t 1. s. eliot

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  • 1. Thomas Stearns Eliot

2. T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) was an American-bornEnglish poet, playwright, and literary critic,arguably the most important English-language poetof the 20th century.Eliot declared himself to be a "classicist inliterature, an Anglo-Catholic in religion, and aroyalist in politics.'It has been common to think of Eliot as the father-figureof modern literary criticism, but it may bemore accurate to think of him as the last majorfigure in the line of poet-critics (Jonson, Dryden,Coleridge, Arnold) for whom poetry and criticismhave been complementary routes to a definition ofwhat matters in our culture. 3. The poem that made his name, The Love Song ofJ. Alfred Prufrock is regarded as a masterpiece ofthe modernist movement.He followed this with what have become some ofthe best-known poems in the English language,including Gerontion (1920), The Waste Land(1922), The Hollow Men (1925), Ash Wednesday(1930), and Four Quarters (1945).He is also known for his seven plays, particularly,Murder in the Cathedral (1935). He was awardedthe Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. 4. His essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent"(1919) is one of the more well known works thatEliot produced in his critic capacity. It formulatesEliot's influential conception of the relationshipbetween the poet and the literary tradition whichprecedes him. Eliot presents his conception oftradition and the definition of the poet and poetryin relation to it.For Eliot, the term "tradition" is imbued with aspecial and complex character. It represents a"simultaneous order," by which Eliot means ahistorical timelessness -- a fusion of past andpresent -- and, at the same time, a sense of presenttemporality. 5. In his essay, he seeks to rebut the Romantic emphasison the 'originality' and 'personality' of the poet as themost important feature of literature. Eliot challengesour common perception that a poet's greatness andindividuality lies in his departure from hispredecessors. Rather, Eliot argues that "the mostindividual parts of his (the poet) work maybe those inwhich the dead poets, his ancestors, assert theirimmortality most vigorously." 6. A poet must embody "the whole of the literature ofEurope from Homer," while, simultaneously,expressing his contemporary environment.Eliot claims that "historical sense." is not only aresemblance to traditional works, but an awarenessand understanding of their relation to his poetry.Eliot's so-called "Impersonal Theory" of poetryimplies that since the poet engages in a "continualsurrender of himself" to the vast order of tradition,artistic creation is a process of depersonalization.The mature poet is viewed as a medium, throughwhich tradition is channeled and elaborated.Eliot rejects the theory that art expressesmetaphysical unity in the soul of the poet. Thepoet is a depersonalized vessel, a mere medium. 7. Eliot looks for an almost mystical blending of thetemporal and the timeless in the poet's perception,a sense that past and present confront each otherendlessly; each new work adds to -- and at thesame time redefines -- a tradition which is so muchgreater than the individuals who contribute to it.The art of the poet is thus not one of self-expressionbut one of self-denial: 'the progress ofthe artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continualextinction of personality.' 8. His private experiences and emotions may havenothing to do with his poetry at all, Eliot argues,directly attacking Wordsworth's 'emotion recollectedin tranquility' formula: 'Poetry is not a turning looseof emotions but an escape from emotion; it is notexpression of personality but an escape frompersonality. But, of course, only those who havepersonality and emotions know what it means to wantto escape from these things. '