Traditional and individual

talent by Thomas Stearns

Eliot(1888-1965), a well-known
Literary Critic, essayist,
playwright and Poet of
modern age.
He was born in America
in 1888.
He got his masters
degree from Harvard
University, USA.
He moved to England in
1914, where he got
influenced by Ezra
Pound.
• Ezra pound assisted him in publishing his first literary
work “Songs of J. Alfred Prufrock” in Poetry in 1915.
• He became most famous after publication of his
work “The Waste Land” in 1922.
• In 1933, after spending 18 years of unhappy
marriage, he divorced his wife and married another
woman in 1956.
• He got noble prize for literature in 1948.
• He died in London in 1965.
•Traditional and individual talent
is an essay written and published
by T.S.Eliot in 1919 which
describes Eliot’s views about
literary criticism.
• The essay is divided into 3 parts;
1. In first part, he gives his concept of Tradition.
2. In 2nd part, he describes
impersonality/objectivity of poetry.
3. In 3rd part, he gives conclusion/sums up his
discussion.
 Eliot’s concept of tradition
• Eliot says that tradition is a dynamic process, it
has a much wider sense.
• Tradition represents a simultaneous order. It
means that if you compose a work you should
feel that you are not just writing according to
present time but you also should be feeling that
literature from Homer till today has a
simultaneous existence.
• We cannot value a single poet or poetry, it is
necessary to compare and contrast it to other
past works , because past works can define the
new one and new one can show modification
required in past one.
 Impersonality of Poetry
• A poet must acquire greater and greater objectivity.
• His emotions and passions 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 he absorbed in acquiring a sense of tradition and expressing
it in his poetry.
• Eliot holds that, “Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is
directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.”
Summing up the discussion
• The poet concludes: “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.” Thus Eliot does not deny personality or
emotion to the poet. Only, he must depersonalise his
emotions. There should be an extinction of his
personality. This impersonality can be achieved only
when poet surrenders himself completely to the work
that is to be done.
• “And he is not likely to know what is to be done unless
he lives in what is not merely the present, but the
present moment of the past, unless he is conscious,
not of what is dead, but of what is already living”.
Presented by Shakeela Laghari, resident of Dadu, Sindh.
Email: Qamarunisaleghari@gmail.com