Tradition and Individual Talent by T. S. Eliot

    Eliot's "Tradition and Individual Talent" is one of the critical essay in which Eliot has described the concept of tradition, individual talent, emotion and poetry as well as his concept of depersonalized art. In the opening of the essay, Eliot defines tradition, as a literary history. He says that each and every nation has it's individual genius who create literature. So many such individual writers produce a big bulk of writing which is tradition.

            In other words, tradition is the matter of past that is even related to present since it is in the process of formation. Eliot gives an example of English literature produced from the Anglo Saxon period up to the present day. It is like a wall where there are so many bricks working commonly. Eliot also says that when a writer comes to write at present. He should be aware of the tradition. To learn the tradition he should have a great labor but he should not imitate it. Learning the tradition is also called historical sense that is necessary to the present writer, because tradition as the past influences.

    Eliot even says that the new writer writing at present becomes the part of tradition so he has to learn the tradition but not to imitate it. No writers and writings have value in isolation. The writer and his writing would not be evaluated with the writers of the past, rather he should be compared and contrasted with the tradition also then only it is possible to examine one's individual talent. If the new writer has imitated the tradition, blindly such slavish imitation should be discouraged because it has not individual talent. Individual talent is the novelty or newness. If the present writer has brought something novelty in his writing, it is called individual talent such novelty should be encourage because it suggests the genius of the writer.

    Eliot has also given his personal idea about the depersonalization of art, which is also called impersonal poetry. He says that emotions and feelings are related to poetry but they should be expressed indirectly and objectively. In other words, Eliot says that emotions of the poet are expressed in poetry but the poet should impersonify them. His concept is against the concept of words being involved in poetry. Instead, the poet should not be identified as the direct speaker in poetry but he should indirectly speak through the characters or other objects, which is called objective correlative. So Eliot says "Poetry is not the turning loose of emotion but escape from emotion. It is not the expression of personality but escape from it."

    In order to support his concept of depersonalized art, Eliot uses an analogy related to gas chamber. In a gas chamber during the process of forming sulpheric acid, sulpherdioxide and oxygen are needed but they do not react until a plate of platinum is kept. When the platinum is kept there, it causes reaction between them so that sulpheric acid is formed. This analogy is applied in the process of poetic creation as well.

    The poet or his mind is a catalyst like the platinum to change others elements in chemical reaction. As the platinum is not present in the acid, the poet also should not be present in poetry. His role is very crucial because with out the poet, poetry is not possible to create. But, in the creation he should be totally dead or absent like the platinum is absent in acid. It is Eliot's concept of impersonal art and he criticizes many English poets including Wordsworth who have not become impersonal. He appreciates metaphysical poets such as John Donne to be impersonal in poetry.