The terms ‘association of sensibility’ and ‘disassociation of sensibility’ came from an essay written by T.S. Eliot. Which group of writers is associated with these terms?

Correct option is D

Explanation:

The correct answer is The Metaphysical Poets.

T.S. Eliot introduced the concepts of "association of sensibility" and "dissociation of sensibility" in his famous essay "The Metaphysical Poets" (1921). These terms describe the evolution of thought and feeling in poetry from the 17th century onwards.

Association of Sensibility:

• Found in Metaphysical poetry, particularly in the works of John Donne, Andrew Marvell, and George Herbert.
  
• Represents a unified blend of thought and emotion—intellectual depth and emotional intensity exist together in a natural harmony.
  

Dissociation of Sensibility:

• T.S. Eliot argued that after the 17th century, poets began to separate thought from emotion.
  
• The 18th and 19th-century poets, especially the Romantics, focused more on individual feelings, losing the intellectual complexity of Metaphysical poetry.
  
• Eliot claimed that this change weakened English poetry, as later poets could no longer merge philosophical reflection with deep feeling as seamlessly as the Metaphysical poets.
  
• Eliot’s essay revived interest in Metaphysical poetry, which had been largely dismissed before his analysis. His ideas greatly influenced modernist poetry, advocating for a return to intellectual rigor in verse.
  
  

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.

Eliot quotes Johnson’s line about metaphysical poetry that ‘the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together’. Eliot’s response to Johnson’s censure, however, is to point out that all kinds of poets – not just the metaphysicals – unite heterogeneous or different materials together in their poetry.

Metaphysical Poetry Characteristics:

• Use of conceits (extended metaphors).
  
• Intellectual and philosophical themes, often about love, death, and religion.
  
• Merging of reason and emotion in a way that later poets struggled to achieve.
  
• Examples of Metaphysical Poets & Works:
  John Donne – The Flea, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.
  Andrew Marvell – To His Coy Mistress.
  George Herbert – The Pulley, The Collar.
  
  
  

​Eliot’s Influence on Modern Poetry:

• Encouraged a return to intellectual and complex poetry.
  
• Helped reestablish Metaphysical poets as major literary figures.

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