"The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all"
- T. S. Eliot
About this Quote
T.S. Eliot's quote explores the detailed relationship between poetry, feelings, and creativity. At its core, the statement recommends that poetry is not always about discovering new feelings or creating extraordinary sensations. Instead, the poet's craft depends on the ability to take familiar, daily emotions and transform them into something extensive and exceptional through poetic expression.
Eliot suggests that feelings themselves are not unique; all of us experience love, worry, pleasure, sorrow, and myriad other sensations in comparable methods. These are universal human experiences that connect us. However, what distinguishes the poet is the ability to engage with these prevalent emotions and control them through the art of language to convey deeper, frequently more complex feelings that go beyond ordinary emotional experiences. In essence, emotion acts as the raw product, whereas poetry is the crafted expression that elevates and deepens the psychological experience.
When Eliot discuss expressing "feelings which are not in real feelings at all," he discuss the concept that poetry can stimulate sensations or concepts that surpass fundamental psychological understanding. These are the subtle subtleties, the intangible layers of human experience and believed that are often difficult to articulate through direct emotional description. Through metaphor, rhythm, images, and other poetic gadgets, a poet can stimulate a sense of secret, marvel, self-questioning, or enlightenment that might not be straight connected to a called emotion but resonates deeply with readers.
Eliot's viewpoint locations emphasis on the transformative power of poetry. More than simply reflecting emotions, poetry reconfigures them, making the familiar unknown and prompting readers to reassess what they believed they comprehended about their sensations. This transformative procedure not only enriches the reading experience however also elevates poetry to a world where it interacts the inexpressible parts of human presence, bridging the space between raw emotion and sublime expression.
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