Poetic Creation for Shelley and Eliot - Essay Example

Poetic Creation for Shelley and Eliot Introduction Shelley’s and Eliot’s poetry is often compared and contrasted. There is more individuality in the poetry of Shelley and for Eliot poetry is a means of individuality’s disavowal. Shelley’s poetry is often considered to be a strong and reliable background for the poets of Romanticism. For Eliot poetry is the means for truth reflection of seeking of truth. Poetry is not much about emotions; it is much about reflections of personality, of its inner reaction and reflections, feelings and in-depth thoughts. This essay is focused on two great poets’ developments about poetic creation. It is interesting to find common and contrasting points between these two poets and to find out for the reader, which type of poetry is more appealing for him. Eliot vs Shelley Reason and imagination are interconnected between each other. Poets feel the excess of language. Shelley concludes that: “A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth . . . the creation of actions according to the unchangeable forms of human nature, as existing in the mind of the Creator” (Eliot and Shelley). Therefore, Shelley underlines a divine nature of poetry, emphasizes the importance of beautiful form. Moreover, poetry is the means to transform a perverted life into a beautiful reality. Therefore, the main claim of Shelley is that poetry is “the expression of the imagination”. There is a human nature of poetry. There is a great harmony provided by poetry. In spite of lure, Shelley claims, poetry provides not only melody, but harmony and this harmony have a great power as it helps influence the audience, transfer the ideas to it (Shelley, Defense of Poetry). The role of poetry is greater than the role of the story, because the former provides harmonious imaginative textual pieces, which are independent from the context, time, space et cetera. The stories, as a rule, are connected with certain facts, exact data and are dependent on characters or events. Therefore, the poetry has a more independent nature in comparison with the stories. Poetry is the mirror reflecting truths, but in a more beautiful manner. Eliot has a different attitude to poetry. He is a strong opponent of poetry of Shelley and criticizes it actively. A poet reflects his feeling and emotions, which occurred to him in the result of different events in his life. A poet is a mediator of his feelings and emotions. There are strong emotions within humans and the poets are on the way to searching for new emotions to be reflected in their poetry. Still, there are more imaginative emotions and feelings reflected in the poems. They are more profound and intense in comparison with real emotions and feelings. Emotions gained in tranquility are the most outstanding ones. Tranquility is the only one reliable condition, signifying a balance of a human mind and soul. For Eliot it is rather hard to depend on emotions. From his point of view, there is a clear way for poetic development in case of deliberation. Shelley has “the unusual faculty of passionate apprehension of abstract ideas”, and for Eliot, Shelley has a rather complex philosophy, being on the verge of rationalism and Platonism (Eliot, p. 81). Moreover, there is no clear evidence of the fact that Eliot is rushing of adolescent reading. Eliot becomes a more mature person in the process of his philosophy and views’ development. Poetry is full of aesthetic values and qualities. Shelley is attacked by Eliot in the following way: “to skip these passages and satisfy myself with the poetry in which no proposition pushes itself forward to claim assent.” (Eliot, p. 91) Shelley’s plainness and comprehensiveness is positioned by Eliot as the absence of a deep and profound sense of poetry. There is a great feeling of contamination and the ideas of Shelley are very often hard for assimilation. It is necessary to mention that there are wrong elements, described by Eliot, as excessive and unnecessary in the context of poetry. The abundance of feelings and emotional reflections are preventive factors for a proper development of ideas. For Eliot poetry is “not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion, not “the expression of personality, but an escape from personality” (Eliot, p. 21). Eliot is appealing for an impersonal art and this fact is hard to deny. The poet is obsessed with the idea that “only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape these things.” (Ibid.) There is no the absence of personality in the impersonal art, it is a careful concealment of a personality. Therefore, poetry is a magic means of facts concealing and revealing and there are numerous strategies for ideas representations. Therefore, it is evident that Eliot’s attempts to undermine poetry of Shelley can be considered as attempts to criticize weaknesses of Romantic poetry in general. His criticism is also focused on criticism of emotional self-expression of a poet in his creative works. “The Impersonal Theory of Poetry” is the direct opposition against the individuality of Shelley. Eliot penetrates into his impersonal poetry in order to rich objectivity in his creative heritage and he appeals for reflection of real emotions or to reach the depth of ideas. Eliot is sure that a poet should follow the following criteria in order to develop his poetry: “comparison and analyses of poetry”, “the function of criticism' to his later tendency to delimit (or extend?) the “Frontiers of Criticism” (Eliot, p. 69). There are more abstract than concrete in the poetry of Shelley and poetry is the means to promote strong emotions and reflect a creative imagination. There was an evident imbalance in the poetry of Shelley. Thus, the poet achieved neither “the emotional equivalent of thought” nor “thought felt as immediately as the odor of a rose” (Eliot, p. 96). Therefore, poetry is between thoughts and sensibility for sure. A lack of integrity and wholeness are the main drawbacks in the poetry of Shelley and this fact cannot be denied, because it is one of the main antagonistic features against Romanticism. The ideas of Shelley are adolescent and they are too enthusiastic for promotion among the audience. Eliot underlines: “[He] belongs with the numbers of the great heretics of all times; he is “humorless, pedantic, self-centered, and sometimes almost a blackguard” (Eliot, p. 101). Eliot refers to the following lines of Shelley: Music, when soft voices die Vibrates in the memory — Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the beloved's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on. In such a way, it is evident that Shelley’s poetry is romantic and it comes from developments of Romanticism. There are vivid expressions, comparisons, and metaphors et cetera, which are common poetic tools. Still, it is evident that these lines are not vague and there are vivid discussions and descriptions and it can be said that the majority of poems are written in lively lines. Otherwise it is impossible to appeal for the audience and reflect the tiniest peculiarities and accents of poetry. Conclusion Therefore, it is clearly seen that there is a huge gap between the opinions of poetic creation for Shelley and Eliot. The former promotes Romanticism in the poetry and the latter develops his anti-Romanticism moods. It is impossible to reach a perfect balance between poetic means of these two poets due to many differences in their own style and the form of idea expression. It is possible to refer to tranquility or emotions. The main essence is to reproduce the essence of poetry and the truth of it. Consequently, we must believe that “emotion recollected in tranquility” is an inexact formula. In case of exact concentration and tranquility there is the presence of concentration, the evidence of presence of mind. In case a poet is concentrated he feels confident, deliberate or reserved then he is on the way of the right development. Shelley is much more focused on emotions and feelings and that is why there is an evident assault on Shelley from Eliot. There are two different approaches to poetry between these two great poets. There is no way to discard romantic poetry of Shelley, as well as discard poetry of Eliot. Both of them are worth being considered in order to grasp the main essence of their creative poetic pieces of work. References Eliot, T. S. Tradition and the individual talent. Available from: [Accessed April 05, 2012] Eliot and Shelley: Influence, Renunciation, and Accommodation. Available from: http://www.cambriapress.com/samplechapters/1934043346sample.pdf [Accessed April 05, 2012] Shelley, P. B. A defense of poetry. Available from: [Accessed April 05, 2012] Read More