T.S. Eliot: Common Speech and Literary Tradition

Common Speech: The Basis of Poetry

For T.S. Eliot, poetry is language. Wordsworth stated that it was the language spoken by people, but later we find the verbose, rhetoric, and so on. After the 19th century, Eliot and Pound wanted to simplify expressions again and resorted to the colloquial language spoken by everyone. Eliot's works do not always represent the language of the streets. Of Dante, he said that poetry is a perfection of common language. Of Dryden, he said that he restored English verse. His biggest enemy was John Milton, because he wrote as if he were writing in Latin.

His Idea of Literary Tradition

Eliot considers that the poet's role and obligation is to express his epoch in his poems. The poet writes poems, and it is sufficient for him to represent and express the period of time in which he lives; this is a passive role. The poem should be a mirror of the period. There is an active role that consists of disagreeing with the period, to criticize and show disagreement with what is going on around himself. He thinks that a lack of historical sense and a lack of historical criticism is an important attribute of classical art. To Eliot, the best attitude of classical art is a lack of historical sense. Classicism and tradition equal the atemporal quality of art. Temporal art is something which passes very quickly because it is connected to a particular problem. Atemporal art is connected to human problems that seem to be important everywhere and at every time.

The Atemporal Nature of Tradition

Eliot complains about the sense of tradition, and for him, a traditional poet is first and foremost great, not equivalent to old-fashioned. Eliot's idea of tradition is basically atemporal. The ordinary idea of tradition is temporal. For him, every line you write is a condensation of the whole tradition, which you cannot escape unless you wish to be a bad poet. To believe in that kind of tradition is the first step to being classical, because you do not see periods; this is atemporality. When a new work is introduced into the literary tradition, the tradition and the way of interpreting those works change. For example, if the work is from the 20th century, it affects the 13th century because Eliot's sense of tradition is atemporal. Literary works are not consecrated by time, and the consequences of his view on tradition are:

• He rejects individual literary personality, novelty, and originality. When he was older, he accepted that there should be a balance between tradition and innovation.
• He does not believe in absolute literary revolutions.