his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional. And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his contemporaneity”. What does historical sense do? It thus makes a writer fully conscious of : his own generation, his place in the present, his relationship with the writers of the past. Thus the sense of tradition implies . . . a recognition of the continuity of literature, a critical judgment as to which of the writers of the past continue to be significant in the present, and a knowledge of these significant writers obtained through painstaking effort. The value of a writer No writer has his value and significance in isolation: poet, no artist of any art, has his “No complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and the artists.” A poet has value if he conforms or fits in to the tradition; must set him, for contrast and “you comparison, among the dead”, but this is not a one-sided process and is not passive Tradition as a dynamic concept Tradition or the past is not static; when a new” work of art is created something “really simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it”. “happens The order’ among monuments” is by the introduction of the new “ideal “existing “modified work of art among them” Conformity between the old and the new happens when whole existing order” is, “the “if ever so slightly, altered” in terms of relations, proportions, values of each work of art “the toward the whole” Therefore past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by “the the past”. The poet is thus judged by standards of the past” but not as good or bad, right or wrong, “the but will be measured against each other by comparison; this is conformity or fitting in. The relationship of the poet to the past To the poet the past is not
his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional. And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his contemporaneity”. What does historical sense do? It thus makes a writer fully conscious of : his own generation, his place in the present, his relationship with the writers of the past. Thus the sense of tradition implies . . . a recognition of the continuity of literature, a critical judgment as to which of the writers of the past continue to be significant in the present, and a knowledge of these significant writers obtained through painstaking effort. The value of a writer No writer has his value and significance in isolation: “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and the artists.” A poet has value if he conforms or fits in to the tradition; “you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead”, but this is not a one-sided process and is not passive Tradition as a dynamic concept Tradition or the past is not static; when a “really new” work of art is created something “happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it”. The “ideal order’ among “existing monuments” is “modified by the introduction of the new work of art among them” Conformity between the old and the new happens when “the whole existing order” is, “if ever so slightly, altered” in terms of “the relations, proportions, values of each work of art toward the whole” Therefore “the past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past”. The poet is thus judged by “the standards of the past” but not as good or bad, right or wrong, but will be measured against each other by comparison; this is conformity or fitting in. The relationship of the poet to the past To the poet the past is not
tradition_and_individual_talent.docx