T.S.Eliot as a critic

Literary Criticism.
Topic: ‘T.S.Eliot as a critic’
Prepared by: Avani N. Dave
M.A. - SEM – 2
Roll No: 02
Date: 18/03/'13
Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumar Sinhji
Bhavnagar University                           

·       Introduction :

                                    T.S.Eliot is probably best known and most influential English poet of 20^th century. His critical output was uniting diverse; he wrote theorical piece as a critic is equally significant. His critical output was unite diverse, he wrote theorical pieces as well as study of particular authors he was a classicist and supported orderliness both in art and criticism. He was one of the greatest literary critics of England from the point of view of the bulk and quality of his critical writings. His five hundred and odd essays occasionally published as reviews and articles had a far-reaching influence on literary criticism in the country. His criticism was revolutionary which inverted the critical tradition of the whole English speaking work- john Hayward says,

                             “I cannot think of a critic who has been more widely read and discussed in his own life-time; and not in English, but in almost every language, except Ruskin.”

                                    As a critic Eliot has his faults. At times he assumes a hanging-judge attitude and his statements savor of a verdict. Often his criticism is marred by personal and religious prejudices blocking an honest and impartial estimate. Moreover, he does not judge all by the same standards. There is didacticism in his later essays and with the passing of time his critical faculties were increasingly exercised on social problems. Critics have also found fault with his style as too full of doubts, reservations and qualifications.

                                      Still, such faults do not detract Eliot’s greatness as a critic. His criticism has revolutionized the great writers of the past three centuries. His recognition of the greatness of the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century resulted in the Metaphysical revival of the 20th century. The credit for the renewal of interest in the Jacobean dramatists goes to Eliot. He has restored Dryden and other Augustan poets to their due place. His essay on Dante aroused curiosity for the latter middle ages. The novelty of his statements, hidden in sharp phrases, startles and arrests attention. According to Eliot, the end of criticism is to bring readjustment between the old and the new. He says:

“From time to time it is desirable, that some critic shall appear to review the past of our literature, and set the poets and the poems in a new order.”

Such critics are rare, for they must possess, besides ability for judgment, powerful liberty of mind to identify and interpret its own values and category of admiration for their generation.

·                               

                                                Eliot’s criticism offers both reassessment and reaction to earlier writers. He called himself “a classicist in literature”. His vital contribution is the reaction against romanticism and humanism which brought a classical revival in art and criticism. He rejected the romantic view of the individual’s perfectibility, stressed the doctrine of the original sin and exposed the futility of the romantic faith in the “Inner Voice”. Instead of following his ‘inner voice’, a critic must follow objective standards and must conform to tradition. A sense of tradition, respect for order and authority is central to Eliot’s classicism. He sought to correct the excesses of “the abstract and intellectual” school of criticism represented by Arnold. He sought to raise criticism to the level of science. In his objectivity and logical attitude, Eliot most closely resembles Aristotle. A. G. George says:

“Eliot’s theory of the impersonality of poetry is the greatest theory on the nature of the process after Wordsworth’s romantic conception of poetry.”

·       Eliot’s views on Tradition and Individual Talent.

                           

                                  Eliot’s essay ‘Tradition and individual Talent’ clearly expresses Eliot’ concept about poetry and the importance of tradition. He says “Criticism is as inevitable as breathing.” He believes that tradition plays a vital role in artistic creation and lays stress on the impersonality of poetry. Tradition is dynamic and can be obtained by great labor. To be tradition means to be conscious of main currents of art and poetry. A poet has to take many things from his ancestors in the process; he has to surrender himself to the dead poets.

·       Eliot’s views on Impersonality in Poetry.

                                  

                                      Poetry was an expression of the emotions and personality for romantics. Wordsworth said that poetry was an overflow of powerful emotions and its origin is in “Emotions recollected in tranquility”. Eliot rejects this view and says that poetry is not an expression of emotion and personality but an escape from them. The poet is only a catalytic agent that fuses varied emotions into new wholes. He distinguishes between the emotions of the poet and the artistic emotion, and points out that the function of criticism is to turn attention from the poet to his poetry. 

·       Eliot’s definition of Criticism:

                             Eliot wrote “The function of criticism.” To express his views on criticism as “the connection and on the methodology it should adopt. He defines criticism as “The cementation and exposition of works of art by means of written words.” Criticism unlike literature is not an auto telic activity, it is dependent on literature. The purpose of criticism is the elucidation of works of art and the correction of taste.”

