The Intentional Fallacy Author(s): W. K. Wimsatt Jr. and M. C. Beardsley Source: The Sewanee Review, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1946), pp. 468-488 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27537676 Accessed: 15/07/2010 09:38 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhup. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected].
The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Sewanee Review.
http://www.jstor.org
THE By
W.
FALLACY
INTENTIONAL
K. WIMSATT,
and
JR.
M.
C.
BEARDSLEY
owns with toil he wrote the following scenes; if they're ne'er spare him for his pains: naught, But, no him the more; have commiseration Damn on mature deliberation. For dullness to William Congreve, Prologue The Way of the World He
THE
claim judgment cussions, between
Heresy,
of
the
has
been
notably Professors
author's
"intention"
challenged in the debate
if this
subject a short
claim
like essays and Kenyon and most of its romantic
to any widespread questioning. article entitled "Intention" for raised
entitled
the
critic's
recent
dis
Personal
The
and Tillyard, and at least im those in the "Symposiums" of But it seems doubt Reviews.1
Lewis
in periodical plicitly 1940 in the Southern ful
the
upon in a number of
issue but were
corollaries
The
present a Dictionary2 to pursue unable
are
as yet in writers, of literary its implica intention of
criticism, or tions at any length. We that the design argued nor desirable the author as a standard is neither available
for
the success of a work of literary judging art, and it seems to us that this is a principle some differences which into in goes deep the history of critical attitudes. It is a principle which accepted or to the of classical "imitation" points rejected polar opposites and
romantic
inspiration, ship, and
many
specific
truths
about
and
scholar biography, literary history trends of contemporary poetry, especially a There is hardly of literary criticism problem
authenticity, about some
its allusiveness.
in which
It entails
expression.
the critic's approach will not be qualified by his view
of "intention." as we "Intention," in a formula intended acceptance.
"In
order
shall which
use
the
more
to judge
to what he term, corresponds or less has had wide explicitly the poet's performance, we must
WIMSATT
know
what
he
intended."
thor's mind. titude
Intention
We
or is design in the au plan at for the author's affinities
Intention has
469
BEARDSLEY
obvious
the way he felt, what made his work, him write. a sum discussion with series of propositions
toward
our
begin and
marized
AND
to a degree
abstracted
if not truistic. matic, 1. A poem does not come as Professor words of a poem,
where
into
seem
they
existence
accident.
by
come
has
Stoll
to us axio
The out
of remarked, a head, not out of a hat. to insist on the Yet intellect designing as a cause of a poem or intention as a is not to grant the design standard.
must
ask how
a critic
about
intention.
How
2. One question
to get an answer to the expects is he to find out what the poet
tried to do? If the poet succeeded in doing it, then the poem itself he was trying to do. the poem is not adequate the poem?for outside evidence shows what then
come
in the poem.
effective
says an eminent
mind,"
itself; repudiates ment of the creative
of an
"Only
intention
one
that did
caveat must
in a moment
intentionalist3
not
be in
be borne when
his
the
at the mo be judged poet's aim must that is to say, by the art of the poem
"the
ory
if the poet did not succeed, and the critic must go evidence, And
act,
itself." a poem
3. Judging One demands that we mean
that
infer
but be."
its medium no excuse
the A
is like
it work.
can be only it isy simply
poem
inquiring
a
or a machine. pudding an artifact works because
of an artificer.
intention
is words?yet for
judging It is only
what
part
"A
poem
should
not
its meaning?since through sense that we have in the is, is intended
or meant.4
is a feat of style by which a complex of meaning
Poetry
is handled all
at once.
succeeds because all or most of what is said or Poetry is what is irrelevant has been excluded, like implied relevant; from and from re In this lumps pudding "bugs" machinery.
spect
poetry
differs
from
practical
messages,
which
are
success
470
THE
INTENTIONAL
FALLACY
are if we infer the intention. correctly They only more abstract than poetry. of a poem may 4. The meaning be a personal one, in certainly a or state of soul the sense that a poem expresses personality an than, a physical like rather But even a short apple. object if and
ful
lyric poem
the response to a situation
is dramatic,
abstractly conceived) to impute We the ought ized). to the dramatic poem immediately at all, only by a biographical 5. If there is any sense his original better achieved tautological, now has done same.) "He's rustic For
sense
that
he
act of in which intention, intended
of a speaker (no matter and
thoughts
and speaker, inference. an author, it is only to write
how (no matter how universal attitudes
of
the
if to the author
has by revision, the very abstract, a better work and
author's is the intention (In this sense every was His not his former intention intention. specific the man we were in search of, that's true"; says Hardy's it.
