The theory of Impersonality by T.S. Eliot

The theory of Impersonality by T.S. Eliot

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   For :Monir Hossen Lecturer, Uttara University  Presented by : 1. Shahnaj Parvin Mukti (ID : 52) 2. Sraboni Sultana (ID : 18) 3. Tariqul Islam Shohag (ID : 43) Topic : Theory of impersonality of T.S Eliot
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   Eliot (1976)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. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.” Eliot criticizes the romantic poets for being engrossed in subjectivity in their poems. As a matter of fact, Eliot could not escape being completely impersonal in his poetry, though he emphasizes the importance of impersonality in poetry. Ellmann (1987) argues that T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound advocate impersonality, but they often smuggle their personality back into their poetics. He adds that Eliot insists that poetry originates in personal emotion and that the poet’s subjectivity pervades the text.  The notion of the several Eliots includes the argument that he is of two minds about impersonality in art. In "Tradition and the Individual Talent" and other early essays, he argues that the greatest art is impersonal. In the same essays, sometimes in the same sentence, he maintains that the greatest art is personal. "Poetry is not . . . the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But of course, only those who have personality . . . know what it means to want to escape" (Eliot 1950: 10- 11). The perception that Eliot's concept of impersonality seemed contradictory began early, with reviews of The Sacred Wood (1920). In March 1921, for example, Conrad Aiken outlined the ostensible contradiction between the statements about "impersonality" in "Tradition and the Individual Talent" and those in "Massinger" (Aiken 1921). The charge of inconsistency was not mitigated by Eliot's comments on The Waste Land, which he variously described as impersonal and as "the relief of a personal and wholly insignificant grouse against life" (Eliot 1971: 1)
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   No poet,no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone.  The poet must be leaves his own personality, his own feelings, and experiences from the subject of poetry.  The poetry will be time less.  There is difference between poet and poetry.
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   The centralpoint of T.S Eliot’s impersonal theory of poetry is that the poet and the poetry are two separate things.  The impersonal conception of poetry focuses attention “not upon the poet but upon the poetry”.  It thus emphasizes the art object as such Eliot believes that relationship is complex, because the work of art is to be regarded as an organism, alive with a life of it’s own.  He wrote in the introduction to the 1928 edition of “The Sacred Wood” - “We can only say that a poem in some case, has it’s own life; that it parts from something quite different from a body of neatly covered biographical data. That the feeling or emotion or vision in the mind of the poet.”
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   Eliot usesthe first-person singular pronoun in most of his poems. For instance, Eliot’s “The Waste Land” encompasses the first-person singular pronouns (I, me, my) enormously, except the fourth section of the poem “Death by Water” which does not involve any of first-person pronouns.  In “Ash Wednesday”, the first-person singular pronouns are present from the opening lines. But the speaker in Eliot’s “Ash Wednesday” refers to the poet himself indirectly as the poem reflects his religious vision of life and God, but Eliot utilizes the persona as a mask to avoid self-expression.  In Eliot’s “The Hollow Men”, the first-person singular pronouns are used three times. Similarly, in Eliot’s early poetry collections Prufrock and Other Observations and Ariel Poems, the first-person singular pronouns are found in many poems. Exploring impersonality in Eliot’s poetry through tracking the use of the first-person singular pronouns is not highly reliable because the poet may use a technique of a “persona” as the speaker in the poem.  In Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfreld Prufrock, Eliot (1957) says: The first voice is the voice of the poet taking to himself-or to nobody. The second is the voice of the poet addressing an audience, whether large or small. The third is the voice of the poet when he attempts to create a dramatic character speaking in verse; when he is saying, not what he would say in his own person, but only what he can say within the limits of one imaginary character addressing another imaginary character. (Eliot, 1957: 89)
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  T.S Eliot’s “TheWaste Land” begins with a description of a cruel spring, cruel to disturb, dull, dry land content to sleep, to die. Life and, surely, personality are the moisture missing in this waste land. But why, then, am I haunted from the first line with personality? There are several reasons, but one of them is that the base of personal pronouns awakens a sense of personal engagement. First the reader seems to be involved in “you” and “us” and “we.” The reader need not involve himself—the personal pronouns clearly refer to others instead. It doesn’t matter. The sense of participation persists. Besides, a personal aside: "Corne in under the shadow of this red rock“ This line justifies the reader in his presumption.
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  The first sectionof “The Dry Salvages” contains the most formal, impersonal introduction of all the quartets, but it does speak directly (“I do not know much about gods; but I think. ..”); the poet and reader are involved together with all mankind in “us” and “our.” The first movement of “Little Gidding” offers a typical personal identification. “If you came this way. Taking the route you would be likely to takeF rom the place you would be likely to come from …. “ Even “Four Quartets” partakes of this personality. The quartets are a more abstract statement than either of the poems above; still. From the very first movement of each. Each involves the reader in “you” or “we.” “Burnt Norton” issues another direct invitation, “Shall we follow?” “East Coker” begins in the poet persona’s voice (“In my beginning is my end”) and involves a particular “you” from line 14: “Across the open field. Shutteredhe deep lane Shuttered with branches, eark in the afternoon, Where you lean against a bank while a van passes, …” More Example
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  Thank you