In five pages this essay by T.S. Eliot is analyzed in a consideration of the personality concept vs. the poetic emotion concept. There are no other sources listed.
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personality is being transmitted into the work. In the mind of T.S. Eliot, however, we find that he argues it is the elimination of personality that an artist is after.
Through their art, or poetry as is the primary focus of Eliots "Tradition and the Individual Talent," we note that he pits poetic emotion against the concept of personality. In
this essay he examines how to find the true source from which an artist can express themselves, they must somehow rid themselves of personality in order to be open to
poetic emotion. In the following paper we examine this assumption as it is presented in his essay. Poetic Emotion and Personality While Eliot presents us with many different examinations
of poetic and artistic approaches and theories throughout his essay, it is in paragraphs 15-17 of Section I of his essay that we see him defining what is meant by
the battle between poetic emotion and personality. In paragraph 15 he states that "The point of view which I am struggling to attack is perhaps related to the metaphysical theory
of the substantial unity of the soul: for my meaning is, that the poet has, not a personality to express, but a particular medium, which is only a medium and
not a personality, in which impressions and experiences combine in peculiar and unexpected ways. Impressions and experiences which are important for the man may take no place in the poetry,
and those which become important in the poetry may play quite a negligible part in the man, the personality" (Eliot). In this we can begin to see that what
Eliot is stating is that the expressions that the poet is seeking is that which transcends the personality. The personality may well be very rigid, or very dull. It is