"and constable, the man we were
yet he's not the man in search of was not
we were
in search
the man
we wanted."5
of.
a critic," asks Professor a Stoll, "... judge, who does own his but determines the author's explore consciousness, or as a a were or the if poem contract, intention, meaning will, "Is not
not
the
constitution?
is not poem two forms accurately
very diagnosed he prefers. Our critic's
own
The
view
and not
is yet the author's
the
critic's
own."8
He
has
of irresponsibility, The different. poem
one which
is detached
the author
from
is not
the
(it and goes about the world to intend his power beyond it or control about to The the It is poem belongs it). public. in language, embodied the peculiar of the public, and possession it is about the human being, an object of public What knowledge. is said about the poem to the same scrutiny as any is subject at birth
statement or morals. "a class
or in linguistics Mr. Richards of experiences
in the general science of psychology has aptly the poem a class? called which do not differ in any character more
a certain
than
he adds,
may the poet when Professor Wellek
of
position."
every deference
take as this
"We
experience
to call
preferred
. . . from
amount
471
BEARDSLEY
AND
WIMSATT
a standard
And experience." the relevant experience
standard
the
contemplating in a fine essay
completed the problem
on
com has
from "a system of norms," "extracted to Mr. Richards' he and objects experience," to the poet as reader. We side with Professor Wellek the poem
individual
to make
in not wishing A critic of has
swamy, wrork of art:
the poet
our Dictionary argued7 that there
are
about a of enquiry his intentions; (2)
two kinds
the artist achieved (1) whether ever to have the work of art "ought it is worth and so "whether preserving."
whether at all"
is not
Mr.
an authority. K. Coomara
the poem) (outside Ananda article, Mr.
been
undertaken
Number (2), of of any work number criticism; (1) not need be moral (2)
"criticism
maintains, Coomaraswamy art qua work of art," but is rather moral that But we maintain is artistic criticism.
whether works of deciding a in and whether, sense, they "ought" preserving to have been undertaken, criticism and this is the way of objective us as to art enables of of works such, the way which distinguish criticism:
that
is another
there
way
of art are worth
a skilful
between
is an example the difference
murder
which
Mr.
between
and
a skilful
Coomaraswamy the murder and
is capable of distinguishing (1) name "artistic is properly criticism"
murder
in his
system a is poem simply ac out each if carried the
We
maintain
and
since (2), from murder,
poetry given
skilful
and
uses,
one, since one, not an "artistic" to is successful. "artistically" cording plan an more than (1), worth is of enquiry (2)
"moral"
not
A
poem.
to
that and the
(2).
II It
is not
historical
so much
as an analytic an empirical not a judgment, to say that the intentional but a definition, one. When a rhetorician, of the presumably
statement, is a romantic fallacy writes: first century A.D.,
"Sublimity
is the echo
of a great
soul,"
472 or
THE
tells
that
the
full
to find
be
FALLACY
enters
"Homer
and "shares
heroes" not
us
INTENTIONAL
the
into
inspiration rhetorician
this
actions
sublime
of
his
of the combat," we shall as a distant considered
surprised terms by and greeted in the warmest of romanticism harbinger a critic as Saintsbury. so romantic One may wish to argue whether be but there can hardly be a called should romantic,8 Longinus in one
that
doubt
Goethe's
is.
three
did
the author
ble, out
the middle
the
culmination
and how
The
ticism.
he
way
important
for "'constructive questions set out to do? Was his plan
far did
he succeed one has
question, and crowning beautiful
is the
in carrying in effect
are "What
criticism"
and
sensi
If one
leaves
reasonable it out?" the
of Croce?
system
of roman philosophic expression successful and intuition-expression, or private the intuition part of art
the ugly is the unsuccessful; or it the aesthetic fact, and the medium public part at all. of aesthetic Yet aesthetic subject reproduction remain equal." only "if all the other conditions grow Oil-paintings the text of a poem
dark, frescoes fade, is corrupted by bad
statues copyists
in not takes
the place
. . . lose noses or bad print
ing. The Madonna of Cimabue is still in the Church but she Maria does Novella; speak to the visitor as to the Florentines of the thirteenth century?
of of
Santa to-day
... to reintegrate in us the labours interpretation course have the conditions which in changed psychological It . . . enables us to see a work of art (a physical of history. as its author saw it in the moment of production.9 object)
Historical
The
first
italics
are Croce's, is an ambiguous
the
second
ours.
