Literary criticism (adabi-tanqeed) is the faculty that facilitates us with an estimating capacity to evaluate the poetry and to comprehend what the poets communicated through different times. It is the tool that enables us to peep into the depth of philosophy, Psychology, morals and didactics hidden in the poetry. Poetry teaches morality, ethics and religion. And it is the literary criticism that teaches us what the poetry has taught this world since the times immemorial. Criticism not only looks at the dark side of the poetry, but also extracts the goodness embodied in it. Looking back to the history of literary criticism itself makes me put down that poetry itself is the criticism as well as it is the poets who ate critics as well. Poetry has been evaluated differently in different periods of English literature. Tracing back to Classical criticism, it was Plato who wrote ‘The Republic’ in 426 B.C and in chapter 10 of that book the author evaluated poetry as greatest drawback for the establishment of ideal state. He gave the concept of mimesis –imitation. He says that all the art forms like drama, poetry etc are a mere imitation and copy of copy hence thrice removed from the reality. He stressed on ‘idea’ as basis of formation which implies that all the physical entities are just the copy of ‘idea’ of the creator. ‘For Plato mimesis is the appearance of the external image of things. In his view, reality was not to be found in the world of the objects but in the realm of the Ideas. Therefore, Plato sees in the arts an occupation that is inferior to science and philosophy, but that is also a potential source of corruption.’ He would even go the extent of calling poets as madmen whose madness is contiguous.And hence harmful for the ideal state. Thereafter, comes his disciple –Aristotle who refuted and rebuked the charges on poets by his master. He opposed his master and defended the concept of mimesis (imitation) as a human faculty, divinely provided. Arguing his case he gave the example of a child who imitates things from the surroundings and learns them to use. Aristotle proposes to discuss poetry, which he defines as a means of mimesis, or imitation, by means of language, rhythm, and harmony. As creatures that thrive on imitation, we are naturally drawn to poetry. In particular; Aristotle focuses his discussion on tragedy, which uses dramatic, rather than narrative, form, and deals with agents who are better than us ourselves. Tragedy serves to arouse the emotions of pity and fear and to affect a Katharsis (catharsis) of these emotions.
An Apology for poetry (Defense of Poesy) is a work by Philip Sidney. It was written in 1580(approx) and first published in 1595, after his death. It is generally believed that he was motivated by Stephen Goson, a former playwright who attacked English stage in his book The School of Abuse. Stephen Gosson would say that Wordsworth in his ‘Preface to lyrical ballads’ set the rules to evaluate the poetry and that became the manifesto of Romanticism in English Literary History. He raised the poets to the level of prophets. He poets are the men speaking to men so their language should that of the men. To romantics poetry is intuitive rather than any mechanical or technical effort as it was over stressed by the Augustan era critics. One of the notable poets of romantic era John Keats says that poetry comes as natural as leaves to the mulberry or it never comes. One of the most influential critic-poet S.T Coleridge has given the concept of fancy and imagination. I would like to refer to one of his famous poems ‘Rhyme of Ancient Mariner’ which has a deep moral philosophy embodied in the Albatross board that is killed by the mariner and then caught in a storm in the midst of sea. So the famous quote :
‘We stuck, Water,water everywhere ,
Not breath, nor motion, Not a drop to drink,
Like a painted ship, water, water everywhere,
Upon a painted Ocean. The boards shrink.
In A Defence of Poetry, P.B Shelly attempts to prove that poets are philosophers; that they are the creators and protectors of moral and civil laws; and that if it were not for the poets, scientists could not have developed either their theories or their inventions. Poets introduce and maintain morality. The morals so created are coded into laws. “Shelley's conclusive remark that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world" suggests his awareness of "the profound ambiguity inherent in linguistic means, which he considers at once as an instrument of intellectual freedom and a vehicle for political and social subjugation".
Mathew Arnold was a famous Victorian era critic. Arnold's touchstone method is a comparative method of criticism. According to this method, in order to judge a poet's work properly, a critic should compare it to passages taken from works of great masters of poetry, and that these passages should be applied as touchstones to other poetry. We have Marxist, Feminist, Colonial, post-colonial and many more approaches also to evaluate literature that is often called as literary theory. The most recent being T.S Eliot who revolutionized the literary criticism and he is known for his ‘Tradition and Individual talent.
The Waste Land is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important English-language poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of Eliot's magazine The Criterion and in the United States in the November issue of The Dial. Among its famous phrases are "April is the cruelest month", "I will show you fear in a handful of dust", and "These fragments I have shored against my ruins".The poem is divided into five sections. The first, "The Burial of the Dead", introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair. The second, "A Game of Chess", employs alternating narrations in which vignettes of several characters display the fundamental emptiness of their lives. "The Fire Sermon" offers a philosophical meditation in relation to self-denial and sexual dissatisfaction; "Death by Water" is a brief description of a drowned merchant; and "What the Thunder Said" is a culmination of the poem's previously exposited themes explored through a description of a desert journey.
Upon its initial publication The Waste Land received a mixed response, with some critics finding it willfully obscure while others praised its originality. Subsequent years saw the poem become established as a central work in the modernist canon, and it proved to become one of the most influential works of the century. So let’s, understand some famous poets in English, Urdu and Hindi literature.
Jeoffery Chaucer is known as father of English poetry and English language as well.His famous book ‘Canterbury Tales’ is taught in colleges and universities all over the world. He was didactic in his approach as he put under scanner the church practices and corruption. He vulgarized the character of Priest/Monk. In this book, he has presented a cross section of the 14th century England. His characters are not only characters, but they are types as they represent different sections of the society. These characters are the models of human predicament, licentiousness and corruption present the society.
Talking of 16the century England there is the “Bard of Avon’ – William Shakespeare who is known as the greatest dramatist and poet of Elizabethan Period. He is credited with the universality of character and thought.‘All the world is a stage and all the men and women are mere players. They have their entrances and exits.’He could fully violate the ‘unities’ set by Greeks by setting his plays through different times and at different places. He has written 154 sonnets in all. These sonnets focus upon the universal themes love, beauty, consistency and importance of time and art. The thematic concerns can be summed up as time is superior to youth and beauty, love is superior to time and art is superior to all. One of his famous sonnets becomes all relevant to cover said themes. Sonnet No:116- Let me not to the marriage of true minds:
If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Same is the case with the poets of other languages like Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Sanskrit etc. Allama Iqba, Mirza Galib, Mir Taqee Mir, Tulsi Das, Kabeer etc. the legacy they have left behind is just atreasure for us to unfold. Kashmiri poetess Lala arifa, Shiekhul Aalam, Rasul Mir, Shams Faqeer, Rehamn Dar, Rehaman Raahi etc .Hence , on the basis of their unforgettable legacy it cant be inapot to say that they were all ‘ unacknowledged legislators of world
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