliot The essay is divided into three parts. The first pat gives us Eliot's concept of tradition, and the second part deals with his theory of the impersonality of poet. The short thitt part is the conclusion, of the whole discussion, T. S. Eliot begins his essay by pointing out that the word ‘tradition’ is generally regarded as a term of censure. He says the word tradition sounds disagreeable to the English ears. When the English praise a poet, they praise him for tho aspects of his work which are most ‘individual’ and origi They suppose that his chief merits lie in such parts. This undul Stress on individuality shows that the English have ® uncritical bent of mind. They praise the poet for the If they examine the matter critically _with judiced mind, they will reali e mast dual part of a poct', © ise that the best and th : imum influence of the:immortality most vigo usly. ee After this Eliot comes to the consideration of and significance of tradition. According to Eliot, does not mean a blind adherence to the ways of the past. T would be mere slavish imitation, a mere repetition of what has already been achieved, he believes that “novelty is better than repetition". He says that Tradition in the sense of passive repetition is to be discouraged. For Eliot, Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. He says that Tradition in the true sense of the term cannot be inherited: it can only be obtained by hard labour. This labour is the labour of knowing the past writers. It is the critical labour of knowing what is good and useful in the past. Tradition can be obtained only by those who have the historical sense. The historical sense involves a perception, “not only of the pastness of the past, but also of its presence. One who has the historic sense feels that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer down to his own day, including the literature of his own country, forms one continuous ‘literary tradition’.” He thinks that the past exists in the present, and both the past and the present form one simultaneous order, This historical sense is the sense of the timeless and the temporal, together. According to Eliot, it is this historic sense which makes a writer traditional. A writer with the sense of tradi is fully conscious of his own generation, his place ine Present, but at the same time he is also acutely cons oO relationship with the writers of the past. In short, tradition implies (a) a recognition of the| nd noble achievements, } ~ While emphasising further on the value of tr Fliot says that no writer has his value and significan isolation. To judge the work of a poet or an artist, we compare and contrast his work with the work of the past, § h comparison and contrast is essential for forming an idea of the real worth and significance of a new writer and his work Eliot's concept of tradition is dynamic one. According to his view, tradition is not anything fixed and static, it ig constantly changing, growing, and becoming different from what it is. A writer in the present must seek guidance from the past, however, he must try to conform to the literary tradition: But just as the past directs and guides the present, so the present alters and modifies the past. When a new work ofatt is created, if it is really new and original, the whole literaty tradition is modified, though very slightly. Eliot says that the relationship between the past and the present is not one-sided; it is a reciprocal relationship. The past directs the present, and ititselfis modified and altered by the present. Eliot says: "The existing monuments form an ideal ordel | among themselves, which is modified by introduction of the new work of art among {hel een orter is complete before the new Be whole existing a eos eet en licFed." er must be, though very slié! Every great poet like Virgil, Dante, or ShakesP® something to the litera a : 1 ‘ ry trad h the ll be written. ition out of which a poet in the present is co! Past, and it is jhe Though an author in the present is certainly not to be the principles and standards of the past, yet the compat made for the purposes of analysis, and for forming a better understanding of the new. Moreover, this comparison is reciprocal. The past helps us to understand the present, and in the same way it throws light on the past. In this way we can form an idea of what is really individual and new. Now, Eliot explains further what he means by the sensé of tradition. The sense of tradition does not mean that the poet should try to know the past as a whole. Such a labour is impossible as well as undesirable. The past must be examined critically but only the significant in it should be acquired. The sense of tradition does not also mean that the poet should know only a few poets whom he admires. It will be a sign of immaturity and inexperience. Neither should a poet be content merely to know some particular age or period which he likes. Though: it will be pleasant and delightful, yet it will not constitute a sense of tradition. A sense of tradition in the real sense means, “consciousness of the main current, which does not all flow invariably through the most distinguished reputations.” In other words, to know the tradition, the poet must judge critically what are the main trends and what are not, incidental or ‘topical. He must possess the critical gift i measuring. He must also realise that the main literary tren are not determined by the great poets alone. Smaller are also significant. They are not to be ignored, at all The poet must also realise that art neve though its material never remains the sal _ Europe may change, but this change does akespeare and Homer