A Portrait of a Poet’s Mind: Eliot's Tradition and the Individual Talent

Abstract

I attempt to uncover the intrinsic dynamics that stand behind literary production. Hence my emphasis on T. S. Eliot, his literary production and understanding of poetics. This article focuses on Eliot’s understanding of the task of the poet as a sort of literary recycler using anything at hand for his own end to create a work of art. The artist is neither the originator of his writing nor has he a complete authority over it. Nevertheless, the poet has to have a sense of history and tradition and the talent to employ several techniques like myth and allusion.