Tradition and the Individual Talent

“Tradition and the Individual Talent” is regarded as one of the most influential literary essays of the 20th century. Its persuasive, confident tone invites the reader to reconsider the definitions of tradition, time, poetry, and artist. Eliot’s theories and principles reflect and informed the Modernist movement of his time while also laying the foundation for the New Criticism.

Eliot wrote this essay shortly after the end of World War I. Many writers of the time were disillusioned by the war and sought meaning in personal experience rather than social and political life. Eliot’s arguments take aim at this emphasis on the individual artist’s emotions and feelings as the center of poetry. “Tradition and the Individual Talent” suggests a new approach to criticism, giving primacy to tradition and the past. In doing so, Eliot invites readers to reconsider their assumptions about art and the nature of time. Through parallel considerations of tradition and individuality, the poet and the poem, the past and the present, and emotions and artistic process, Eliot fixes the necessity of each concept to the other without resolving the tensions between them.

Though the essay touches on theoretical ideals, it is intended to be a practical guide for poets and artists of any type. Eliot writes in a tone that is both personal and authoritative. He uses the first person “I” and refers to the reader as “you,” creating an informal register similar to personal correspondence or conversation. The poet is also a key figure in the essay but in a theoretical sense rather than as an individual. This figure is always addressed in the third person.

The essay seems conscious of its larger significance. At the end of Part 2, Eliot alludes to Romantic poet William Wordsworth’s thoughts on poetry and strongly rejects them. Eliot’s criticism of Wordsworth suggests that he intends “Traditional and the Individual Talent” to be a manifesto on criticism and poetry that will replace Wordsworth’s ideas for his and future generations of writers. Eliot positions himself as Wordsworth’s successor—the next great poet/critic in English.

Wordsworth defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity [sic]” (Wordsworth, William. “Observations Prefixed to Lyrical Ballads.” 1802. Poetry Foundation, 2009). Eliot’s definition parallels Wordsworth’s but, in the process, critiques Romantic ideals. He writes:

[Poetry] is neither emotion, nor recollection, nor, without distortion of meaning, tranquility. […] Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality (42).

For Wordsworth and other Romantics, the poem emerges from individual experience. For Eliot and other Modernists, mature poetry transcends the poet’s personality and experience.