T.S. ELIOT, Tradition and the Individual Talent (1920)

Structure:

Eliot starts his essay beginning from the poet’s restrict field. Then it gets wider and wider: after the poet, there’s the work of art and then the time. Finally he returns on the poet, to stress and repeat his idea about him, in a deeper way.

<!--The contents:

Eliot starts from a specific idea: considering a poet not on his own, but in relation with the previous ones. Then he generalizes this point to the works of art, and finally to the concepts of past and present.

He finds necessary to pursue the past in each moment, that is the present is extremely linked to past to be such, as the past is past so this can be. Past, and so tradition too, it’s a values system. Some gets lost during the time’s flowing, and other not. But in another moment, they could change their position: the ones lost will come back, and the others will disappeared. So going on, there will always be this continuous value’s change due to the civilization. Narrowing this concept to new and old, it means that the new to be appreciated and suitable needs the old, in order to be compared to and to find out its particular characteristics.

Then, Eliot resumed the art field.

First he explains the art’s balance: whenever someone makes a new creation, this altered the previous order being in contact with the “old works”; but these works are necessary for the new one. And the balance will found again.

Furthermore, he concludes returning to the poet’s point: a poet must be conscious of this link with past in order to know both his work’s difficulties and responsibilities . Only behaving in this way he will survive.

      My opinion about:

I think that many times you don’t put so much attention on, but what are you without a past and a value’s system on which base yourself in? You are all your past, so what you’ve been until now. And as regards the values point is the same: some change, some stay and they’re continuously in movement.

Moreover, how can you appreciate or hate your actual situation/position/behavior/life if you don’t have a previous one to put yourself in relation to?