This section contains 603 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
[Brooks's thesis in Modern Poetry and the Tradition] may be summed up as follows:
- The Augustan neo-classicists regarded metaphor only as a decoration of thought. This is false. In poetry, idea and image are one.
- The romantics ranked wit and fancy below imagination, intellect below emotion, and considered irony beneath their dignity. This is false. Wit and irony are essential elements in serious poetry.
- Both regarded poetry as an elevated way of expressing elevated beliefs. This is false. The truth or error of beliefs expressed in poetry is immaterial; indeed great poetry can be written without any beliefs at all.
- In returning to the metaphysical and ironic style of writing common in the seventeenth century, modern poets like Eliot, Yeats and Allen Tate are returning to the true tradition of En-
Cleanth Brooks 1906– glish poetry, from which the Augustans and romantics were heretical deviators.© Kelly Wise
Anyone who...
This section contains 603 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |