Tradition and the Individual Talent

The total surrender of the individual personality in the pursuit of maturity as a poet. By relinquishing the self, the poet creates an opening for a poem to emerge. Depersonalization is a conscious act that can only be performed after the poet knows who she is and knows her place in the literary tradition.

A transformative experience not inherent in the art but experienced through the art such as happiness, sadness, joy, or regret. The use of an emotion is not personal, not indicative of the poet’s experience of an event. Emotion is an essential component of transformative art along with feeling and artistic practice, and it may be created for the sake of the poem as a composite of the various combinations of the poet’s experience and knowledge.

A fleeting or ephemeral association or a response to details in a work of art. Feelings combine with emotions to form the “transforming catalyst” for a work of art. Like emotions, feelings are not personal to the poet and may be created for the effect of the poem or arise independently from the poet and the poem.

The perception that one may have about the essence of the poet or artist. This individual talent does not need to be unique to the writer. It is not necessarily a novelty. Individual talent may be a quality or characteristic from past or dead writers that the poet uses in a new way.