The
of upshot on With such system emphasis history. a critic may write a close as a point of departure passages analysis or "spirit" or Corneille of the meaning of a play of Shakespeare
Croce's
?a
process
that
involves
close
historical
study
but
remains
aes
WIMSATT
AND
he may
thetic
criticism?or
kinds
of non-aesthetic
have
more
write
sociology, biography, Crocean The system
history. of a boost to the
given has "What
473
BEARDSLEY
seems
of writing. in his Spingarn
to
latter way
the poet tried to do," asks we have Lecture from which already
Columbia
or other
quoted,
1910 "and
how has he fulfilled his intention?" The place to look for "in in his third Lecture of 1914, says Bosanquet, art." and affected insincere The of seepage a non-philosophic be seen in such a place may
ugliness, superable" of is the "region the book
into theory as Marguerite
the poetry . . . retain We
close
Wilkinson's to
1919
of
New
about Voices, "as old as the ages
inspirational
1931?where
symbols and freshness" through strength two examples this section with from least expect a taint of the Crocean. Mr. their
one might fourfold distinction has
"intention"
probably in the past fifteen years, though "This function [intention]," self-repudiation:
ards, "is not on all fours with Mr. Allen of Poetry" Types
where quarters I. A. Richards'
into "sense," "tone," "feeling," the most statement of influential
of meaning
been
intentionalism of
"Realization."
the others." T?te
writes
it contains
a hint
says Mr. Rich In an essay on "Three
as follows:
must
that the lines understand like a dome of many-colored Life glass the white Stains radiance of eternity are not poetry; the frustrated will they express to asserts with science. The will compete trying a rhetorical about the whole of life, proposition but the imagination has not seized upon the mater ials of the poem and made them into a whole. Shel simile is the material from ley's imposed upon it does not grow out of the material. above;
We
The is not
last
sentence
The
fulfilled. on
throughout T?te is accusing
a promise reason why
contains
the
terms
"will"
the romantic
of objective analysis which so the essay relies heavily and "imagination" is that Mr.
poets
of a kind
of
insincerity
(ro
474
THE
in reverse)
manticism something whole of of
INTENTIONAL
and
FALLACY
same
at the
to describe is trying an indescribable, "imaginative time
and perhaps mysterious a of vision "wholeness life,"
at a particular moment us which the quality of the "yields something at the moment If a poet had a toothache of con
experience,"
experience." a poem, that would be part of ceiving T?te of course does not mean anything which ing about some kind of "whole" does
not
but which
describe, to describe?in
criticism
terms
the like
experience, that. He
but Mr. is think
in this essay at least it is the prime need be publicly tested.
doubtless that may
he of
Ill . . . to the poets; and all sorts. tragic, dithyrambic, I took them some of the most in their elaborate passages . . . own writings, and asked what was the meaning of them. . . . a person present there is hardly Will you believe me? not have talked better their poetry who would about than not I Then knew that did themselves. wisdom do they by a sort but of write and poetry, poets by genius inspiration. I went
That
reiterated
mav
have
mistrust
been
part
of
of the poets which we hear a rigorously ascetic view
from
Socrates
in which
we
to participate, saw a truth about Socrates yet Plato's hardly wish no sees? the world the poetic mind which commonly longer so much and that the most and most affec criticism, inspirational has proceeded from the poets themselves. remembered, the have to say that the ana had poets Certainly something not has been more could say; their message lyst and professor
tionately
come as naturally as leaves to a tree, that poetry should exciting: or that poetry is the lava of the imagination, that it is emotion in tranquillity. But it is necessary recollected that we realize the character shade advice Walter
and
between that
of such testimony. authority those romantic expressions
authors
Pater:
often
give.
Thus
There and
Edward
is only a fine of earnest
a kind
Young,
Carlyle,
AND
WIMSATT
golden Reverence
golden in Composition, thyself.
secret
is the grand let him who
This them:
are no less rules from ethicsy which 1. than in life. Know thyself; 2dly,
two
I know
475
BEARDSLEY
would
for finding readers move and convince
and retaining others, be first rule, Si vis me the literal one. To
and convinced Horace's himself. sense than is applicable in a wider we might to every writer, say: Be poet, be believed.
moved flerey every would
if you
true,
no craft at all, without there can be no merit, that. Truth! run all is in the And of further, beauty only fineness long or we what call the finer accommodation truth, expression, of speech to that vision within. And
little
Housman's
to the poetic
handbook
mind
the
yields
illustration:
following
a is a sedative pint of beer at luncheon?beer are and the afternoons least intellectual my brain, a out of would life?I for walk of two or my go portion three hours. As I went of in par along, thinking nothing me at around and the ticular, only looking things following the of there would flow into seasons, progress my mind, a line writh sudden and unaccountable sometimes emotion,
Having to the
or
This
two
drunk
of
a whole
sometimes
verse,
stanza
at
once.
. . .
is the
terminus of the series already Here quoted. logical is a confession of how poems were written which would do as a definition as as of poetry well "emotion in recollected just tranquillity"?and as a to heart
walking,
the young poet might equally a Drink pint of beer, in particular, look at things,
rule.
practical on nothing to yourself, search think
yourself to the sound vraie
which
of your
own
for the inside
truth
voice,
in your discover
well
take
relax, go surrender
own
soul,
and
express
listen the
v?rit?.
