Eliot

Question 1

what does eliot say on tradition

Answer 1

• each poem exists within the tradition from which it takes shape
• in turn, by existing, it causes the tradition to alter and change shape
• tradition is something that a poem must be faithful to as well as it being soemthing that the poem makes

Question 2

how does novelty emerge?

Answer 2

from being steeped in talent

Question 3

How does Eliot redefine the word Tradition?

Answer 3

at the start of the essay, he suggests that ‘you can hardly make the word [tradition] agreeable to english ears without this comfortable reference to the reassuring science of archeology
- he uses scientific metaphors in his essay

Question 4

what does Eliot think of traditon

Answer 4

• It cannot be inhertited

- gained through a highly laborious process

Question 5

Key features of Eliot’s rhetoric

Answer 5

• Very forceful: of of imperative
• Lots of negation
• use of chiasmic structures to demonstrate the simbotic relationship between the past and the present
• multiclausal sentences, sense of a balance between two possible outcomes
• use of scientific langauge: this removes the subjectivity of his argument: equivocates his argument with science, something which is indisputable

Question 6

what does the metaphor stand for?

Answer 6

Brain of the poet: platinum
Tradition/ personal experience: two gases
this is used to explain how the brain of the poet is merly a vessel in which this process can occur

Question 7

what is the error of the poet?

Answer 7

to attempt to bring new human emotions into poetry an express them, instead they should use ordinary ones, and merely by expressing them through poetry, they are altered

Question 8

poetry and personality and what does this link to?

Answer 8

• poetry is not an expression of personality, but an escape from personality
• this links into the 20th century practice of new criticism, where the focus is removed from the poet and the practise of close reading is valued