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Traditional Poet
The dead poets are the traditional poet’s ancestors. Many people tend to view the dead poets as truly dead in the sense that they should not be emulated in the present. Instead of looking for signs of the dead poet’s immortality in contemporary poetry, people look instead for marks of the new poet’s difference from the dead poet. Eliot claims not only that the dead poets should be revered in the present, but also that their poetry is alive in contemporary poetry. Therefore, the dead poets guide contemporary poetry. In discussing his Impersonal Theory, Eliot claims that contemporary poets reuse feelings and experiences that the dead poets used, combining them in new ways to produce new effects. In order to be a successful and traditional poet, one must develop a “consciousness of the past” and carry on the conversation, so to speak, of the dead poets as if they were still alive.
Dead Poet Quotes in Tradition and the Individual Talent
The Tradition and the Individual Talent quotes below are all either spoken by Dead Poet or refer to Dead Poet. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 1 Quotes
We endeavor to find something that can be isolated in order to be enjoyed. Whereas if we approach a poet without this prejudice we shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously.
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To conform merely would be for the new work not really to conform at all; it would not be new, and would therefore not be a work of art. And we do not quite say that the new is more valuable because it fits in; but its fitting in is a test of its value.
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But the difference between the present and the past is that the conscious present is an awareness of the past in a way and to an extent which the past’s awareness of itself cannot show.
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Dead Poet Character Timeline in Tradition and the Individual Talent
The timeline below shows where the character Dead Poet appears in Tradition and the Individual Talent. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1
...points out that the English never use the word “tradition” to praise either living or dead writers . Every group of people has its own distinct way of criticizing. Every group is...
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...the ones that emulate ancestors. In these parts where readers find the immortality of the dead poets , the current poet actually appears to be individual and mature.
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...can only appreciate a poet when comparing and contrasting them historically and aesthetically to the dead poets . This conforming of a poet’s work to the past goes both ways: when new...
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