Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
B Y \V. K. \VIA.ISATT, J R .
AND
hl. C . UEARD,SL,EY
I
/
W I ~ I S A T A- rN D
UEARDSI~EY
469
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I V l hlSA'l"r
AND
liT;AKI>SI.EY
47 1
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thau n ccrtni~ia~nourit
from a standard er:pcricnce." And
I1e ;ldds, "M'e may rake as this starld;~rticspericllcc the relevant
csI~criuiceof the poct when culitcli~platingthe completed composition." 1'1-ofessor M'ellek in a fi~leessay on tllc pro1)lcnl lias
p r c f c r r ~ dto c:ill the poe111 "a systcln of ~iurlns," "ortr:ic~cd f1-0111
every il~dividualesj>crielice," and he objects tu h l r. I<icl1:1r.ds'
deference to the poet as re:lder. We side rvitli I'rofcssor If'eflck
i ~ not
i
wislii~lgto make the poet (outside the poenl) all authol-icy.
A critic of nitr Dic~iorraryarticle, b l r . /\nand3 K. Coolnaraswnn>y, has argued' that there a r e two kinds of eliqiiiry about n
work of art: ( I ) whether the artist achievcd his i~ltcntiuns; ( 2 )
tvhctllc~.the work of art tfougI1t ever to have been ~ ~ r ~ d ~ r t : i l ; e ~ i
a t all" and so "wliethcr i t is tvortll prescl-villg." Nurnbcr ( 2 ) ,
hll-. Coo~il;ir.nsw;ln>ymaintains, is not "criticisln of ally work of
art qua work of art," but is rather mural criticisln; 1iuit)cr .(I)
is artistic criticism. l h t we m:iintai~i tli:lt ( 2 ) rlccd 11ot 1)e ~ n o r ~ a i
criticisn): tIi:~t therc is anotlicl- way of deciding whcthcr n.01-1:s
of art nre worth preserving and whether, i l l a selise, they " o ~ i ~ f ~ t "
to Il:lve I>cerl undcl.t:tken, ant1 I his is he way of objective c.~.iticism
o f tvol.ks of i1rt ;is S L I C ~ ~the
,
\\:iy whicl) enables us to distiuguish
between n skilf~rlmurder and a skilful poem. A skilful ~llurdcr
is n u c s a n ~ p l cwhich M r . Coolr~;lraswa~~>y
uscs, and i l l his system
tiic cliffcl.encc betwee11 thc murder a~ict the pocni is si~uplya
"~!~bral"one, r~otn r l "artistic" olle, since each if cnl-l-ied out according to p l a l ~is ,"artistically" successful. TVc maintain that
( 2 ) is an enquiry of more worth than ( I ) , and since (2), and
not ( 1 ) is capalde of distinguishing poet1.y from n~l+l-dcr,the
name "artistic CI-iticisrn" is properly given to ( 2 ) .
C,rO
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Hisro~icnlinterprc:n/ion labours
~~sycllolo~ical
conditions rvliic11 hailc clian$cd i l l the coursc
of history. I t . . ellnbles 11s to see n work of art (n pli!lsical
object) as its nzrrhor snw it ill the nlonletit of production."
\VI.IISArI"I'
A'ND
IlEARUS1,EY
473
thct ic cri ticism-01- 11c n1:ly writc sociology, I)iography, or' other
..
ki~~cls
of ~~ul~-ncstllctic
Ilistory. I hc C r o c c : ~systcrn
~~
scclns to
Iiavc given lilorc of a I)oost to the .latter way of w r i t i ~ ~ g .
"TYl~nt has. the poct tr-icd to do," asks Spingnrn in his 191 0
Col u111l)ia Lect ~1r.cfro111 which we have already qi~oted,"and
how Ilas he fuitilled his intention?" 'l'he place to look for "insul~cr;~blc"
~~glilicss,
s~iysBosanquet, in his third Lec~~ll-e
of 19 14,
is the ':rcgio~i of illsincere and affected art." 'The secpngc of
the theory illto n ]]on-philosophic place may be scen ; I I such a
book :IS Marguerite Wilki~~son's
inspirational New Ifoicc~,about
the poetry of 19 19 to 193 1 -where synlbols "as old as the ngcs
. . . rctnin t l ~ c i rstrength and freshness" through "I<ealization."
W e close this section wit11 two exan~plcsfro111 qunl-ters w11el.c
olle 111ig11tlcnst ,expect a tnint of thECrocean. M r . I. A. ltichnrds'
~ O L I I - F O Idistir~ctior~
~
of ~ n e n ~ i i nillto
g "scnse," "feeling," "to~ic,"
"intcutioll" has been probably the most influential statement of
i~itentiolinlis~~i
in the past fifteen yeai-s, though it contains a hint
of sclf-1.cpudiatio11: "This function [inte~~tion:],"
says hIr. Rich:~rds,"is not on n l l foul-s wi:h the others." I n an cssny on "Thrce
Types of I'octl-y" M r . 111 I ~ I IT a t e writcs ns follows:
W e must understand that the Iincs
I..,ifc like a cio~neof marly-colored glass
St:lirls the white radiance of etcrliity
n1.e not poctl-y; t hey cx111-cssthe ~ ~ . I ~ s ~ I .will
N/L',I
trying tu conipctc with scie~lce. 'The soil1 asscrts
:I rhctol.ic:~l prol~ositionabcllt tllc tvliolc of Iifc,
but tlic ;r)i~rgi/ia?iorzhas not seized u p o ~ lt lie nlnterinls of the poem and n ~ a d ethem into a wholc. Shelley's si~nileis i~npcsedupon thc ~natcl-in1from
above; it docs not grow out of the material.
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T l ~ n reiterated
t
i>listl-ustof the poets wl>ich we hehr fl-otn S o c ~ - ; i ~ c , ~
IIUV have been part of a rigorously ascetic view i l l whic!? \YC
hardly wish to participate, yet Plato's Socrates saw a t r ~ ~ ~t Ih, I I I I I
'Jt tlie poetic inind which the world no longer commot~ly sccs--'so much criticism, and that the most inspiratio~~al
and most oll'cc.
tionately renlembered, has proceeded from the ports thc~nscl\lc..
Cert;~inlythe poets have had something toi say that the nnnlyst and professor could not say; their nlessage hns been morc
escititig: that poetry should come as naturally as leaves to a trcc,
that poetry is the lava of the imagination, or that it is en~otior~
;; , * I recollected in tranquillity. But i t is oecessfiry that we rcalize rllr
character a ~ l d.authorit): of such testin>ony. Tilere is orlly n f i l ~ c
shade between those romantic expressions and a kind of earrlrst
advice that authors often give. T h u s Edward Young, Carlylc,
Walter Pater:
less
golctclr in Co/nosiriorr, than in life. 1. K n o w tlryself; Zdly,
I( e . ~ e ~ . e / ~rlryselj.
,re
110
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\Vl h l S A T T
AND
UEARDSLEY
477
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ilc did not llzvc, that he was limited in 11;s creation by what hc
had read or otherwise experienced, or ( 2 ) tliat having rcceivcd
clusters of associations, he was bound to rcturil thcln in
jtrst the way he did, and that the valuc of thc poeln may be
tjcscribcd i l l terms of the experiences on which lie had to dr:l\rt.
'The Iiitter pair of propositions (a sort of Hartleyali associationism
\vllicl~Coleridge liirnst.lf repudiated i l l thc B;ogmp/:ir~) may not
be assc~itcdto. T t ~ c r ewere certainly other combi~intio~i~,
other
~,ocms,worse or- better, that nliglit have been writtell b y nlen who
J , : I ~ rend 1in1.trnm and Purchas and Bruce and n ' l i l t o ~ ~ .And
this will Oc true 110 nl:~ttcrhow many t i ~ i ~ cwe
s arc ablc to add to
1~ l c
bri J l i n ~ i tcomplcs of Colcridgc's I-caciing. 111cer-t;iir~flourisl~cs
(such ;IS tlic sclitcrica {vc 'liavc qtlotcd) n l ~ di l l clinptcr l ~ c n d i ~ ~ g s
likc "'1'11~Si~:ll)irlgSl~irit," "The I\.lagic;~lSy~itl~csis,""I~nngi~lnti011 Cl.c:~t~.is,"i t rimy bc that l'rofcssor Lorvcs ~ ~ r c t c ~ to
i d ssay
.
11101.c: I ~ X ) L I the
~
actunl poems than he clocs. 1here is a cc~.tai~i
deceptive vxt.intio11 in these fancy chapter titlcs; one expccrs to
J,;ISS 011 to a new stnge in the argument, nnd one finds-niore
:~lld~ l ~ o Sr OeL I ~ C C S ?inorc about "the strcnmy naturc of associntio~!.""
"C\rohi~~d c r W c g ? " quotes l'rofcssor 1,owcs for the motto of
Ilis book. "Kcill Weg!' 111s U~ibetrctcnc." i'rcciscly because
tht: wny is u~rberrelen, we should say, it leads away from thc
!~oc~ii.Bartram's Y'rl2ycls contailis a good dcnl of thc history of
certain words n l ~ dromqntic F l o ~ - i d acoaccptions
~~
that appcnr in
"Kubla Khan." And a good deal of that history has passed
:111d was tlicn passing illto the very stuff of our la~lguxge. Per11nl)s a person who has rend Barti-am appreciates the pocm morc
t11n11 o ~ l cwlio lias not. O r , by l o o k i ~ ~ugp the vocabulary of
"Kubla Khan" in the Oxford E n g l i ~ hDiitionnr-y, or by r c a d i ~ ~ g
sonic of t l ~ co t l ~ e rbooks there quoted, a person m;ly k~iowthe
poem better. 13ul it would seem to pertain little to tlie poem to
know that Coleridgs had read Bartram. T h e r e is a gross body
of i:f:, ?f sensory and mental experience, which lies behind and
the situ;itio~l by :i
skillful allusio~lto the new and the old qstrouomy. . . 0 1
the nerv astronomy, the "moving of the enrtll" is the most
radical principle; of the old, the "trepidation of the sphcrcs"
is the motiou of the greatest complexity. . . . As the p o c ~ n
is a valedictio~lforbidding mourni~lg,the poct n,Lt>t cullol.t
his love to quietness and calm upon his departure; n~icifor
this piirposc the Ggnrc bnscd upon the lnttcr ~ u o t i o ~(trepii
dation), long absorbed into the tr-sdit;o~inlnst~.o~iuuiy,fittingly suggests the tension of the momelit urithoi~tn r o u s i ~ ) ~
thc "hnm~csand fcares" implicit in the figure of the rno\fing earth."
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for the historical critic, i t hils t h c ~ nno lcss for the collte~ilpo~.;~~.y
poet and his critic. Or, since every rule for n poet is l)ut nnothcr
side of a judgment by a critic, rind since the past is tlic ~.c:~lni
of
the scholar and critic, and the future and presc~itthat of the poct
and the critical 1cadcl.s of taste, we may say that the problcms
arising in literary scholnrship from tllc intentio~ial f ; ~ l l ; i carc
~
matched by others which arise i l l the world of progressive esperiment.
T h e question of "nllusivencss," for example, as acute1 y poscll
by the poctry of I.':liot, is ~ e r t a i n . 1one
~ where a falsc judgtne~it
~
is likely to involve the interltional fallacy. 'The f r c q i ~ c n ca1ic1
depth of literary a l l u s i o ~i11
~ the poetry of Eli@ and others. Ii:ls
drivcn so many i ~ pi~rsuit
i
of full mcani~lgsto the boltfu,r Uotrph
and the Elizabctha~idrarna that i t tias bcconle a kind of co~nrno~lplace to suppose that we d o not know what a poet lncarls u~tlcss
we have traced Ilim in his reading-a suppaitior~redolent wit11
intentional imp1ications. T h e stand taken by M r . I;. 0. M a t .
thiesscn is a sound onc and partially foi-cstalls thc difficulty.
If one reads tliese lines with an attentive ear a ~ l dis ser1siti1.c
to their suddcn shifts in movement, the coritmst Lctwcc11 ttic
act1131 Thamcs 3 r d the iclexlizecl visio~lof it during all 3s~.
before it flowed through a megalopolis is shar.oly cor~vcyc~l
by that movement itself, whether or not one rccug~lizest l ~ c
refrain to be from Spenser.
WfhlSATT AND
DEARDSLBY
483
Elic,tls a l l u s i o ~ ~work
s when we know thcm-;ind to ;I grcat cxtc~it
c\,cil whc~iwe d o ~ i o kilow
t
them, through thcir suggcstivc powcr.