2
476
INTENTIONAL
THE
It
The
true
is probably
that
all
FALLACY
this
is excellent
imagination fired by Wordsworth
young
for
advice
poets.
is
and Carlyle
a poem to the verge than the mind of producing probably or Richards. has been sobered of the student who by Aristotle art of inspiring like The poets, or at least of inciting something our has probably in in young further gone persons, day poetry closer
than
ever
from
before.
Books
of
the Lincoln
School
are
such as those issued writing evidence of what a child interesting
creative
to manage himself All how if taught this, honestly.10 an to to art from would appear separate criticism, however, belong one might or to a discipline call the psychology of com which an individual and private valid and useful, culture, yoga, position, can do
or
system of self-development to notice, but different well
the young do poet would the public science of evaluating
which from
poems,
Coleridge been, and
and Arnold
were
better
critics
than most
dried up the poetry tendency our argu with in Coleridge, it is not inconsistent from the art is that judgment of poems is different has given us the classic "anodyne" them. Coleridge
if the critical
and
perhaps which ment, of producing
poets have in Arnold
he can about the genesis of a poem which story, and tells what but his definitions of poetry he calls a "psychological curiosity," are to be found else and of the poetic "imagination" quality and in quite other terms. where The unified
day may the with
arrive science
are
when
the psychology of objective evaluation, if the be convenient
It would separate. intentional "sincerity," school,
"fidelity,"
is composition but so far they of the passwords of
"spontaneity," could be equated
"au
with "genuineness," "originality," thenticity," as "func terms of analysis such "relevance," "unity," "integrity," other and and with "maturity," "subtlety," "adequacy," tion"; more if "expression" terms?in short, always precise axiological But this is not so. meant aesthetic communication. "Aesthetic"
art,
says Professor
Curt
Ducasse,
an
ingenious
WIMSATT
AND
477
BEARDSLEY
is the conscious of feelings, of expression, objectification an intrinsic part is the critical moment. The in which artist cor rects the objectification when but this may mean it is not adequate, theorist
the
that
earlier
or "it may
was not successful in objectifying the attempt that it was a successful also mean objectification us we when it confronted and disowned clearly,
self, of a self which, in favor repudiated we
disown
Whatever definition The
or accept the self? it may be, however, of art which will not
evaluation
measured
the work
of
against
is the standard
of another."11 What Professor this
standard
does
by which not say.
is an element
in the
to terms
reduce
of art remains outside
something
Ducasse
the
of objectification. the work public;
is
author.
IV is criticism
There author takes can
psychology, the form of
of which
and
poetry when
is, as we have seen, to the present or future but author psychology
there
applied
inspirational promotion; too, and then we have
a literary biography, and attractive as Mr. in itself, one approach, legitimate study to would the argue, poem Tillyard personality, being only a a it need not be with approach. parallel Certainly derogatory one out that as distinct from purpose personal points studies, in the realm of Yet there studies, poetic literary scholarship. be
historical
is danger the fault There
of confusing personal of writing the personal is a difference
the meaning
for
of
and
and there is poetic studies; as if it were poetic. internal and external evidence
between
a poem.
And
the
paradox
is only
verbal
and superficial that what is (1) internal is also public: it is dis covered
the semantics and syntax through habitual of the language, knowledge
our
and dictionaries, aries, in general while of
what
all
the
through
literature all
is (2) external as a linguistic the work
which
that makes
of
a poem,
through is the source
a
through grammars, of diction
and culture; language or is private not a part idiosyncratic; it consists fact: of revelations (in
478
THE
INTENTIONAL
FALLACY
or letters or for example, reported conversations) journals, the poem?to what how or why the poet wrote lady, while or or on what at death what the of friend brother. lawn,
about sitting There
about the character of is (3) an intermediate kind of evidence or about private or semi-private the author attached meanings or topics by an author or by a coterie of which to words he is a is the history member. The meaning of words and the of words, of an author, his use of a word, and the associations biography which the word had for him, are part of the word's and history But the three types of evidence, meaning.12 especially (2) and one so another not into that shade it is easy (3), subtly always to draw
a line
for criticism.
between use
The
because intentionalism, author it may intended, words and the dramatic not be all
it may
hand,
and hence arises the difficulty examples, of biographical evidence need not involve it may while be evidence of what the also
be evidence
character this.
the meaning of his of his utterance. On the other
And
of
a critic who
is concerned
with
evidence of type (1) and moderately with that of type (3) will in the
long
run
produce
a different
sort
of
comment
of the critic who is concerned with type (2) and with it shades into (2). The
whole
from
that
(3) where
to of Professor Lowes' Road parade runs the border between Xanadu, instance, along types (2) " and (3) or boldly traverses the romantic cKubla region of (2). "is the fabric of a vision, but every says Professor Khan'," Lowes, had passed that way before. And image that rose up in its weaving glittering
for
it would their
seem
return."