                       

                                    According to Eliot, the critic should not allow his personal prejudices to come in his way. A Critic should go in the direction of “Common pursuit of true judgment. For Eliot, criticism is equally an important activity. He doesn’t see any apparent difference between creative artist and the critic. For him, criticism is an inherent constituent of creation because the larger part of the labor of an author in composing his work is critical labor.

·       The difference between critic and creator :

                    

                                One writer is greater than the other because his critical faculty is superior. A critic can fulfill his function by using comparison and analysis with a strong sense of fact. The critic must have the imagination and the heart to feel literature as something alive. The critic then will help others to feel it in the same way.

                          The critic’s task is not to interpret an author or his work, but what is the critic is not to judge works in what way can he elucidate them. The answer to this is a critic must have a highly developed sense of fact. This sense of fact is something very difficult to develop and its complete development means the very pinnacle of civilization.   

·       The dissociation of sensibility and the objective correlative.                      

              

                      The phrase objective correlative is used by Eliot to explain how emotions can be best expressed in poetry. The poet cannot communicate his emotions directly to the readers. He has to find some objective suggestive of it and only then he can evoke the same emotions in his readers. It is the reason he finds hamlet defective and an artistic failure. He also says that in Macbeth, Shakespeare is successful in finding an objective correlative to express the emotions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

                     The phrase “ Dissociation of sensibility.” Occurs in Eliot’s views on the metaphysical poets. He uses this phrase to describe the characteristics of the late 17^th century poetry. in this theory of poetry is a union of thought and feeling is very essential. The poet should have a unified sensibility and should transform his thought into feelings.

                               Eliot’s views on the nature of poetic are equally revolutionary. According to him, poetry is not inspiration; it is organization. The poet’s mind is like a vassal in which are stored numerous feelings and experiences. The poetic process fuses these distinct experiences and emotions into new wholes. In “The metaphysical poets” he writes,

             “When a poet’s mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it is constantly amalgamating disparate experiences; the ordinary men’s experience is chaotic, irregular, and fragmentary.”

                    Perfect poetry results when instead of

 “Dissociation of sensibility” there is ‘unification of sensibility’. The emotional and the rational, the creative and the critical, faculties must work in harmony to produce great work of art. Critics stressed that the aim of poetry is to give pleasure or to teach morally. However for Eliot, the greatness of a poem is tested by the order and unity it imposes on the catholic and disparate experiences of the poet. Wimsatt and brooks are right in saying, “hardly since the 17thcentury had critical writing in English so resolutely transposed poetic theory from the axis of pleasure versus multiplicity.”

                 Eliot devised numerous critical concepts that gained wide currency and has a broad influence on criticism as men timed earlier ‘objective correlative’, ‘Disassociation of sensibility’, ‘unification of sensibility are few of Eliot’s cli0ches hotly debated by critics. His dynamic theory of tradition of impersonality of poetry, his assertion on ‘a highly developed sense of fact’ tended to impart to literary criticism catholicity and rationalism.

·       Eliot’s achievements as a critic :

                               

                             Eliot made an important contribution to ideas concerning the integrity of poetry. The process of poetic composition, the importance of tradition and the relation of past and present and the fusion of feeling and thought. He was the first critic to apply the method of comparison and analysis to the elucidation of works of literature. His successful practice as a po et gave special weight to his criticism. The applies the method of science to the study of literature so that we can see it as it really is for him George Watson writes:

“Eliot made English criticism look different, but not in a simple sense. He offered it a new range of rhetorical possibilities, confirmed it in its increasing contempt for historical processes, and yet reshaped its notion of period by a handful of brilliant institutions.” 

    

                               To conclude, Eliot’s influence as a critic has been wide, constant, fruitful and inspiring. He has corrected and educated the taste of his readers and brought about a rethinking regarding the function of poetry and the nature of the poet process. He gave a new direction and new tools of criticism. It is in the re-consideration and revival of English poetry of the past. 
                                                                   

The Oxford Movement

E-C- 204 : The Victorian Literature
Topic: ‘The Oxford Movement’
Prepared by : Avani N. Dave
M.A. - Sem – 2
Roll No: 02
Date: 18/03/'13
Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumar Sinhji
Bhavnagar University

The Oxford Movement

                                     Religion is an important part of life. The important part of life. The development of science and modern life do not care for religion and faith but it is true it is true that the stress of modern life can be removed by religion and faith. Arnold wrote ,

               “Between two worlds, one dead,

                The other powerless to be born ’

                                   So, there came a movement to revive the importance of religion and faith. It is known as The Oxford Movement. This movement is also known as Tractarians movement. It was fundamentally religious in nature and had nothing to do with Tory-politics

·       The Background :

                               Oxford movement was not political movement but as it opposed liberalism in all its aspect, the Oxford leaders derived much from the philosophy of conservatism.

