The impersonal theory of poetry-Eliot

The impersonal theory of poetry-Eliot

T.S. Eliot's influence on contemporary criticism is indisputable. He claimed himself a `classiest’ in literature, royalist in politics and Anglo-Catholic in religion'. In the seminal essay, `Tradition and the Individual Talent' he challenges the romantic concept that poetry is the expression of personal emotions. Redefining the concept of tradition he introduces a holistic vision of art that any particular work of art bears relations with other works and authors. Examining the relation between a poem and its author Eliot points out that the relevance of a poem may be ascribed, not to its reflection of the author's personality but to the fact that the author's mind is a finely perfected medium in which varied feelings are at liberty to enter into new combinations. According to him, the mind of the poet is only a forum where feelings and emotions enter, are combined and transmuted into new forms. The personality of the author is hardly perceivable in the composition. Eliot introduces the analogy of a catalyst. The poet's mind according to him plays the role of a catalyst intensifying and expediting the reaction. Impressions and experiences important for the man may take no place in the poetry and those. which become important in the poetry may play quite a negligible part in the personality. That is why Eliot believes that there is a lot of difference between the man who suffers and the mind that creates.

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