According to T.S. Eliot, the work of John Milton is an example of which of the following?

Correct option is C

Explanation:

The correct answer is Dissociation of Sensibility.

The term “Dissociation of Sensibility” was introduced by T.S. Eliot in his essay The Metaphysical Poets (1921). He argued that after the 17th century, English poetry lost its ability to unify thought and emotion. This break in poetic tradition led to a division between intellect and feeling, resulting in poets who either focused too much on rational thought or on pure emotions.

Milton’s Poetry and Dissociation of Sensibility:

• Eliot believed that John Milton, along with John Dryden and later Romantic poets, contributed to this dissociation.
  
• He claimed that Milton’s grand, rhetorical style focused more on intellectual complexity than on direct emotional experience.
  
• While Milton’s epic poetry, especially Paradise Lost, is highly philosophical and elaborate, Eliot thought it lacked the immediate fusion of emotion and intellect that was present in Metaphysical poetry.
  
• In contrast, Eliot admired John Donne and the Metaphysical poets for their ability to blend complex ideas with deep emotional intensity, which he termed “Unification of Sensibility”.
  
  

Information Booster:

In his 1921 essay ‘The Metaphysical Poets’, T. S. Eliot made several of his most famous and important statements about poetry – including, by implication, his own poetry. It is in this essay that Eliot puts forward his well-known idea of the ‘dissociation of sensibility’, among other theories.

Eliot’s article on the metaphysical poets is actually a review of a new anthology, Herbert J. C. Grierson’s Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century. Eliot uses his review of Grierson’s anthology, however, as an opportunity to consider the value and significance of the metaphysical poets in the development of English poetry. Although the metaphysical poets were a distinctly English ‘movement’ or ‘school’, Eliot also draws some interesting parallels between the seventeenth-century English metaphysical poets and nineteenth-century French Symbolist poets like Jules Laforgue, whose work Eliot much admired.

Definition of Dissociation of Sensibility:

• ​The separation of thought and emotion in poetry, leading to a more intellectual, less emotionally unified style.
  

T.S. Eliot’s Criticism of Milton:

• ​Eliot claimed that Milton’s poetry, while majestic, was too artificial and ornamental, making it less personal and immediate.
  
• He argued that later poets like Wordsworth and Shelley inherited this split between intellect and emotion, moving further from the Metaphysical poets’ tradition.
  

Contrast with Metaphysical Poets:

• Metaphysical poets like Donne, Herbert, and Marvell blended wit, intellectualism, and deep feeling.
  
• They directly engaged with human emotions, something Eliot believed Milton’s poetry lacked.
  

Milton’s Influence Despite Eliot’s Criticism:

• Paradise Lost remains a masterpiece of epic poetry, admired for its sublime language and theological depth.
  
• Many later critics disagree with Eliot’s view, arguing that Milton’s poetry contains profound emotional power despite its intellectualism.