Aims of this movement:

                         This movement had following particular aims behind it.

1.  To bring back the dignity of church

2.  To oppose the state authority over the church

3.  To oppose liberalism in all aspect of life

4.  To restore the old customs of the church

                                    The aims shows that the movement was purely religious movement and not political one.

·       Against Liberalism :

                                     The Oxford movement fought vigorously against liberalism of men like Thomas Arnold who bastioned on the ethnical significance of Christianity and minimized the importance of ritual of “theological articles opinion”. The idea of the visible church with its sacraments its rites, it’s priesthood by Christ and its hierarchical appointments was repugnant to Dr. Anand tooth and nail.

·       Oppose to Rationalism :

                                      The 19^th century witnessed a fine growth of science. Theories of science proved fatal to religion. The theories denied the existence of god. The Oxford movement was oppose to rationalism in matters concerned with the church. It is hard to agree with G.K.Chesterton when he writes in his book ‘The Victorian age in literature’ “The Oxford Movement was out of the very roots of its being, a rational movement, almost a rationalist movement”. With the growth of science in the 19^th century, there was a growing demand that religion should be put to the test of rational scientific examination. The Oxford movement stood against too much insistence on reason and proof in religious matters and sought to revive the faith rituals and dogmas of Roman Catholic religion

“The main spring of the Oxford movement was the dread of rationalism. The problem for new men was how to check the growth of rationalism as he saw it in England”

-      Huge Walker

This aggressive anti-rationalism manifested itself in the Oxford men’s affirmation of the miracles associated with the history of the ancient church and the numerous saints.

·       Inspiration from the middle ages.

                                The Oxford movement was allied with the Romantic Movement and derived much inspiration from the middle ages. In the words of professor gate, “The Oxford Movement was in its essence an attempt to reconstruct the English church in harmony with this romantic ideal”.

                              “The oxford movement stood for the restoration of the poetry, the mystic symbolism, the spiritual power and the poetry of architecture ritual service which had characterized the catholic church in the middle ages”- moddy and lovetto

                                The oxford movement owed much to Coleridge and Scott who turned men’s’ mind in the direction of the middle ages.

There is much truth in the remark that the real spirit behind the movement was not that of Keble or Newman but that of Walter Scott of the Waverly novels the oxford men turned their gaze to the Middle Ages in order to escape from the monotony of life and materialistic advancement striking at the faith of the people

·       Church’s freedom from the state authority :

                                The Oxford movement stood against the secular authority in interfering in the affairs of the church. The church was subjected to the secular authority. The grave inconveniency that arose from  her connection with the state had been demonstrated by the affair of Dr. Hampden who had been appointed by lord Melbourne to the post of regius professor of divinity in the university of Oxford. His idea of dogma as being a pure matter of opinion gave great offence, not only to the orthodox high church men, but to the Evangelicals as well. This incident created much dissatisfaction and the oxford men advanced the view that the state should make the church free because it was more than a human institution.

                              “New man and his friends wished also to defend the church. In view of its divine character, against the interference of the state, which was disposed to reform it along with parliament and other institutions, curtaining its powers and revenues

·       History of the Oxford movement.

                              John Keble, John Henry Newman, Richard Hunell, Edward Pusey are famous writers who contributed to this movement by their writing.

·       Men behind the movement.

1.  John Keble :

                     He was the originator of this movement. He was the professor of poetry at oxford. He started this movement. But he was a Saintly, simple, quiet, modest and sweet natured simplicity had its beauty and its charm, but as the movement time require, such a man like Keble, cannot be the leader of the movement. So the real leader was another man.

2.  John Henry Newman :

                       He was the true soul and spirit behind the Oxford movement. He was a genius of broad sweep of wider range. He began as a protestant and ended as a roman catholic. After his return from the continent in 1832, he joined the Oxford movement and soon became the main leader. He wrote many of the tracts and his one famous tract Tracts XC provoked volcanic criticism against him so much so that he took refuge at little more. In 1845, he was converted to the Roman Catholic and was made the cardinal in 1879.

