Poetry VS Rhetoric Essay Example For Students

Poetry VS Rhetoric Essay Both have been subjected to criticism throughout history: Plato for instance, rejected poetry because, among other things, it did not provide true knowledge and similarly, certain modernist poets renounce rhetoric for being deceptive speech (Nicholls 2011). As the quote by Lehmann suggests, they reacted against their preceding traditions, be it philosophically or poetically. In the case of such modernists, this reaction would result in a completely new mode of writing: symbolism and its variations. This essay deals with the paradoxical rejection of rhetoric influences in early modernist poetry, as was reflected by William Butler Yeats and Ezra Pound at the time. I will tackle this issue by I) reflecting on which influences they renounced and it) how this came to be paradoxical. It should be noted however, that these comments are aimed at a certain period in the authors work, and do not necessarily hold true for their entire oeuvre. The poetic revolt against rhetoric originated in late 19th century France under symbolist works by Charles Baudelaire, Paul Overlain and others. Their criticism and works were introduced to poets in the United Kingdom Yeats) as well as in the United States (Pound) via Arthur Symons The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899), and as such, undermined the late Victorian mode which was steeped in rhetoric (Nicholls 2011), as well as the works by their contemporaries: the Georgian poets. Gerard Manley Hopkins for instance, saw the very aim of poetry to be rhetorical as it must be performed, according to him, it presupposes the need for an audience. Symons main intent was to identify and reveal how French poets depicted unseen reality, how they made the soul of things visible (Symons 1958). Take eloquence, and wring its neck, as Overlain had proposed, or rather ordered, and had proven to be possible: the words depicted and Visible are very much in place here, as Versailles main strategy of avoiding rhetoric was to be absolutely sincere, to express exactly what he saw As if by accident (Symons 1958). From this, we may explain the following quotes by Yeats and Symons: We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry. Unlike the rhetoricians, who get a confident voice from remembering the crowd they have won or may win, we sing amid our uncertainty. (William Butler Yeats) In the devotion in rhetoric to either beauty or truth, there is a certain consciousness of an audience, of an external Judgment: Poetry If eye Ben -Degrees an r . 8 The rhetoric would convince, be admired. It is the very essence of poet unconscious of anything between its own moment of flight and the which it will never attain. (Symons 1958) We can derive two main between rhetoric and poetry from these words: Firstly, rhetoric SSH public life: it springs from quarrel with others and reflects conscious audience. Poetry on the other hand, has no affiliation to public life early with ourselves and is essentially unconscious, as if by acacia difference results from this, namely that rhetoric may be deceptive the crowd, it takes into account external Judgment. Poetry however deceptive: it must be absolutely sincere. This apparent dichotomy two main rhetoric influences which early modernist poets such as wanted to avoid: I) They did not write their poetry for the masses renounced all which was abstract and over-determined. By doing with previous poetic traditions which were rooted in the art of drew unimportant matter so as to fool the audience for the time being. Keller 2014)) According to Symons (1958), symbolism was an attempt literature, to evade the old bondage of rhetoric, the old bondage of Similarly, Yeats stated that poetry is the poets business of self-expo nothing more. Compare the changing attitudes/views on war between 'The Going of the Battery', 'The Send-off' and 'Joining the Colours' EssayWhen I returned to London from Ireland, I had a young man go over my work with me to eliminate the abstract. This was an American Poet, Ezra Pound. The whole movement of poetry is toward pictures, sensuous images, away from rhetoric, from the abstract, toward humility. But I fear I am now becoming rhetoric have been driven into Irish public life- how can I avoid rhetoric? It thus seems that whereas Yeats and Pound mostly succeeded in eliminating the abstract as well as rating for an audience in a lesser extent, they could not deal with the actual need for an audience, and as such, rhetoric caught up with them. We may however, conclude that the introductory quote by Lehmann generally holds true for their word Yeats and Pound both parted from existing poetic tradition, they did not borrow, b knocked down established boundaries. The paradoxical poetic rejection of rhetoric influence during early modernism then rather exists in the fact that, to show their non-rhetoric works , they seemingly inevitably relied on some of its traits. As phrase y Keller (2014): meats and Pounds efforts to promote poetry- and Poetry- were eve bit as social and jussive in nature as those tactics they assigned to rhetoric. In summary, this essay has shown the following: Firstly, Yeats and Pound set off against their predecessors rhetorical poetry as well as against contemporary Georgian poet via symbolism on the one hand, and Images on the other. They did this via the elimination of the abstract as well as by refuting exteriorly. Secondly, this lead to a general paradox of audience: in an attempt to move away from p oetry written for audiences (cuff. Prior rhetoric traditions), Yeats Pound were unable to escape the need for an audience in order to show their wish for change.