that This
or fortuitous is nothing in haphazard even when Professor is not quite clear?not
there
that there were clusters of associations, like hooked explains into complex relation with other clus atoms, which were drawn ters in the deep well of Coleridge's and which then memory, and issued forth as poems. coalesced If there was nothing "hap or fortuitous" hazard in the way the images returned to the sur
Lowes
face,
that may
mean
( 1 ) that Coleridge
could
not produce
what
AND
WIMSATT
479
that he was limited in his creation he have, by what or or otherwise that received having experienced, (2) to return of associations, he was bound them in clusters
not
he did had
BEARDSLEY
read
certain
just the way he did, in terms of described The
that
and
the
value
of
the
poem he had
on which the experiences sort of of (a propositions Hartleyan pair
latter
to.
associationism
himself repudiated in the Biographia) may not
which Coleridge be assented
be may to draw.
were
other other certainly combinations, that might have been written by men who
There
or better, poems, worse and Purchas had read Bartram
and
Bruce
and Milton.
And
be true no matter
how many times we are able to add to In certain flourishes of Coleridge's reading. complex and in chapter headings (such as the sentence we have quoted) "The like "The Shaping Magical Synthesis," Spirit," "Imagina
this will
the brilliant
it may tion Creatrix," about the actual
more
variation
deceptive pass on
to a new
and more
sources,
?,1,-3
that Professor
be
than
poems in these fancy chapter in the argument, stage more
about
to say pretends There is a certain
Lowes
he does.
"the
one expects titles; and one finds?more
streamy
nature
of
to
associa
tion."
Lowes der Weg?" quotes Professor Ins Unbetretene." "Kein Weg!
"Wohin book.
his
is unbetreten
the way
Bartram's
poem. certain
words
Travels
should contains Floridan
romantic
and was
Precisely
it leads
of
because
the away deal of the history of that in appear conceptions of that history has passed
say, a good
from
into
then
Khan"
"Kubla
in the Oxford English Dictionary a person there quoted, other books seem to pertain But it would little
some
of
poem
better.
know
that Coleridge
had
?>f sensory
and mental
of
the motto
a good deal the stuff of our language. Per very passing a person who has read Bartram the poem more appreciates one who the has not. of up Or, by looking vocabulary And
Khan."
"Kubla
haps than
and
y we
for
ll?c,
the
read Bartram. experience,
y or by reading know the may
There
to the poem to is a gross body
which
lies behind
and
480
THE
in some
sense
causes
every
in the verbal
be known is the
INTENTIONAL
poem. for
For the
the
all
which
or
we
never
talk It book The
should
be and need
not
intellectual of
which composition our manifold experience,
for every unity, there is objects, cuts off roots, melts context? away or ideas or anything to have objects
about. vast that there in Professor is nothing is probable Lowes' which from anyone's could detract of either appreciation or Kubla Khan. a case Ancient Mariner next present We
where
with
preoccupation as to distort a critic's those
objects
intellectual
of the mind
can never
but
and hence
especially an action indeed
poem,
FALLACY
that
evidence of a poem
view in our
abound
In a well-known
poem
so far type (3) has gone a case so as not obvious (yet
of
critical
journals). by John Donne
appears
the
following
quatrain: Moving Men
of
th'
reckon
earth what
harmes brings it did and meant,
and
feares,
of the spheares, trepidation is innocent. greater farre, Though
But
A
recent
written
critic of
in an elaborate
this quatrain
treatment
of Donne's
learning
has
as follows:
...
he touches the emotional of the situation by a pulse ... Of to the new and the old astronomy. skillful allusion the new astronomy, the "moving is the most of the earth" radical principle; of the old, the "trepidation of the spheres" ... of the greatest is the motion As the poem complexity. the is a valediction exhort poet must forbidding mourning, and calm upon his departure; love to quietness and for the figure based upon the latter motion this purpose (trepi into the traditional fit astronomy, long absorbed dation), moment the of the tension without suggests arousing tingly in the figure of the mov and feares" the "harmes implicit his
ing
earth.1*
WIMSATT
AND
481
BEARDSLEY
is plausible and rests on a well-substantiated argument was that Donne in the new astronomy interested deeply
The
in the theological realm. repercussions shows his familiarity with Kepler's De leo's
Siderius
with
with William
NunciuSy
refers
in a letter
and
works
its
Donne
Stella
with Gali Novay De Magnetey and of Sacrobosco. Sphaera
Gilbert's
on the De commentary to the newT science in his Sermon
Clavius's
He
In various
thesis
at Paul's
Cross
and
to Sir Henry
In The First he Goodyer. Anniversary all in calls on doubt." In the says philosophy Elegy Prince Henry he says that the "least moving of the center" makes to shake." "the world the "new
It
to answer
is difficult
answer
it with
evidence
celestial
might motion
not have
if we
become
Donne
stood full
of
like this, argument of like nature. There
written two
for
a stanza sorts
astronomical
of
in which emotion
ideas
and
and
to impossible is no reason why the two kinds of
at parting. see Donne
And
only that science, we may believe itself remains to be dealt the with, analyz able vehicle of a complicated one may And observe: metaphor. of the earth according to the ( 1 ) that the movement Copernican a is celestial motion, smooth and regular, and while it theory cause or it not could be associ might religious philosophic fears, ated with the crudity and earthiness of the kind of commotion the background But the text
against he did.