3.  Richard Hurrel Froude :

                         R.H. Froude was a brilliant man. He was like a link between Keble and Newman. In the words of J.L.May :

   “Froude’s part in the movement was brief, but it was all important. He was the match that fired the train. He brought Keble and Newman to understand each other, and that was an achievement pregnant with consequences.”

Froude is chiefly known for his remains and two of the tracts for the time and a few poems.

4.  Edward Pusey :

                 He originated Puseyism. It was a form of Anglican which came nearest to Rome without being merged into romanticism. He was a learned man but no match to Newman.

                “He is far less attractive as a personality more questionable in his methods and immeasurably inferior as a literary craftsman”.                                   – Compton-Rickett

                                   There are some more names which connected with Oxford movement are W.G.ward, R.W.Church cardinal Wiseman etc. They contributed more or less to the movement.

·       The failure  :                                                                                                                                                                   

               The Oxford Movement failed because its appeal to the authority of a Catholic tradition was not of sufficient defense of the catholic religion against the attack of scientific and the historical criticism.

·       Influence on next generation :

                                   The Oxford movement was definitely a religious movement but it had influence on the literary taste of its age. It inspired the poetry of the Pre-Raphaelites, though some of them were indifferent to its theological implications it influenced the poetry of D.G.Rossetti, G.M. Hopkins, Coventry Patmore, R.W. Dixon and R.H. Froude 

                                    In fact, in the religious field the movement did restore to the church authority for the sacraments and a certain type of saintliness. It altered the accepted patterns of Anglican thought and practice. The importance of serious prayers, piety, fusting and personal holiness was emphasized upon and the pre-reformation church of Rome.  

·       Conclusion :

                             The movement had deep effect on poetry except that the movement was a failure. Yet, it is useful to understand the literature of the time.                       

John Keats and his odes with Sensuousness

Romantic Literature.
Topic: ‘John Keats and his odes with Sensuousness’
Prepared by: Avani N. Dave
M.A. - SEM – 2
Roll No: 02
Date: 18/03/'13
Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumar Sinhji
Bhavnagar University

·         Introduction: 

                           John Keats was one of the Trio-younger romantic poets v/s Shelley, Byron and himself. His odes are the most touching. He blossomed early and died young. Keats is noted for the indulging luxuriance of his imagery, but at the same time, he developed self-discipline in both feelings and craftsmanship. Keats believed in the importance of Sensation, but for him, Sensation was the path of the knowledge of reality. All of his odes stand apart as the best of all with its Sensuousness and richness of imagination. It is the most perfect and shortest that is ‘Ode to autumn.’ Other he wrote ode on ‘Grecian Urn’, ‘Ode to Psyche’,And many like ode to a Nightingale, Ode on Melancholy, and many.

·         Sensuousness :

                         Sensuousness is the unparallel quality of Keats poetic genius. He is the poet of Sense and their delight, He gratified that the five human senses- touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. He is also a great lover of beauty. His mingling of love with beauty is become universal with this line:

                     “A thing of Beauty is joy forever.”

                                     He shows his strikingness in his entire poetry. ‘The eve of st.Agnes'', the description of the Gothic window is famous for its strong sensuous appeal. Our sense of sight and smellare also gratified when the3 poet describe the wintry moon throwing its lights on Madeline’s fair breast and the rose-bloom falling on her hands. The short masterpiece, a Bella Dame Sans Meric, has its own sensuous appeal.

                                The Odes, which represent the great poetic achievement of Keats. The Ode to Psyche contains a lovely picture of Cupid and Psyche lying in an embrance in the deep grass, in the midst of flowers of various colours.

                                The odes, which represent the great sensuous picture like in Ode on Melancholy, Ode on Grecian Urn, Ode to Nightingale, Ode to Fancy, Ode to autumn also contain sensuous picture.

·         Keats, pre-eminently the poet of the senses.

                             Sensuousness is the paramount quality of Keats’s poetical genius. Keats is pre-eminently the poet of the senses and their delights. No one has catered to and gratified the five human senses to the same extent as Keats. He is a great lover of beauty in the concrete. His religion is the adoration of the beautiful. In this respect he is a follower of Spenser. “I have loved the principle of Beauty in all things”, he said. His Endymion begins with the famous line:

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

·         Sensuous Imagery of the Great Odes :

                        The ode to psyche contains replete with sensuous pictures of lover cupid and psyche

“Mid hush’d, cool-rooted flowers, fragment-eyed.”

