 |
 |
Ken/Rickard, To me Eliot's poetry is replete with 'objective correlatives', i.e. with concrete images that signify much more than their literal meaning, to convey certain deep and abstract ideas/emotions, more or less a synonym for symbols/metaphors. Here are a few instances from the 'Love Song': a patient etherized upon a table; / The yellow fog / the butt-ends of my days and ways/ a pair of ragged claws / the mermaids / the chambers of the sea / sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown My problem arose when, at this list, I was stopped in my tracks, reprimanded for an indiscriminate use of 'objective correlative' for Eliot's images, reminding me what exactly Eliot meant by it: "the only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an 'objective correlative'; in other words a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked." I brought up this topic for discussion because I believe that Eliot's notion of 'objective correlative' is much more comprehensive and all-inclusive, that it does not preclude the common usage that we associate with an 'objective correlative'. I presume that Eliot's aforementioned enunciation was made specifically in the context of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'. CR ________________________________ From: Rickard Parker <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 5:45 PM Subject: Re: Objective Correlative in Eliot's Poetry (was Re: OT - Chapel Perilous) Yes. Please give us an example of what you think is an example of an O.C. that Eliot may not have intended. On Wed, 2 May 2012 16:10:04 -0400, Ken Armstrong <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Interesting. What then is your notion of it? > > > > >On May 2, 2012, at 3:30 PM, Chokh Raj <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> Also, may we not use the term 'objective correlative' with regard to Eliot's poetry >> without being bound by Eliot's specific notion of it? >> >> IMHO, we may. >> >> CR >> >> From: Chokh Raj <[log in to unmask]>; >> To: <[log in to unmask]>; >> Subject: Re: OT - Chapel Perilous >> Sent: Wed, May 2, 2012 7:02:48 PM >> >> An interesting remark, Peter. It prompts me to raise a query. >> In deciphering Eliot's poetry, are we bound by Eliot's notion of 'objective correlative'? >> IMHO, a reader is free to view Eliot's poetry in the light of what we generally mean by >> objective correlative rather than be guided solely by Eliot's criterion of it. >> >> Regards, >> CR >> >> >> From: Peter Montgomery <[log in to unmask]> >> To: [log in to unmask] >> Sent: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 2:45 AM >> Subject: Re: OT - Chapel Perilous >> >> Sounds to me like we're creeping closer and closer to the objective correlative. >> >> Cheers, >> Peter >> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rickard Parker" <[log in to unmask]> >> >> > Why, for all of us, out of all that we have heard, seen, felt, in a >> > lifetime, do certain images recur, charged with emotion, rather than others? >> > The song of one bird, the leap of one fish, at a particular place and time, >> > the scent of one flower, an old woman on a German mountain path, six >> > ruffians seen through an open window playing cards at night at a small >> > French railway junction where there was a water-mill: such memories may have >> > symbolic value, but of what we cannot tell, for they come to represent the >> > depths of feeling into which we cannot peer. We might just as well ask why, >> > when we try to recall visually some period in the past, we find in our >> > memory just the few meagre arbitrarily chosen set of snapshots that we do >> > find there, the faded poor souvenirs of passionate moments. >> > TSE >> >