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The New Critics and the Language of Poetry University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Papers from the University Studies series (The University of Nebraska) University Studies of the University of Nebraska 3-1958 The New Critics and the Language of Poetry C.E. Pulos University of Nebraska - Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/univstudiespapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Pulos, C.E., "The New Critics and the Language of Poetry" (1958). Papers from the University Studies series (The University of Nebraska). 72. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/univstudiespapers/72 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Studies of the University of Nebraska at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Papers from the University Studies series (The University of Nebraska) by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. r: ~II/ t: ~ S Il ( ;:: N ~ B~ J I L G~Ar;V I J~~ 14 19p5 I I A. CI I~ ,§~ 1 .. ·. I..... !- ' C. E. PULOS The New Critics and the Language of Poetry new senes no. 19 University of Nebraska Studies march 1958 The New Critics and the Language of Poetry THE BOARD OF REGENTS J. G. ELUOTf CLARENCE E. SWANSON FRANK FOOTE CHARLES Y. THOMPSON B. N. GREENBERG, M. D. J. LEROY WELSH JOHN KENT SELLECK C. E. PULOS The New Critics and the language of Poetry university of nebraska studies : new series no. 19 published by the university at lincoln : march 1958 The University of Nebraska Senate Committee on Publication of University Studie.r JAMES E. MILLER, JR. JOHN C. WEAVER, chairman MERKHOBSON A. L. BENNETT MARSHALL JONES FRANK A. LUNDY R. L. KOEHL C. R. MC CONNELL &ard of University Publications K. O. BROADY F. A. LUNDY, chairman F. W. HOOVER EMILY SCHOSSBERGER, secretary RALSTON GRAHAM G. S. ROUND CHARLES S. MILLER JAMES LAKE Copyright 1958 by The University of Neb,.aska Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 58·62758 Printed in the United States by the University of Nebraska Printing Division Preface The present monograph is intended as an historical study ot a central aspect of the new criticism-its concern with language. It is hoped that such a study will be useful, not only in pro­ viding a needed summary of well known facts, but also in ex­ ploring the relatively neglected relationship between the im­ agists and the school of 1. A. Richards. Feeling that these two schools of criticism are best understood as different phases of the same basic movement, I include three imagists in my study of the new criticism-Ford Madox Ford, T. E. Hulme, and Ezra Pound. Previous writers on the new criticism have completely overlooked Ford. Furthermore, their interest in Hulme has emphasized his political and theological absolutism rather than his theory of poetic diction, while their interest in Pound has stressed not the nature of his critical theory but the extent of his influence on Eliot's poetry. Since my purpose was to explore the relationship between imagism and the criticism called "new," I did not see that any­ thing could be gained by discussing all of the many critics who derive from Eliot, Richards, and Empson-the three men who, I believe, may be said to have created the "new" school. Since the later members of this school are recognized as derivative, I selected one-Cleanth Brooks-to represent the whole group. It would, of course, be presumptuous of me to attempt to settle what is probably the main problem of the new criticism- v how the language of poetry differs from the language of philos­ ophy and science. This monogragh is an historical study, not an attempt at an original theory of poetic diction. But I can­ not help expressing a conviction-which is no doubt shared by many-that the new critics err in attempting to make absolute a distinction that can only be relative, and that their ambition leads to error because it lends an unnecessary narrowness rather than a necessary breadth to our conception of poetry. VI This study is the result of a Woods Foundation Fellowship which was granted to me for the year 1956-1957. Contents Preface ........ ................................................................................ v Introduction ........................................................................................ I. Ford Madox Ford..... .......................................... 8 II. T. E. Hulme ....... .................... .. ...... ............... ............... 15 III. Ezra Pound ... .................................. ........................................... 25 IV. T. S. Eliot.. ................................................................................ 36 V. I. A. Richards ............................................................................... 49 VI. William Empson ......................... 61 VII. Cleanth Brooks .. .. ..................... 72 Conclusion . ......................................... 83 Notes ....................................... 85 Index ............................... 91 ix Introduction NE of the most remarkable phenomena in the literary world of the present century has been the revolution in taste ac­ O complished by what has come to be known as "the new criticism." While 1. A. Richards is sometimes looked upon as the founder of this movement, I purpose to show that the imagists were its real founders. The imagists and the school of Richards may, of course, be treated as separate schools. But they may also be regarded, as I propose to regard them, as differen t phases of the same basic movement. To include the imagists under the new criticism may seem to complicate the task of defining it. This is no doubt so if we conceive of the new criticism as the common denominator in the ideas of a particular group of men. But if we seek such a common denomina­ tor we may find ourselves eliminating the most revealing aspects of our subject. We should have to eliminate, for instance, Richards' emotive-cognitive dichotomy on the ground that no other new critic endorses this particular distinction between poetry and science. Yet Richards' doctrine is certainly of the essence of our subject and cannot be eliminated. In other words, the new criticism is not a set of doctrines shared by a group of men. It is rather the evolution of a problem. One thing evident about this problem is that it has had to do with the nature of poetic diction. "We are witnessing in America today," wrote Allen Tate in 1942, "an exhaustive study of poetic 1 2 / C. E. Pulos language such as CrItICIsm has not attempted either here or in Europe in any previous age."! Tate's remark agrees with a more recent one by Cleanth Brooks: "The rise of modern criticism is part of a general intensification of the study of language and sym­ bolism."2 Their central concern with language, however, is not only acknowledged by the new critics themselves; it is also pointed out by their principal contemporary adversaries, the Neo-Aristote­ lians. Thus the general objection that R. S. Crane and Elder Olson raise against the new criticism is that it attempts to confine the in­ vestigation of poetry to the question of its medium alone.s In one sense of the word, every revolution in the theory of poetic diction is the same revolution: that is, it represents an effort to adapt the language of poetry to the current idiom. F. W. Bate­ son goes so far as to contend that linguistic changes constitute the only direct influence of an age upon its poetry.4 Such a view is un­ acceptable because it disregards what Austin Warren and Rene Wellek have called the dialectical relation between language and literature.:> Poetry influences the development of language-a fact that Bateson ignores. But Bateson is no doubt right in suggesting that an accumulation of changes in the spoken language tends to produce a new style of poetry and a new theory of poetic diction. Like previous revolutions in the theory of poetic diction, the new criticism, accordingly, marks a return to the ideal of "natural speech." Ford Madox Ford, in reaction against the "artificial" language of the Victorians, advised the modern poet to reject the whole Spenserian tradition and to model his style upon that of the best prose fiction. Ford's views had a direct influence on Pound's criticism, through which they reached Eliot. The adoption of the ideal of "natural speech" was largely responsible for the attempted dislodgement of Milton associated with Pound, Eliot, and F. R. Leavis. But the modern revolution in the theory of poetic diction in­ volves a good deal more than merely a return to "natural speech." Linguistic changes alone cannot fully account for it. The concern of modern criticism with language, as Cleanth Brooks cautions, must not be narrowly conceived: "Words open out into larger sym­ bolizations on all levels-for example, into archetypal symbol, ritual, and myth."6 In effect, therefore, the modern theory of poetic diction involves the profounder question of the nature and function of poetry. It involves, as Murray Krieger recently maintained,7 a new apology for poetry. The fundamental fact about the new criticism is not its opposi- The New Critics and the Language of Poetry / 3 tion to the "artificial" language of the Victorians, but its deep and unremitting awareness of the world of science. This awareness has both a negative and a positive aspect. On the one hand, the new critics exhibit an aversion to scientism-that is, to any fraternization between the organic world of art and the mechanistic world of sci­ ence; and
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