                            “Every beauty that flowers have scant form stillness, coolness the next colouring is summed up in the next” the lovers lie with lips that touch not but which have not at the same time bidden forever. We have more sensuous imagery when Keats describes the superior beauty of psyche as compared with Venus and Vesper. A little later in the poem we are given pictures of a forest, mountains, streams, birds, breezes and dryads lulled to sleep on the moss.

                             One of the most exquisitely sensuous pictures comes exquisitely sensuous picture comes at the end where we see a bright torch burning in the casement to make it possible for cupid to enter the temple in order to make love to psyche.  

A bright torch and a casement ope at night,           
                to let the warm Love in!

               In the Ode on Melancholy, again, we have several sensuous pictures. There is the rain failing from a cloud above and reviving the drooping flowers below and covering the green hill in an “April shroud”. There is the morning rose; there are the colours produced by the sunlight playing on wet sand; and there is the wealth of “globed peonies”. And then there is another exquisitely sensuous picture.

 Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Imprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

The Ode on a Grecian Urn contains a series of sensuous pictures—passionate men and gods chasing reluctant maidens, the flute-players playing their ecstatic music, the fair youth trying to kiss his beloved, the happy branches of the tree enjoying an everlasting spring, etc. The ecstasy of the passion of love and of youth is beautifully depicted in the following lines:

More happy love! more happy happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoyed,       
For ever panting, and for ever young.

The Ode to a Nightingale is one of the finest examples of Keats’s rich sensuousness. The lines in which the poet expresses of passionate desire for some Provencal wine or the red wine from the fountain of the Muses appeal to both our senses of smell and taste:

        O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
                Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
                Tasting of Flora and the country green,   
                Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth! 
                O for a beaker full of the warm South,       
                Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene…….

These lines bring before us a delightful picture of Provence with its fun and frolic, merry-making, drinking and dancing. Similarly the beaker full of the sparkling, blushful Hippocrene is highly pleasing. Then there is the magnificent picture of the moon shining in the sky and surrounded by stars. The rich feast of flowers described in the stanza that follows is one of the outstanding beauties of the poem. Flowers, soft incense, the fruit trees, the white hawthorn, the eglantine, the fast-fading violets, the coming musk-rose—all this is a delight for our senses.

In the Ode to Autumn, the charm of the season has been described with all its sensuous appeal. The whole landscape is made to appear fresh and scented. There is great concentration in each line of the opening stanza. There is a rich texture of sensuous awareness in the poem and the poet surrenders himself to the mood of the sense.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom friend of the maturing sun.

 Each line is like the branch of a fruit tree laden with fruit to the breaking point. The scenery, the fruits and flowers and the honey all these appeal to our senses of seeing and the gourds. The hazels with their kernel, the bees suggesting honey all these appeal for our sense of taste and smell.

Sensuality Rather Than Sensuousness in Some of the Poems

              Thus, Keats always selects the objects of his description and imagery with a keen eye on their sensuous appeal. This sensuousness is the principal charm of his poetry. Sometimes this sensuousness deteriorates into sensuality. In other words, Keats often shows a tendency to dwell too much upon the charms of the feminine body and refers to the lips, checks, and breasts a little more than is necessary. In Ode to Autumn, the traditional form of address is maintained and the whole ode celebrates the beauty of nature through excellent images. ‘The pictorial quality of the ode is unequalled stop ford. Its beauty and its the consolation of the beauty is of the soul

Keats’ conception of beauty was not merely abstract but beauty personified its the objects of nature. He compares a eulogy of the season autumn with all its peculiar colour, smells, sounds and the tastes. The sensuousness of the poem depends on the minuteness of detail. Keats compares autumn to a gleaner and says,

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dust keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook.

It is his sense impressions that kindled his imagination which makes him realize the great principle that

‘Beauty is truth, truth is beauty.’

Conclusion:

Keats is more poet of sensuousness than a poet of contemplation. It is his senses which revealed him the beauty of things, the beauty of universe from the stars of the sky to the flowers of the wood. Keats’ pictorial senses are not vague or suggestive but made definite with the wealth of artistic details. Every stanza, Every line is full with sensuous beauty. No other poet except Shakespeare could show such a mastery of language and felicity of sensuousness .