which there
of
the new
the speaker in the poem wishes is another
to discourage;
(2)
that
the earth, an which has earthquake, to is be associated with the tear-floods just and of the second stanza of the poem; that sigh-tempests (3) "trepi dation" is an appropriate of earthquake, because each is opposite a or and of the shaking vibratory motion; "trepidation spheres" is "greater far" than an earthquake, but not much greater (if two such motions can be as to than the annual compared greatness) moving these qualities and
of
motion of the earth; (4) that reckoning what it "did and meant" shows
that
incessant
the event celestial
has passed, like an earthquake, not like the movement of the earth. a knowl Perhaps
482
THE
INTENTIONAL
FALLACY
in the new interest of Donne's edge an overtone to the shade of meaning, to say even this runs against the words. and
helio-centric
the core
antithesis
of
to prefer
gard the English language, to internal. external
add another may in question, though To make the geo-centric
science stanza
the metaphor evidence private
is to disre to public,
V the distinction
If
for the historical
between critic,
kinds
of
evidence
them
no
less
it has
has implications the contemporary for a poet is but another for
Or, since every rule poet side of a judgment by a critic, and since the past is the realm of that of the poet the scholar and critic, and the future and present we of taste, and the critical leaders may say that the problems are the in from intentional literary arising scholarship fallacy and his critic.
matched
by
others
periment. The question by
the poetry
which
arise
in the world
of "allusiveness," of Eliot,
is certainly
for example, one where
of progressive
ex
as acutely posed a false judgment
to involve the intentional The is likely and fallacy. frequency in the poetry allusion of literary and others has of Eliot depth so many to the Golden in pursuit of full meanings driven Bough a kind of common and the Elizabethan drama that it has become a poet means that we do not know what unless place to suppose we have traced him in his reading?a with redolent supposition The stand taken by Mr. F. O. Mat intentional implications. thiessen
is a sound
one
and partially
forestalls
the difficulty.
ear and is sensitive If one reads these lines with an attentive to their sudden shifts in movement, the contrast between the an age vision of it during and the idealized actual Thames a megalopolis is sharply it flowed before through conveyed or one recognizes not movement whether the that itself, by to be from Spenser. refrain
AND
WIMSATT
Eliot's
allusions
even when But
we do not know we
sometimes
we
when
work
find
know
them, allusions
483
BEARDSLEY
to a great
them?and their
through
suggestive and
by notes, supported notes function more
extent power. it is a
as whether the very nice question guides as indications or more to send us where we may be educated, in about the character themselves of the allusions. every "Nearly . . . to an appreciation that is apposite of thing of importance Mr. 'The Waste writes Matthiessen of Miss Weston's Land'," book, self,
"has
been
into
incorporated
or into Eliot's
And
Notes."
the
structure
with
of
the poem
such an admission
it
it may
not much matter to appear that it would if Eliot invented begin Scott invented his sources from chapter epigraphs (as Sir Walter or as Coleridge wrote "old plays" and "anonymous" authors, to for "The Ancient Allusions glosses marginal Mariner"). or Baudelaire, doubtless Marvell, Dante, Webster, gain these writers it is because but whether doubtful existed, can be said
for an allusion
The
sound
Sweeney "Cf. Day,
Actaeon
irony
of Bees:"
is completed
shall
bring
spring.
says Eliot,
the quotation itself; to these lines composed by
concenceivable, there would background, grow of origin
which
a sudden, you shall hear, listening, which shall bring of horns and hunting, to Diana in the spring, all shall see her naked skin. . . .
quite
may
Elizabethan:
of
noise
Where The
of horns and motors, to Mrs. Porter in the
Parliament
When A
to an obscure
something the same
as one the
reads
ballad
be no Eliot's
from which
of validity. next note: "I loss
these
lines
to me from Sydney, Australia." The reported Mrs. Porter this note?on and her daughter
as
had Eliot, furnish his The do are
not
is
own
conviction know
taken:
the
it was
in important word who washed their
484
THE
lines
themselves
their
if one
And
should
from
feel
there would be little quality, the inquiry must focus on the of the poem, for where they con
"ballad"
the note.
for
need
FALLACY
"ballad."
