Eliots contribution to the

History of English Criticism

Eliots criticism seems to be assured of an even more
permanent and significant place in the history of
English literature than his poetry.He played a
significant part in the reassessment of the past
writers to suit the modern sensibility
His anti-romantic insistence on an outside authority
as against the inner voice brought afresh attitude to
English criticism. He absorbed various influences
from the past, but absorbed them so well that they
have become a part of him. Therein lies his
greatness
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, misstatements
on 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 the
problems 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 critical
pronouncements.
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 of
poetry.It was necessary to educate taste so that this
different kind of poetry would find an audience.
The mass of Eliots 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 with
the 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,which
marks the renewal of interest in critical issues.There are,says
Watson,three voices of Eliot as the criticFirst 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 and
Humanism 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 this
authority and getting salvation through faith,are
expresses in his literary as well as in his social and
religious writings.One sees in Eliots critical career an
integrated approach.Eliot never really changed any of
his views completely;at the most he modified
them.This,however,shows his maturity as a critic.
Eliots 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 best
known 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 reader
to 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 a
language,clear,consists and as far as
possible,scenically accurate.Eliots critical method
was necessarily accurate.This is an aspect of his
classicism.Eliots critical method was necessarily the
result of an intense and highly conscious work of
critical intelligence,F.R.Leavie points out:Eliots
best,his important,criticism has an immediate relation
to his technical problems as the poet who,at that
moment in history was faced with altering
expression.His criticism is remarkable for its
directness and its concentrated purity of interest.
Eliots 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.The
concept of tradition is basic to Eliots 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 and
Keats,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 the
literature of the past this general statement of the
living English literary tradition compelled critics to
alter their outlook.
CLASSICAL ATTITUDE OF
CRITICISM
Eliots 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 insistence
on 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 objective
standards,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.A
respect for order,discipline and a sense of tradition
were necessary for a critic.
IMPERSONAL THEORY OF
POETRY
Eliots 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 self
to 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 direction
to 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 letting
loose 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 or
emotions 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 poets personality,he
separate from the artists mind which creates.The
personal 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 two
different 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 factors
which are irrelevant to the criticism of poetry.
Eliots essay on the Metaphysical poets brought
about a revaluation of these poets.Donne and the
other poets of the 17
th
century had been appreciated
before.But it was Eliot,however who brought about a
significant revival of interest in these poets in the 20
th

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 writers work.There
is 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 the
statements may not be acceptable;their ability to
provoke thought,however,cannot be denied.