ENG 301 2nd Assignment

NAME: Nazmul Islam Abhi
I.D: 13303005
ENG301
2nd Assignment
Submitted to: Pritilata Sharma
Submission Date: 13/2/2015
"Tradition and the Individual Talent" is an essay written by poet and literary critic T. S. Eliot. It was published in the year 1919 in The Egoist. Later it was republished in the year 1920 in Eliot's first book of criticism, "The Sacred Wood". T. S. Eliot was a highly celebrated essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and "one of the twentieth century's major poets. He was born in U.S.A in 26th September 1888 and later migrated to England. He died in 4th January 1965. The essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent" marks the beginning of the concept New Criticism. In his essay Eliot denounces the romantic criticism, put emphasis on tradition and individual talent. His point of view was very crucial to shape up the idea of New Criticism.

Eliot’s idea of poetic Tradition was very wide. He says that tradition does not mean following the ways of immediate past generation of the poets. The new age writers have to know the roots of the culture and inherit it in their writings. In other words the writer who have a vague idea about the culture is not a good poet. He also mentioned that tradition is not inherited, it need to be acquired by labor by the poet. Which is to say the poet have to know about all the past author to perfect the skill to write good poetry. In new criticism the poet is judged by how much his or her writing reflects the poetic tradition of the writer. The history of the tradition is considered in new criticism as an important factor while criticizing any literature work of a poet or writer.

Moreover Eliot also said in his essay that following the tradition does not mean following the exact tradition the ancestors had. The writer must try to exclude the ordinary tradition and keep the better one which will enrich the tradition. This will make the work of the poet extraordinary among the other ordinary and will elevate the tradition of the literature. So Eliot is saying to improvise with the tradition to make it better. This goes against Romantic Criticism as it says to follow the tradition only past down by the previous writers creates a better writing and a writer. The new criticism consider the uniqueness in the writing as well as the tradition. To create a better poem the poet should upgrade the traditions.

Eliot rejects Romantic criticism further more by telling the writers must not have personal fillings in their writing. In his view the writer can only become good writer when he or she does not show their personality in their poem. In Romantic criticism the writer’s personality was very important to write a good poem but Eliot looks the other way and says the writer is only good when he or she can write without imprinting their thoughts at their work while they are writing. So in other words poetry is not letting loose of emotion it’s escaping from emotion. The new criticism adopt the idea which Eliot suggested.