'Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.'
This is one example of Eliot's musings on poetry. He comments on the nature of the poet and what poetry is. Calling it 'an escape from emotion' and 'an escape from personality', Eliot is possibly highlighting the reality of the inner workings of the poet compared to popular perceptions of poetry as being driven by emotion and personal experience.
The existing order is complete before the new work arrives; for order to persist after the supervention of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered.
In this quote, Eliot discusses the idea of the 'Canon', the group of work considered to contain the most important works of literature in that language. Eliot is arguing that the canon is 'ever so slightly, altered' with each new play, poem or novel that is written, shaping it in a different way for the future.
Hamlet (the man) is dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible, because it is in excess of the facts as they appear.
This quote is an example of Eliot's discussion of characters, in this case Shakespeare's most famous protagonist, Hamlet. Separating '(the man)' from '(the play)', Eliot reveals his personal thoughts about the Danish prince, permitting us a more 3D view of his career as writer and critic.
'The method is to take a well-known poem [...] without reference to the author or to his other work, analyse it stanza by stanza and line by line, and extract, squeeze, tease, press every drop of meaning out of it that one can.'
This quote is taken from 'The Frontiers of Criticism', an essay that was originally delivered as a lecture by T.S. Eliot at the University in Minnesota in 1956. In it, he tackles the thorny issue of the value of literary criticism and how it can best serve its readers. This quote refers to the method of criticism known as 'close reading', where all context is ignored to focus solely on the poem in front of you, where, as he says you 'analyse it stanza by stanza and line by line', drawing out intricacies and the individual elements that make up the whole text. 'Close reading' is a controversial form of criticism, loved by some and criticized by many others who say that it is necessary to have an idea of the author and his or her writing to comment meaningfully on a text.
