Eliot’s Theory of The Impersonality of Poetry
According to Eliot, the personality of the
artist is not important; the important thing is the sense of tradition. An
artist must continue to acquire greater and greater objectivity. His emotions
and passions must be depersonalized; he must be as impersonal and objective as
a scientist. An artist 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 has in chemical reactions.
Eliot
develops further his theory and compares the mind of the poet to a catalyst and
the process of poetic creation to the process of a chemical reaction just as
chemical reactions take place in the presence of a catalyst alone, so also the
poet’s mind is the catalytic agent for combining different emotions into
something new. Suppose there is a jar containing Oxygen and Sulphur dioxide.
These two gases combine to form Sulphureous acid when a fine filament of
platinum (catalytic) 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. The mind of the poet is catalytic agent. The mind of the
poet is constantly forming emotions and experiences, into new wholes, but the
new combination does not contain even a trace of the poet’s mind, just as the
newly formed sulphureous acid does not contain any trace of platinum. In the
case of young and immature poet, his mind, his personal experiences and
emotions may find some expression in his composition but as he gains maturity and
perfection, the personality of a poet does not find expression in his poetry;
it acts, like a catalytic agent in the process of poetic composition. The
experiences which enter the poetic process, says Eliot, may be of two kinds. They
are emotions and feelings. Poetry may be composed out of emotions or out of
feelings only or out of both.
Eliot
compares the poet’s mind to a jar in which are stored numberless feelings, emotions,
etc., which remain there in an unorganized and chaotic form till “all the
particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together”. Thus,
poetry is organization rather than inspiration. Thus, the greatness of a poem
does not depend upon the intensity of emotions but upon the intensity of the
process of poetic composition. The more intense is the poetic process, the
greater is the poem. There is always a difference between the artistic emotions
and the personal emotions of the poet. For example, the famous ‘Ode to
Nightingale’ of Keats contains a number of emotions which have nothing to do
with the nightingale. The difference between art and event is always absolute.
The poet has no personality to express, he is merely a medium in which
impression and experiences combine in peculiar and unexpected ways. Impressions
and experiences which are important for the writers as an individual may find
no place in his poetry, and those which become important have no significance
for the man. The emotions of poetry are different from personal emotions of the
poet. His personal emotions may be simple or crude, but the emotions of his
poetry may be complex and refined. The business of a poet is not to find new
emotions. He may express only ordinary emotions but he must impart to them a
new significance and a new meaning. And it is not necessary that they should be
his personal emotions. Even emotions which he has never personally experienced,
can serve the purpose of poetry.
Eliot
says, that in the poetic process there is only concentration of a number of
experiences, and a new thing results from this concentration. And this process
of concentration is neither conscious not deliberate; it is a passive one. The difference
between a good and a bad poet is that a bad poet is conscious where he should
be unconscious and unconscious where he should be conscious. It is this
consciousness of the wrong kind which makes a poem personal, whereas mature art
must be impersonal.
Eliot
says, 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. The poet
must depersonalize his emotions. This impersonality can be achieved only when
the poet surrenders himself completely to the work that is to be done. And the
poet can know what is to be done, only if he acquires a sense of tradition, which
makes him conscious, not only of the present, but also of the present moment of
the past, not only of what is dead, but of what is already living.
Comments