Qualities of a Critic by Eliot

7/27/2019 Qualities of a Critic by Eliot

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Eliot’s contribution to the

History of English Criticism



• Eliot’s criticism seems to be assured of an even morepermanent and significant place in the history ofEnglish literature than his poetry.He played a

significant part in the reassessment of the pastwriters to suit the modern sensibility

• His anti-romantic insistence on an outside authorityas against the inner voice brought afresh attitude toEnglish criticism. He absorbed various influences

from the past, but absorbed them so well that theyhave become a part of him. Therein lies hisgreatness



• Eliot belongs to the line of poet critics extending from

Sidney down to the modern age, a line that includes

Ben Johnson. Dryden, Dr. Johnson, Coleridge, and

Arnold. Eliot being a practicing poet, misstatementson poetry and poets carried an additional authority.,

and a greater conviction

• He called his criticism “by- product of my poetical

workshop”.



• After Arnold,Eliot argued that criticism was a

complementary activity to that of creativity.There is

evidence of ken perception and acumen in he

remarks made by Eliot,especially in regard to theproblems of his times,both as the critic and the

poet.The virtues of a good critic-

sensitiveness,erudition,sense of fact,generalizing

power are to be found in emits’ criticalpronouncements.



• At the same time,here is the vision of a creative

artist,too.His early criticism is indeed a defence of his

own poetry,(as workshop criticism is bound to be),but

that is so because he was writing a new kind ofpoetry.It was necessary to educate taste so that this

different kind of poetry would find an audience.



• The mass of Eliot’s reviews,essays and published

lectures fall into three periods.He terms the first

period the “Pre-Christian” decade(1919-1928),in

which there is a literary pre-occupation,mainly withthe sixteenth and seventeenth century dramatists and

poets.To this period belong the Sacred

Woods(1920),Homage to John Dryden:Three

Essay(1924),and for Lancelot Andrews(1928).



• The second period is of social and religious criticism following

his conversion,and includes Dante(1929).Thoughts after

Lambeth(1931) and After Strange Gods(1934).The third period

is what Watson terms as the post-war Olympian period,whichmarks the renewal of interest in critical issues.There are,says

Watson,three voices of Eliot as the critic”First the

youthful,exploratory enthusiasm of the twenties where an almost

ideal balance between poetic and critical activity is

realized;second an abortive o social and religious advocacy in

frankly obscurantist causes,and third,a bold but exhausted

attempt to recover the creative urge,followed at once by denial

and desperation,These three voices of Eliot the critic,according

to Watson,are clear and distinct.



• In Eliot's later criticism,evening social and religious

criticism we find races and elements woof what he

had written in the purely literary essays at the

beginning of his career,In Irving Babbitt andHumanism and notes towards the definition of

culture,there is much that is already there in his early

essays.



• His social criticism cannot be said to be completely

different or opposed to his views on literature.The

desire for disciple and order,the search for an outside

authority and the submission of the individual to thisauthority and getting salvation through faith,are

expresses in his literary as well as in his social and

religious writings.One sees in Eliot’s critical career an

integrated approach.Eliot never really changed any ofhis views completely;at the most he modified

them.This,however,shows his maturity as a critic.



• Eliot’s best work as the critic lies in his earlier

work.His earlier essays were the ones which played a

great part in changing the outlook and attitude to the

literature of the past.And in these essays,the bestknown of which are tradition and the individual

talent,the metaphysical poets,john Dryden,Andre

Marvell,four Elizabethan dramatists,Hamlet,Ben

Jonson we find his critical method at its best.



• Eliot illustrates his theory of how a critic should

practice.It involves elucidation,comparison and

contrast,inability to make generalizations on the basic

problems of poetic creativity,and introducing a readerto the basic and centrally important features of an

author.The aim of this criticism was to stimulate the

reader into thought,making his own conclusions.



• Eliot puts forward his critical opinions in alanguage,clear,consists and as far aspossible,scenically accurate.Eliot’s critical method

was necessarily accurate.This is an aspect of hisclassicism.Eliot’s critical method was necessarily theresult of an “intense and highly conscious work ofcritical intelligence,F.R.Leavie points out:’Eliot’sbest,his important,criticism has an immediate relation

to his technical problems as the poet who,at thatmoment in history was faced with alteringexpression.His criticism is remarkable for itsdirectness and its concentrated purity of interest.



