Keats Dickinson, Keats and Eliot

Keats

Dickinson, Keats and Eliot Build a Bridge

There is a tendency in certain academic disciplines to encamp either on the side of tradition or modernity. In the sciences, the constant thrust toward evolution suggests a certain predilection for modernization. In history, the preservation of tradition is of the utmost importance if we are to appreciate its impact on the present. However, perhaps poetry is a discipline well suited to the argument that such clear lines of distinction need not necessarily be drawn. This may be the best context through which to examine the claim by writer Octavio Paz that "between tradition and modernity there is a bridge."

This is an idea which is well exemplified in well-loved poetic works by Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot and John Keats.

For instance, Emily Dickinson's 1862 piece, #303, also sometimes referred to as "The Soul Selects Her Own Society," is a perfect demonstration of how the poet must embrace tradition and modernity at once. In a piece that characterizes love or friendship as something singular, exclusive and, to an extent, even limiting, Dickinson borrows heavily from the rhyming couplet styles that occupy the works of Shakespeare. Known to be one of the poet's great influences, his stamp is on the angular rhyming scheme seen in this particular piece. For instance, in the first stanza, Dickinson writes,

"The soul selects her own society / Then shuts the door; / on her divine majority /

Obtrude no more."

This poetic phrasing could fit inconspicuously into a piece of counsel offered by one of Shakespeare's more morose jesters. In this way, the work fits within a certain classical poetic tradition. Simultaneously though, its theme and its context suggest a piece that is progressive in nature. First and foremost is the very fact that it was produced by a poetess in the middle of the 19th century. Literature being largely dominated by men, Dickinson would have no choice but to straddle a certain line toward modernity even if her work was largely traditional. Add to this equation a slant toward individuality which permeates #303, and Dickinson also betrays a certain inherently American ideological thrust. The concept of individuality which would be quite critical to the reclusive Dickinson, would evolve as an ideal just as America itself moved toward modernization.

Another poem which exhibits this counterbalance, Keats' 1819 Ode to a Nightingale employs one of the most decidedly traditional forms to convey his work. A devastating mediation on the mortality of man, Keats' poem utilizes the classic English template of the Ode to at once extol the virtues of the nightingale's immortal song and to lament that man's lot is not so fortunate.

Keats utilizes the irregular scheme and iambic pacing common to the form and utilizes them in much the same way as traditional English poets, to glorify a specific subject. However, in line with the Paz prompt at the outset of this discussion, Keats merely uses this tradition as a bridge on which to extend toward motivation on behalf of the evolving form. The subject matter is where this work takes a step toward modernity. The manner in which Keats describes the reality of dying is startling for its time primarily because it lacks religiosity. In describing death, the poet tells, "where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies; / Where but to think is to be full of sorrow / and leaden-eyed despairs; / Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, / or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow."

The notion of discussing death from a decidedly humanistic rather than spiritual perspective is more daring and innovative than perhaps we are won't to give credit for. It is remarkable that the poet would invert a steadfastly traditional form of verse in order to express himself somewhat radically.

A similar observation may be made about T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." In fact, Eliot's work is specifically recognized as spearheading a modernist movement. What distinguished modernity as a literary movement was its ambition toward self-exploration, where an embrace of more emotional, revealing and vulnerable work would mark an innovative step forward. Indeed, the poet uses Prufrock in order to reveal a vulnerable side of himself to an audience which it appears he intended to be the entire human race.