The Intentional Fallacy

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.