• Eliot’s concept of tradition is different from that of the

Augustans.To Eliot tradition is living,it is dynamic.The

past is not dead and distinctly not removed from the

present.



• The past is always present,It lives on,evolves through

the present that is what a sense of tradition means to

Eliot.It implies a consciousness of the presenters of

the past,and of the timelessness of tradition.Theconcept of tradition is basic to Eliot’s critical

opinions.It forms the basic of the Impersonal theory

of poetry,as it does his idea of what the critic should

do.



• Eliot brought a fresh approach to the literature of the

past.He raced a traditional English poetry from

Chaucer,through Shakespeare the metaphysicals

Dryden and Pope.and part of Wordsworth andKeats,to the present times.And he brought over how

this tradition was valid for the sensibility of his own

period.This was a statement of perspective which

made his contemporaries take a different look at theliterature of the past this general statement of the

living English literary tradition compelled critics to

alter their outlook.



CLASSICAL ATTITUDE OF

CRITICISM• Eliot’s attitude towards criticism was classical.It

opposed to the rend of the inner voice and subjective

criticism that was essentially romantic in nature.His

important contribution to criticism was the insistenceon complete objectivity



• His was a reaction against romanticism and

humanism Criticism should not show any shade of

personal prejudice.There is no place for subjectivism

in criticism.A critic has to uphold objectivestandards,And sense of tradition was important in

gaining this objectivity.A poem should be appreciated

as a poem,as a work of art.The poem and not the

poet,should be the concern of a literary critic.Arespect for order,discipline and a sense of tradition

were necessary for a critic.



IMPERSONAL THEORY OF

POETRY• Eliot’s classicism is manifest in his theory of

poetry.This again was a clear reaction against the

romantic and humanistic schools of thought.He

insists that the poet should subject his personal selfto the discipline of absorbing literary

tradition.Tradition and the Individual talent should be

read along with The Function of Critics.



• His theory of criticism is related to his theory of

poetry-impersonality is a basic essential in both.This

theory had a great deal of impact;I questioned

basically the existing ideas and gave a fresh directionto thought.As it went against existing concepts,it has

been called a revolutionary theory of poetry;the

greatest theory on the nature of the poetic process

after the romantic theory put forward by Wordsworth.



• The Romantics considered poetry to be the

expression of personal emotions and the very

personality of the poet.This concept is firmly rejected

by Eliot.He considers poetry to be not the lettingloose of emotion,but an escape from emotion.It is not

the expression of personality,but an escape from

personality.It is not,as Wordsworth stated,a

spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings oremotions recollected in tranquility.



• Eliot however does not deny personality or emotion

to the poet.He merely demands that the man who

feels or experiences that is the poet’s personality,he

separate from the artist’s mind which creates.Thepersonal feelings and emotions of the man in the

poet should be ransomed into the artistic

emotions,something which is universal and

impersonal.Thus the man and the poetry are twodifferent things.



• As such,criticism should be focused on the poetry

and not on the poet.Eliot thus changes the direction

of critical theories.His theory eschews

biographical,psychological or sociological factorswhich are irrelevant to the criticism of poetry.



• Eliot’s essay on the Metaphysical poets brought

about a revaluation of these poets.Donne and the

other poets of the 17th century had been appreciated

before.But it was Eliot,however who brought about asignificant revival of interest in these poets in the 20th

century.It is due to him that interest began to be

taken in the Jacobean dramatist.



• His approach to Dryden,Pope and the

Augustans,brought about a re-instatement of these

poets in the living English Literary traditions.In each

case.he sheds fresh light on the writer’s work.Thereis a concise,precise and helpful analysis of their

works.Their suggestive which leads the reader to

make his own conclusions.It is thought his method

that Eliot revaluates the earlier writers.All thestatements may not be acceptable;their ability to

provoke thought,however,cannot be denied.

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Qualities of a Critic by Eliot