in soda water?is
feet the
INTENTIONAL
Ultimately, as parts notes such of integrity about information stitute special
in the the meaning of phrases to the same scrutiny as any of the ought to be subject the Mr. Matthiessen in which it is written. believes
poem, they other words were
to pay in order to avoid what he the energy would of his poem by ex links in the text itself." But it may be ques tended connecting the notes and the need for them are not equally tioned whether notes
the price Eliot "had have considered muffling
stratum of the explanatory poems or poetic the dramatic is built stuff is a dangerous F. Mr. W. has that Bateson argued responsibility. plausibly "The Sailor Boy" would if half the stanzas be better Tennyson's omission
The
muffling. on which
were
omitted, owe Spens"
and
from
the best
versions
of ballads
like
"Sir Patrick
to the very with which the power audacity the story upon which he comments. for granted then if a poet finds he cannot take so much What in for granted a more context recondite and rather than write informatively, their
has taken
minstrel
It can be said in favor of this plan that at least notes? supplies as they would to be dramatic, the notes do not pretend if written the other On the notes may in verse. look like unas hand, the beside similated material loose for the poem, necessary lying of
meaning
the verbal
symbol,
but
not
so that
integrated,
the
stancis
symbol mean We tend
to
incomplete. to suggest by the above seem to justify themselves
that whereas analysis as external indexes to be
author's
notes to
like
the
other
yet they ought any intention, judged a to of a composition arrangement (verbal special particular so judged and when their reality as parts of the poem, context), or their imaginative the rest of the poem, may with integration
parts
come Eliot's
into titles
question. for poems
Mr.
Matthiessen, and his epigraphs
for
instance,
are
informative
sees
that
appara
the notes.
like
tus, and
same
at the
is worried by some of the notes to be mocking himself for writing "appears to convey time that he wants by something that the "device" of epigraphs believes he
But while
that Eliot
thinks
the note
485
BEARDSLEY
AND
WIMSATT
Matthiessen it," Mr. struc of not being sufficiently "is not at all open to the objection secure to to the poet he says, "is enable intention" tural." "The a condensed
poem."
is designed And Eliot
practice
in terms
epigraph
in the
expression
to form
himself, of intention.
"In each case the itself." poem an integral part of the effect of the in his notes, has justified his poetic
a member of the traditional Man, Hanged pack, fits two in he associated in mind because is mv ways: my purpose I associate him and because God of Frazer, with the Hanged to in the passage the hooded of the disciples with figure . . . The man with Three in Part V. Emmaus Staves (an I associate, of the Tarot authentic member quite ar pack) The
bitrarily, with the Fisher King himself. more perhaps he is to be taken in his Norton in a note, than when
And
seriously Lectures
off guard here, when on the he comments
a poem means and adds playfully that of saying what difficulty to a second edition of Ash Wednesday he thinks of prefixing some lines from Don Juan: that I quite understand I don't pretend own I would when be very fine; My meaning But the fact is that I have nothing planned to be a moment it were Unless merry. and
If Eliot fault,
it may
Allusiveness we
have
it may practice
other be
contemporary poets too much.1" in planning
in poetry
illustrated be for
today
allusiveness
is one
the more
abstract
the most would
of several
have
critical
issue of
important appear to be
any
characteristic
issues by which
but intentionalism, a illustration. As poetic an in some recent poems
486
THE
extreme
INTENTIONAL
and assumption, and brings to light in a special way it challenges The instance from of intentionalism. the basic premise following serve to epitomize the practical of Eliot may the poetry implica In Eliot's "Love tions of what we have been saying. Song of J. of
corollary as a critical issue
Pr?f
Alfred
the mermaids semblance Mermaides
the
FALLACY
romantic
towards
rock,"
each
intentionalist
the end, occurs to each," and
Is Eliot
are two radically There question. which
the
the universe squeezed and sadness irony from "To
may
wonder
(To child
hear
His
earlier been
a ball,"
into
certain Mistress."
Coy whether mermaids
them
looking
me
re
to heare to a cer
arises: Is question rock thinking about that there suggest
for
an answer
to this
of poetic analysis and exegesis, sense if is Eliot-Prufrock any
In an it have
We
heard
a certain
acquainted
Is Pr?f
of
ways is ( 1 ) the way whether it makes
"Teach
critical
about Donne?
thinking different
inquires about Donne. thinking Prufrock asks, "Would
Marvel
this bears
singing, to a line in a Song by John Donne, so that for the reader singing,"
with Donne's tain degree poetry, to Donne's? line an allusion Eliot's Donne?
the line: "I have
part of the poem, when . . . To have worth while, his words take half their
energetic But
and
passionate
lines
of
the
inquirer exegetical as "strange sights" to with analogous getting
considered
is in Donne's
poem to do with Pr?f rock's mer have much root) seem to be symbols which of romance and dynamism, and have if they need incidentally literary authentication, it,
a mandrake
maids, which
in a line of a sonnet
de Nerval. This method of in by G?rard to lead the conclusion that the given resemblance be quiry may tween Eliot and Donne is without and not is better significance thought viding is the
of, or the method no certain conclusion. true
and
the very critic quiry,
objective
of
criticism,
as contrasted
of that
pro this
to what
tempt a second kind of exegesis might or genetic the of biographical in way (2) of the that fact Eliot is still taking advantage
uncertainty to undertake: in which,
way
have
the disadvantage we submit Nevertheless,
may
of
WIMSATT
a man spirit of to Eliot and asks what
in the
and alive, critic writes in mind.