J i t ~solnctimcs
t
we fi~id;illusions supported by ~lotcs,and it is a
\.cl-y ~iiccq~tcstionwhet he^. the notes fu~tction more as guides
to send us ~vtiet-ewe may be educatcd, or nlore as indic;~tiotisi l l
tllc~nsclvesabout the ctiaracter of the allusions. "Ecarly cvcrything of i~npol-ta~icc
. . that is apposite to au npprcciatio~iof
''I'he 1,V;tste Land'," writes M r . Matthiesscn of Miss I&'esto~l's
book, "has bcen incorporated into the structure of the poem its c j f , 01- illto Eliot's Notes."
And with s ~ c hall ndmissio~lit may
[)cb'ili to nppcnr that i t would not much inattur if Iiliot invented
Ilis sour-ccs (as Sir 1Y:llter Scott iilventcd chapter epigraphs from
l(c)Idplays" a11d ((ano~~ymous"
authors, or as Colcridge wrote
~n;u-~ilial
glosscs for "The Ancient Mariner").
Allusions to
I ) ; ~ ~ l tLVcbstei.,
e,
hllarvell, or Baudciaire, doltbtlcss g a i ~ somcttii~lg
i
t,cc;tuse tt~cscwriters existed, but i t is doubtful whether the sanie
c;ilt bc said for at1 allusion to all obscure Klizal)ctl~nii:
?'tit:
"ballnd."
Alid if one shoi~lclfeel f1.t,111
tlie lines thcn~sclvcstheir "ballad" quality, tliel-c ~ ~ ~ o lbc
i l dlittle
need for the note. L!ltimntely, the inquiry must focus 011 tllc
iliccgrity of such notes as parts of the pocnl, for wllcrc thcy c ~ l l stitute special i1ifo1-mation about the rncaning of idi~-;~scs
ill tlir:
poem, they ouglit to be subject to the same scrutiny ns :illy of t l l c
other words in which it is written. M r . Ivlntthiesse~ibclieves t l l v
notes were the price Eliot "had to pay i11 order to nvoid what Ilc
would have considered muffling the energy of his pocln by c s tended connecti~iglinks i l l the text itself.'? But i t may be qucstioned whether the notes 2nd the need for them arc not ecl~iall!
muffling. T h e onlissio~lfrom poems of the expla~lntorystl.;itii~~>
c.11 whicti is built the dramatic or poetic stuff is a dangcrou>
responsibility. M r . F. TV. Bates011 hns plausibly argued t l i : l ~
'Tcnnyson's "The Sailor Roy" woilld be better if hnlf the st:t11z:i5
wcre omitted, and the best versions of ballads like "Sir l';~tl.ick
Spens" 01r7c their power to the very audacity with whicli tiic
minstrel has taken for granted the story up011 whic!~lle com~ncllts.
What then i f a poet finds he cannot take so much for gral~tedi l l
a more recondite context nnd rather than write i~lf(~r~nntivel).,
supplics notes? I t can be s;?id in favor of this plan ttl:lt at lc:~>t
the notes d o not pretend to be dramatic, as tiley woultl i f ~ v l - i i t c ~ ~
in verse. 011the other hand, the notes may look like LIII:ISsin~ifatcdmncerial lying loose beside tlie ~ O C I I I , necessary for tltc
i:3 meaning of the verbal symbol, but not iategmtcd, so that tliv
symbol stands incomplete.
I
UTe mean to suggest by the above analysis that whcl-ens 11otcs
tend to seem to justify tI~emselvesas, external i~~de?tcs
to t l ~ s
author's intention, yct thcy ought to b'e j i ~ d g e dlike any o t l , ~ , ~ .
parts of n colnposition (verbal art-angcmellt special to a partici~lnl.
contcxt), and whcn so judged tlicir rcnlity as parts of tlic I,ocnl,
01. their imaginative integration with the rest of the poem, nla!.
come into question. 1Mr. Matthiessen, for instance, sees thnt
Eliot's titles for poems and his epigraphs are informative appnrafcct in soda water-is
W I ~ I S A ~ A~NTD
UEARDSLEY
185
tuj, like thc ~lotcs. Hut while he is worried by some of the 11otcs
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cxtremc coro]l;ll.y of the: romar~ticii~tcntionnlistassu~~lption,
and
as a cl-itirnl issiie it challcllgcs and brings to light in ;i spccial !\.;iy
the basic yl.crnisc of irltelltionnlism. T h e follo~vingi ~ ~ s t n ~flrcoc~ n
!he poetry of I<liot may serve to epitonlize the practic:ll inlplic,!.
tions of wh;~twc have bceri saying. I n Eliot's "Love S O I Iof~ J .
