The Poetic Theory of T.S. Eliot
According to Eliot, poetry is an organization rather than an inspiration. Compares the poet's mind to a jar in which are stored numberless feelings, emotions and thoughts which remain there in an unorganised and chaotic form till all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together. Thus, poetry is an organisation rather than an inspiration. And the greatness of a poem does not depend upon the greatness or even the intensity of the process of poetic composition.
Just as a chemical reaction takes place under pressure, so also intensity is needed for the fusion of emotions into a single whole. The more intense the poetic process, the greater the poem. There is always a difference between the artistic emotion and the personal emotions of the poet. The poet has no personality to express.
He is only a medium in which impressions and experiences combine in peculiar and unexpected ways. Impressions and experiences which are important for the man may find no place in poetry. Similarly, experiences that become important in the poetry, may have no significance for the man. Eliot, in this way, rejects romantic subjectivism. The emotion of poetry is different from the personal emotions of a poet.
His personal emotions may be simple or crude, but the emotion of his poetry may still be complex and refined. It is the mistaken notion that the poet must express new emotions. He may express only ordinary emotions. But he must impart to them a new significance and a new meaning. And they don't need to be his personal emotions. Even emotions which he has never personally experienced can serve the purpose of poetry. Eliot rejects Wordsworth's theory of poetry having its origin in 'emotion recollected in tranquillity and points out that in the process of poetic composition, there is neither emotion nor recollection nor tranquillity.
In the poetic process, there is only poetic concentration of a number of experiences and a new thing results from this concentration. And this process of concentration is neither conscious nor deliberate. It is a passive one. Eliot says "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotions, but an escape from emotions, it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.
Thus, according to Eliot, impersonality can be achieved only when the poet surrenders himself to the work that is to be done. It should be noted that Eliot believes in Tradition, so he emphasises the fact that the thoughts of the poet are not new. They are borrowed from the old poets all that the new poet expresses has already been expressed by the older generation. His views have something of this poet and something of the other. In fact, all the personality of the poet is eliminated if we study the past closely. Art is depersonalised.
In the third part of the essay, Eliot once again seems to emphasise the importance of impersonality of poetry. He sums up as follows
(a) Poetry is the expression of emotions.
(b) The emotion of art is impersonal and
(c) A poet needs a constant awareness of the living past, a sense of transition.
Thus, this summing up of the essay to speaks of the critic's theory of impersonality of poetry. In this way, in 'Tradition and Individual Talent the poet-critic tells us that poetry is not the expression of the personal emotions of the poet. As such, the biography of the poet is not to be taken as a key to his poetry. Significant emotion is the emotion having its life in the poem itself. It is the emotion which is always impersonal. In his development as a critic, Eliot, was later on to modify the insistence on complete impersonality of art. To reach this impersonality, a poet has to surrender himself completely to his art Eliot rightly says:
"The emotion of art is impersonal."
Eliot also explains that a constant awareness of tradition is equally necessary for a poet. This is because the poet "lives in what is not merely the present but the present moment of the past.'
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- Discuss She Stoops to Conquer as a Sentimental Comedy
- Discuss Goldsmith's View of Sentimental Comedy
- Give an estimate of Goldsmith as a dramatist
- Contribution of Goldsmith as a Dramatist