AND
We
Eliot
would
all
in mind?a
shall answer
in an unguarded irrefutable limit,
not
here
answer.
good might Our
who
would
487 settle a bet, the or if he had Donne
he meant, the probabilities?whether weigh
that he meant
sufficiently moment
BEARDSLEY
at all, nothing answer to such furnish point
a clear
is that
such
nothing a question?or and, within
at
an answer
to
had
its
such an
to do with the poem "Pru have nothing inquiry would un a critical not Critical would be it inquiries, inquiry. frock;" are not in this way. Critical like bets, are not settled inquiries the oracle. settled by consulting
FOOTNOTES
V and the Art of Criticism," ELE, 1938), (Sept. "Scholarship Teeter, and Research, in Criticism Tillotson's review of Geoffrey Essays Wellek, and Tol XLI Shakespeare' Knight, 262; G. Wilson 1944), (May, Philology, C. Heyl, 88 (April, No. p. 10; Bernard Association 1934), Pamphlet stoy, English and Art Criticism in Esthetics 1943), pp. 66, 113, 149. (New Haven, New Bearings ed. Joseph T. Shipley 1924), pp. 326-39. (New York, of World Literature, 2Dictionary and America in Criticism "The New Criticism," (New York, 1924), 3J. E. Spingarn, pp. 24-25. . . ." "We have here a deliberate do. blurring. 4As critics and teachers constantly in ". . . is the literal meaning as ironic or as unplanned?" this be regarded "Should . . ." It to exult. is intended . .?" "... a paradox faith which of religious tended. are chosen . ." These from three pages intends. seems to me that Herbert examples vol. II, no. 1 (Oct., 1943). Au of an issue of The Explicator Va.), (Fredericksburg, ed. Whit See This is My in the same way. Best, thors often judge their own works Burnett e.g., pp. 539-40. 1942), (New York, "means" and about is that of talking of the intentional relative 5A close fallacy con this relation treated have We instead of "part" and "whole." in poetry "end" article. in our dictionary cisely XLIV 'The Tempest," 6E. E. Stoll, 1932), 703. PMLA, (Sept. I (Winter, The American Bookman, 1944), 7Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, "Intention," ^f.
173-94; Modem
Louis Rene
41-48. see R. review of S. Crane, to modern of Longinus 8For the relation romanticism, XV The Sublime, Samuel Monk's 165-66. 1936), (April, Philological Quarterly, trans. Doug and Corneille, in his Ariosto, 9It is true that Croce himself Shakespeare, and the Poetical "The Practical las Ainslie Personality VII, 1920), Chapter (London, trans. E. F. Carritt and in his Defence (Oxford, 1933). p. 24, of Poetry, Personality," drift of such pas on initentionalism, a telling but the prevailing attack has delivered as we quote direction. is in the opposite sages in the Aesthetic Creative Youth 10See Hughes Mearns, 1925), esp. pp. 10, 27-29. The (Garden City, a parallel of the pro of inspiring poems analysis keeps pace today with technique An Anatomy E. M. Harding, artists. See Rosamond cess of inspiration in successful of
488
THE
Cambridge, Inspiration, 1942. phia, The nCurt Ducasse,
INTENTIONAL 1940;
Julius
Portnoy,
FALLACY A Psychology
of Art
Creation,
Philadel
(New York, Philosophy of Art 1929), p. 116. 12And the history of words is written contribute which may after a poem meanings to the original pattern if relevant should not be ruled out by a scruple about intention, and E. M. W. Tillyard, The Personal cf. C. S. Lewis Heresy, (Oxford, 1939), p. 16; loc cit., pp. 183, 192: review of Tillotson's Teeter, 174. Essays, TLS, XLI (April, 1942), "The Pattern," and XVI, "The Known and Familiar "Chapters VIII, Landscape," will be found of most of the poem. help to the student For an extreme see Kenneth of intentionalistic Burke's example criticism, analysis of The Ancient in The Philosophy Mariner Form State Uni of Literary (Louisiana Mr. Burke must be credited with versity Press, 1941), pp. 22-23, 93-102. realizing very he is up to. clearly what "Charles M. and the New Coffin, John Donne (New York, Philosophy 97-98. Eliot the right view 15In his critical writings has expressed of author and the Use of Criticism, (See The Use of Poetry 1933, p. 139 Cambridge, and the Individual Talent" in Selected dition New Essays, York, 1932), record is not entirely consistent (See A Choice Verse, London, of Kipling's 10-11, 20-21).
1827),
pp.
psychology' and "Tra his though 1941,
pp.
