An Active Mind on an Active Mind

There is no question: T. S. Eliot is an intellectual poet. His essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent," exposits an amount of detailed thought given to poetry (and art, generally) which I imagine is given by few others--including both those who practice art and those who don't. I find his opinion on the role of tradition (culture, country, canon, etcetera) and the past in art/poetry appreciable, especially as a young artist/poet myself, because I find that it is far too common that young, "new" artists, as Eliot puts it, will put too much emphasis on "those aspects of his work in which he least resembles anyone else." I don't know that I agree with Eliots points on this topic fully, but I agree that it is far too easy to assume that breaking away from tradition, being fully unique and fully "individual," is the only way to make "good" art. My favorite quote in this portion of the essay:

He [the poet, artist] must be quite aware of the fact that art never improves, but that the material of art is never quite the same.

In regard to the second portion of his essay, I find that I almost completely disagree with him. Perhaps I am an "immature poet," as I'm sure Eliot would find, but I am much opposed to New Criticism in the way that I don't believe that art can ever be fully separated from its artist. I don't believe that any piece that one with "emotion" and "personality" puts work into can remain untouched or unphased by that person. The mere fact that Eliot has this opinion changes the way his poetry is formed, in a way that one with a different feeling on the matter might not. The fact is that pieces of art are not unprejudiced: an artist always puts himself into his work, whether he intends to or not. The creation of art itself is something that only a person with a creative or artistic temperament would do; and every poem's word choice, every paintings brushstroke, every film's camera angle, is a direct result of the conscious effort of a specific human being with specific characteristics and dispositions.