George Watson writes about Eliot: ―Eliot made English criticism look different, but not in a simple sense.
He offered it a new range of rhetorical possibilities, confirmed it in its increasing contempt for historical
process, and yet reshaped its notion of period by a handful of brilliant institutions.‖ ―Tradition and the
Individual Talent‖ was originally published across two instalments of the ‗Egoist‘ in 1919 and later, in 1920,
became part of T.S. Eliot‘s full length book of essays on poetry and criticism, ‗The Sacred
Wood‘. “Tradition and the Individual Talent” expresses Eliot‘s idea about the concept of ‘tradition’ and the
individual or unique talent of someone and also expresses the relationship between the ‘tradition’ and the
‘individual talent’ and their interdependence on each other.
The essay is divided into three parts. The first part gives us Eliot‘s concept of tradition, and in the second
part is developed his theory of the impersonality of poetry. The short, third part is in the nature of a
conclusion, or summing up of the whole discussion. Eliot begins the essay by pointing out that the word
‗tradition‘ is generally regarded as a word of censure. It is a word disagreeable to the English ears. When the
English praise a poet, they praise him for those-aspects of his work which are ‗individual‘ and original. This
undue stress on individuality shows that the English have an uncritical turn of mind. Eliot seems quite in
favour of such ‗criticality‘. He thinks ―criticism is as inevitable as breathing‖. Then he talks about tradition.
The Englishmen, while analysing the poet, admire those aspects which are different from the poet‘s
predecessors. Then Eliot talks about tradition and ‗historical sense‘. He says that if the form of tradition
remained only in blind adherence of dead people or ancestors, then it would be lost or such tradition should
be destroyed. He says: ―Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you
want it you must obtain it by great labour. It involves in the first place, the historical sense.
George Watson writes about Eliot: ―Eliot made English criticism look different, but not in a simple sense.
He offered it a new range of rhetorical possibilities, confirmed it in its increasing contempt for historical
process, and yet reshaped its notion of period by a handful of brilliant institutions. ―Tradition and the
Individual Talent‖ was originally published across two instalments of the ‗Egoist‘ in 1919 and later, in 1920,
became part of T.S. Eliot‘s full length book of essays on poetry and criticism, ‗The Sacred
Wood‘. “Tradition and the Individual Talent” expresses Eliot‘s idea about the concept of ‘tradition’ and the
individual or unique talent of someone and also expresses the relationship between the ‘tradition’ and the
‘individual talent’ and their interdependence on each other.
The essay is divided into three parts. The first part gives us Eliot‘s concept of tradition, and in the second
part is developed his theory of the impersonality of poetry. The short, third part is in the nature of a
conclusion, or summing up of the whole discussion. Eliot begins the essay by pointing out that the word
‗tradition‘ is generally regarded as a word of censure. It is a word disagreeable to the English ears. When the
English praise a poet, they praise him for those-aspects of his work which are ‗individual‘ and original. This
undue stress on individuality shows that the English have an uncritical turn of mind. Eliot seems quite in
favour of such ‗criticality‘. He thinks ―criticism is as inevitable as breathing‖. Then he talks about tradition.
The Englishmen, while analysing the poet, admire those aspects which are different from the poet‘s
predecessors. Then Eliot talks about tradition and ‗historical sense‘. He says that if the form of tradition
remained only in blind adherence of dead people or ancestors, then it would be lost or such tradition should
be destroyed. He says: ―Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you
want it you must obtain it by great labour. It involves in the first place, the historical sense.