Why does Eliot object against Wordsworth’s theory
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Answer
Why does Eliot object against Wordsworth’s theory of emotion recollected in tranquility? [2016]
As the 1st generation romantic poet, William Wordsworth (1770-1850) possesses the romantic idea of emotion. However, the modern classicist critic and poet T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) disagrees with this idea. Eliot, in his essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (1919), says that poetry is not emotional recollection, but a result of artistic control and impersonal creation.
Inexact Formula: Eliot calls Wordsworth’s view an “inexact formula.” He says poetry is not made by remembering emotion in a calm state. It is, in truth, a “concentration of a very great number of experiences.” These experiences unite unconsciously to create a new poetic emotion. They are not remembered deliberately. The poet’s mind collects many feelings and images, which mix and form art. Thus, poetry is not emotion recollected, but emotion transformed.
Impersonal Process: Eliot believes that poetry must be free from personal emotion. He writes,
“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion.”
The poet’s personal life or feelings are not important. The poet’s mind works like a chemical catalyst. It helps combine emotions but stays unaffected itself.
Conscious and Unconscious Balance: Eliot also says that the poet must use both his conscious and unconscious mind rightly. A bad poet is “unconscious where he ought to be conscious.” Poetry needs skill, not uncontrolled passion. It must express general feelings in a new way, not strange emotions.
In short, Eliot objects to Wordsworth’s theory because it makes poetry too personal. For him, poetry is the product of intellect, tradition, and artistic discipline. It is emotion made universal, not emotion remembered.