poetry: critics and their views on poetry

a clean, age-wise, exam-oriented document with major critics + their exact views on poetry, perfectly structured for UGC NET / SET / university answers.

Age-wise Critics And Views On Poetry (exam-oriented)

poetry: critics and their vies on poetry

Classical Age (Greek & Roman)

Plato (427–347 BCE)

• Poetry is imitative (mimesis) and thrice removed from truth.

• Poets appeal to emotions, not reason → dangerous for the ideal state.

• Proposed banishment of poets from the Republic.

Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

• Poetry is imitation of action, but more philosophical than history.

• Introduced Tragedy, Plot (mythos) as the soul of tragedy.

• Concept of Catharsis (purgation of pity and fear).

• Defended poetry against Plato.

Horace (65–8 BCE)

• Poetry should teach and delight (dulce et utile).

• Emphasized decorum, unity, and craftsmanship.

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Medieval Age

St. Augustine

• Poetry must serve Christian morality.

• Suspicious of pagan poetic pleasure.

Dante (1265–1321)

• Poetry as allegory with moral and spiritual meanings.

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Renaissance / Elizabethan Age

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

• An Apology for Poetry

• Poetry is superior to history and philosophy.

• Poet creates a golden world, not a brazen one.

• Poet teaches virtue through delight.

Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

• Favoured classical rules, learning, and discipline.

• Poetry should be artificial and controlled.

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Neoclassical Age (Restoration & 18th Century)

John Dryden (1631–1700)

• Poetry is a just and lively image of nature.

• Advocated balance between classical rules and freedom.

• Supported heroic couplet.

Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

• Essay on Criticism

• Follow nature and ancients.

• Emphasized wit, order, harmony, and reason.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)

• Poetry mirrors general human nature.

• Criticized excessive fancy.

• Supported moral purpose of literature.

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Romantic Age

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

• Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.

• Originates from emotion recollected in tranquillity.

• Language of common men.

S. T. Coleridge (1772–1834)

• Distinguished imagination (primary & secondary) from fancy.

• Poetry unifies opposites.

• Defended Wordsworth but refined his theory.

P. B. Shelley (1792–1822)

• Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

• Poetry expands imagination and moral good.

John Keats (1795–1821)

• Concept of Negative Capability.

• Beauty and truth are central to poetry.

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Victorian Age

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)

• Poetry is a criticism of life.

• Must possess high seriousness.

• Introduced touchstone method.

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Modern Age (20th Century)

T. S. Eliot (1888–1965)

• Poetry is impersonal.

• Theory of Tradition and Individual Talent.

• Objective Correlative.

I. A. Richards

• Poetry balances emotions.

• Introduced practical criticism.

F. R. Leavis

• Moral seriousness and great tradition.

• Literature as moral engagement.

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Structuralism & Post-Structuralism

Roman Jakobson

• Focus on poetic function of language.

Roland Barthes

• Death of the Author.

• Meaning lies with the reader.

Jacques Derrida

• Deconstruction.

• Instability of meaning.

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Indian Literary Critics

Bharata (Natyashastra)

• Rasa theory: essence of poetry is aesthetic pleasure.

Anandavardhana

• Dhvani (suggestion) is the soul of poetry.

Abhinavagupta

• Expanded Rasa-Dhvani theory.

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One-Line Exam Revision

• Plato → Poetry is dangerous imitation

• Aristotle → Catharsis

• Sidney → Golden world

• Wordsworth → Emotion recollected in tranquillity

• Coleridge → Imagination vs Fancy

• Arnold → Criticism of life

• Eliot → Impersonality of poetry

• Bharata → Rasa