Alfred I'~-ufrock," to~v;t~.ds
the end, occurs t l ~ eJi~ie:"I have hc:il.~l
the ~ n e r ~ n a i dsi~~girlg,
s
each to each," and this bears a certain I-cscnlblance to a line in a Song by Joiin Donrle, "Teach m e to h c ; ~ ~ . i
i'\,lcrmaides sir~ging," so that for the reader acquainted to a ccrtail1 deGrcc wit11 Ilonnc's i ~ o c t r ~ the
r , cr.itic;ll cluestion ariscs: I,.
: I < l i ~ t line
' ~ a11 a l l u s i o ~to~ l)on~lc's? I s 1'1.~1f1.ocktIli!iki~ig ; I I I , ~ L I ~
[ I o n ~ ~ eIs, Eliot thinking about Ilonnc? W e suggest tti;~tt h c ~ . ~
are two radically d i f f e l - e ~ways
~ t of 1ool:ing for
aliswer to thi.
question. ?'here is ( 1 ) the way of poetic ailalysis 2nd escgesis,'
Ivhicl~ inquires whether i t makcs any serise if E l i o t - P ~ . ~ ~ F ~ -i.;o c k
thinking about Donne. I n an earlier pail? of the poem, whc~l
P~.ufrockasks, "M'ould it have been worth while, . . 'To lla\.c
squeezed the utlivel-se illto n ball," his worcis t ; ~ k ehalf. tlici~.
sadness and irony f r o ~ neel-tain energetic 311d passionate li~lcsof
Marvel "To H i s Coy Mistress." Rut the cxcgctic;~! inquil.cr
may wonder whcther nlerlnaids corlsidcred as "str;~nge sigl~ts"
( T o hcxr them is i11 I)on~lc's poem : I I I : I J ~ ~ O L I S ti) g c t t i ~ i g\ \ . i t I ~
child a m:tndmkc root) have much t; d o witti I'ruh-ock's ~ n c r 3
maids, which sccm to be synlbols of romnncc and dy~l:lmisrn,: r r l ~ l
3
which i ~ ~ c i d c ~ ~have
t a l lliterary
~
autlie~ltication,if they nccrl it,
in a line of a solliiet by GCrard d e lu'erval. 'This ~ n c t h o dof i l l quiry may Jead to the c o ~ ~ c l u s i otAat
r ~ thc given r c s c ~ n b l a ~ ~bccc
tween Eliot and Donrle is ~ i t h o u tsigrlificn!ice and is better not
thought of, 01- the method may have the d i s a d v a ~ ~ t aof~ eproviding no certzin c o ~ ~ c l i ~ s i o nNevertheless,
.
we subniit that this
is the true and objective w2y of criticis~li,as co~ltrnstcdto wImt
the very ~~llccrtainty
of exegesis might tcmpt a sccolld kind of
critic to undertake: ( 2 ) the wny of biographical or genetic inquiry, in which, taking advantage of the fact that Eliot is still
3 1 i \ 1 ~ ,
and
writes
ill t h e
ill mind.
FOOTNOTES
'Cf. Louis 'rectcr, "Scholnrshiy and tile Art of Criticisin," EL![, V (Scjlr. 1938).
17,-9); RCl\c \%'ellck, revicrv of GcolIrcy l'illotson's Esrnyr in fiitrcirrrt c ~ r dXrr,~l~rrh.
.!iqrl,.rrl IJhiio!osY, X L I (May, I Q H ) , 262: G. l~'i1s011Knigl~t, Sli~rl:rrpcnr,. LIIIATIC/jr,,v Enclisl~ Association Pan~plrlcr No. 66 (;lpril, IS);)), p. l o : Bcrn:trd C. Ilcyl.
.\.I:; L)rlrri,~grin l~rtfrrticr nttA Art Criticirrx (New IIavcn, 1943), pp. 66. I 13, 149.
' D i r l i o ~ l n r o/
~ li'orld Litrnlt~irc,cd. Joscilh
Slliplcy (Ncw Ydrl:, 11)24), 1>1. ;:G-j,)
'I. E. S.~ i l.t p ~ r I.1.h~
u,
NU\VCriticis111,'' in Crb;rilr,r n ~ r d:l~r~rrirrr( N c n Yo1 l . 1 9 : ~ )
'r.
rj1. 2-$-25,