What does T.S. Eliot mean by 'impersonality'?
Eliot's theory of the 'impersonality' of poetry can be discussed in detail as follows. Eliot is an existentialist and a classicist. So he gives a bold statement that in poetry the emotion of the poet is not necessarily present. He has criticised Wordsworth's view that poetry has its origin in emotions recollected in tranquillity.
To Eliot, poetry is not 'an overflow of emotions' nor is it emotion recollected in tranquillity. In fact, it is an escape from personality and from emotion. It evokes an emotion which is not personal emotion but artistic emotion. It is, therefore, not the expression of personality but an escape from personality.
The personality of the poet is not in it. The art of poetry is completely depersonalised. Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation are directed not at the poet but at the poetry. Likewise, according to Eliot, poetry is an organisation of different concepts and for such organisation to take place perfect objectivity on the part of the poet is essential. There is no question of the poet expressing his personal emotions of the poet expressing his personal emotions. Such is the nature of the impersonality of poetry theory.
The poetic process is a typical process. The poet's emotions must be depersonalised. He must be as impersonal and objective as a scientist. The personality of the artist is not important, the important thing is his sense of tradition. A good poem is a living whole of all the poetry that has ever been written. He must forget his personal joys and sorrows and be absorbed in acquiring a sense of tradition and expressing it in his poetry.
Thus, the poet's personality is merely a medium, having the same significance as a Catalytic agent or a receptacle in which a chemical reaction takes place. That is why the poet holds that honest criticism and sensitive appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry TS Eliot gives a very fine analogy to explain the above fact. There is a jar containing oxygen and sulphur dioxide These two gases combine to form sulphurous acid when a fine filament of platinum is introduced into the Jar.
The combination takes place only in the presence of the piece of platinum. But the metal itself does not undergo any change. It remains unaffected. The mind of the poet is like the catalytic agent combinations of emotions and experiences must take place, but it does not undergo any change during the process of poetic combination.
The mind of the poet is constantly forming emotions and experiences into new wholes, but the new combination does not contain even a trance of the poet's mind, just as the newly formed sulphurous acid does not contain any trace of platinum. The mind of a young poet or his personal emotions may find some expression in his composition. The subjective view of poetry stressed by the romantics is replaced by the romantics is replaced by the impersonality in art.
Further in the escape Eliot again remarks that 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. Some critics of Eliot interpret this fact as a denial of any personality to a poet. But in reality. Eliot does not deny personality to a poet. On the other hand he insists upon the point that the poetic process is the continual extinction of personality, a surrender of personal emotion to the emotion of art.
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