| Author | Message | ||
| Danielle Carr
New member Username: laughingmyopic Post Number: 16 Registered: 11-2007 |
Happy leap day everyone. I have been reading Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw4.html) and have been wanting to discuss it with people who would know what they are talking about. I agree with the second part, that poetry must transcend the purely personal if it is to be objectively meaningful, but I'm not sure about the first part. It seems to me to be both unneccessary to the first part as well as kind of theoretical and impractical. What do you all think? Must a piece of poetry be read only in context of other poetry? Does every single new work, no matter how small, have to fit into the "body of previous work [of other artists]" for it to be a valid piece of art? For my own part, I think I disagree with the first part, but as it's pretty presumptuous to disagree with Mr. Eliot, I thought I would spark a discussion. (Message edited by laughingmyopic on February 29, 2008) www.eatingonlyelk.blogspot.com | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 3446 Registered: 05-2006 |
Mr. Eliot's view is highly similar to the opinion of Harold Bloom. Both believe that a major test of a poem is its affinity or relationship to the preexisting body of culture. Seen this way, a strong poem will always contain numerous elements that speak toward "the tradition," or, if the poem if experimental, which "defy" the tradition in ways that suggest dialectic not discontinuity. I hope I'm not losing you in the above. In any case, this implies that to be an effective reader of their brand of quality poetry one must be steeped in the canon. If you're not, you won't pick up on a poem's allusive element and you won't see the poem's stylistic connection to its forebears. I would argue that there's merit in their argument, but, to a significant degree, it requires that the reader have a high IQ and a superb memory -- and let's admit it: that's elitist to the core. * * * * * As for whether a poem should transcend the purely personal . . . yes, it should. Poems that are simply lineated diary entries are most interesting to their authors. Fred Unofficial Forum Pariah recent victim of alien abduction |
