AI ToolsNew
Tools to make learning and teaching easier
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tradition and the Individual Talent, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Past, Present, and Tradition
Emotion, Art, and Impersonality
Individuality, Novelty, and Conformity
Summary
Analysis
Eliot does not intend to make a metaphysical claim, but only to be practical and to help the poet interested in poetry. He sums up the two previous chapters, first stating that if one puts their interest in the poem, not the poet, they will be a better judge of poetry’s quality. He reminds readers that, although many people claim to appreciate poetry, very few can actually recognize a “significant emotion.” This emotion would be found living in the poem, not in the poet.
Eliot’s statements are intended to be useful to the aspiring poet. They are also intended to instruct the poetry critic. It seems that Eliot hopes these two purposes will serve one another: if the poetry critic turns away from poets and towards poems, the poet will also stop receiving admiration for their personal life and will have to inspire admiration instead through their poems.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
Lastly, Eliot reminds readers that the emotions in poems should be impersonal. In order to write impersonal poems, the poet must sacrifice themself to their work. Furthermore, the traditional poet only knows the work they must do when they live in the “present moment of the past,” aware of the dead as if they were alive.
Eliot shows that depersonalizing a poem requires a traditional approach: when the poet surrenders their self to the past, they necessarily relinquish their personal aims and emotions and dedicate themselves to re-expressing the common emotions in new ways.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
Upgrade to unlock the analysis and theme tracking for all of Tradition and the Individual TalentTradition and the Individual Talent!
Get LitCharts A+
