I wonder whether a pertinent distinction could be made between and allusion The two may somewhat overlap or indeed the same quotation may serve borrowing. both purposes. In the line taken from Mallarmé, for example [“To purify the dialect of the tribe”], my direct intention was merely to borrow. It seemed to me a very happy translation of his line and it gave me exactly the words that I wanted to say. The secondary purpose in this case is the allusion. If readers recognize the source, so much the better. One might be able to find other quotations of which the primary purpose is allusion and borrowing the secondary. (quoted 1021) PTSE 1 In a letter written in 1960, he similarly affirmed as important distinction” the difference “an between borrowing” and borrowing” (quoted 734). However, just PTSE 1 “straight “allusive as he asserted in his Turnbull lectures that is as well as imagery” (quoted “poetry incantation 913), so his stress on the purposive nature of allusion, above, needs to be modified by PTSE 1 an additional awareness of the degree to which and perhaps at its most powerfully resonant – it is for Eliot less a matter of authorial choice, than of being chosen; less a matter of – conscious remembering than of involuntary recall. have a way of sticking in the “Things memory” (quoted 732) he acknowledged, and lines could lodge themselves PTSE 1 independently of any intention to remember: tone, a few lines and phrases, which re-echo “a in the mind for a lifetime;” words linger and echo in the mind;” phrase burns itself “their “the in” (quoted 840, 909, 1012). This third level of allusion he represented by the PTSE 1 metaphor of and used to explain his own repeated evocations (“[I] have “saturation,” borrowed it twice”) of a passage from suggest that what gives it such Bussy d’Ambois: “I intensity as it has in each case is its saturation (...) with feelings too obscure for the authors even to know quite what they were” (UPUC 147-8). As opposed to the purposive nature of some of his allusive practice, this to define a necessary ignorance; phrases which never desert the memory” (quoted PTSE 1 “flashing
I wonder whether a pertinent distinction could be made between allusion and borrowing. The two may somewhat overlap or indeed the same quotation may serve both purposes. In the line taken from Mallarmé, for example [“To purify the dialect of the tribe”], my direct intention was merely to borrow. It seemed to me a very happy translation of his line and it gave me exactly the words that I wanted to say. The secondary purpose in this case is the allusion. If readers recognize the source, so much the better. One might be able to find other quotations of which the primary purpose is allusion and borrowing the secondary. (quoted PTSE 1 1021) In a letter written in 1960, he similarly affirmed as “an important distinction” the difference between “straight borrowing” and “allusive borrowing” (quoted PTSE 1 734). However, just as he asserted in his Turnbull lectures that “poetry is incantation as well as imagery” (quoted PTSE 1 913), so his stress on the purposive nature of allusion, above, needs to be modified by an additional awareness of the degree to which – and perhaps at its most powerfully resonant – it is for Eliot less a matter of authorial choice, than of being chosen; less a matter of conscious remembering than of involuntary recall. “Things have a way of sticking in the memory” (quoted PTSE 1 732) he acknowledged, and lines could lodge themselves independently of any intention to remember: “a tone, a few lines and phrases, which re-echo in the mind for a lifetime;” “their words linger and echo in the mind;” “the phrase burns itself in” (quoted PTSE 1 840, 909, 1012). This third level of allusion he represented by the metaphor of “saturation,” and used to explain his own repeated evocations (“[I] have borrowed it twice”) of a passage from Bussy d’Ambois: “I suggest that what gives it such intensity as it has in each case is its saturation (...) with feelings too obscure for the authors even to know quite what they were” (UPUC 147-8). As opposed to the purposive nature of some of his allusive practice, this to define a necessary ignorance; “flashing phrases which never desert the memory” (quoted PTSE 1
Re_cantationreworked.docx