ABSTRACT
This chapter compares Eliot’s opinion that “the poet is as impersonal as the scientist and poetry is a sort of inspired mathematics” with the Romantic view which argues that a poet is inseparable from his or her personal emotions and creative expression or poetry. The chapter further takes into discussion the views of Indian critics whose opinions stand in stark contrast to Eliot’s views while offering an elaborative discussion on aspects of Indian aesthetics. It talks about the views of Abhinavagupta whose analysis on poetic process further problematizes the impersonality in art. In the other section, the author offers a comparative analysis of “rasa” in Indian aesthetics with Eliot’s “objective correlative”. This section also offers Eliot’s analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and discusses why such an analysis would conflict Abhinavagupta’s understanding of the subject. Finally, the author concludes that it is illogical to search for an absolute impersonality and while an honest critic need not look out for “biographical data of the poet”, his appreciation would be incomplete without the realization of the distinguished personal spirit of the poet.
