"The Well Wrought Urn" And The Paradox In Cleanth Brooks' Poetic Criticism

PrefaceWhen Cleanth Brooks insisted that the poetic language was a language ofparadox, what he expressed was his basic concept which refused to look onthings simply. Like all the literary phenomena, Brooks' criticism of poetry iscomplicated and even full of paradoxes and this could be seen from somemetaphors in his criticism. These complicated metaphors can reflect certainaspects of Brooks' poetic theory and they can also reveal the potential tendencyof his comments to the literary works.1,The well wrought urnAssimilating a poem to a well wrought urn is the extensive meaning of theimage in Donne's poetry the Canonization. The metaphor of urn parallels to themetaphor of "hermitage", it implies the lovers override the world but they wina more expensive one. The image of the urn combines the image of "Phoenix".It contains the ashes of the phoenix, from which the phoenix will rebirth oneday. This implies that love can exceed passion and will last forever. The paradoxes in the metaphor of "urn" in Donne's poem coincide withtwo aspects of Brooks' poetic theory.First, urn-hermitage, this metaphor is in conformity with Brooks' ideaabout the relation between poetry and reality. Poetry is not practical, utilitarian.According to this sense, poetry holds aloof from the world. But poetry and lifeare interlinked. It deals with the experience of human being. Besides, poetry isthe outcome of the united feeling. from this point, it is mortal seen from ahigher level. This is the paradox in the relation between poetry and the reality.Second, the metaphor of urn-phoenix implies Brooks' opinion about thevalue of poetry. He suggests that all poems have a common structuralproperties. And this structure is where the value and critical standard exist in.Brooks' emphasis on the structure of the poetry aims at transferring the criticalbarycenter from the relation between poem and world or writer to the poemitself. But, Brooks' words that the "urn" contains the ashes of a phoenix impliesthe paradox in his poetic theory. This paradox is developed and revised in hismetaphor of "drama".2,A poem as a little dramaOn the one hand, comparing poetry to drama makes the split which isembodied in the metaphor of urn much clearer. The emphasis on the dramaticquality in poetry is a display of the writer's ability of synthesizing thecomplicated experience, and also the affirmation of the writer's mature attitudein drama, especially in tragedy. The dramatic metaphor is closely related to theeffect of Richards towards Brooks, and it symbolizes there is an immanentfocus in Brooks' theory, i. e., the emphasis particularly on the creative heart ofthe writer. This explains why there is a phoenix in the urn to symbolize the lifeof the poem.On the other hand, the parlance about the urn contains the ashes ofphoenix has the suspicion that the content may have two aspects. But themetaphor of drama can avoid the disadvantage. The conflict in drama isperformed instead of narrating directly. So the content of the poem is "said" bydetails, it does not exist apart from the form. At the same time, the metaphor of"drama" can remedy the dissension between the writer's creativity and hisworks, because the creativity only manifest when the works is coming intobeing.3,A poem as an organic unityTo compare a poem to an organism is to look at the poem as a whole. Thismetaphor can resist the tendency of dividing up the content and the form.But Brooks' "organism" is not completely the same as that of Coleridge.The metaphor is limited by the metaphor of the urn and the drama.The metaphor of urn lay emphasis on the value of the poetic text. Bydoing so, Brooks takes the metaphor of organism out of the Romanticbackground,and lays emphasis on the text itself.The metaphor of drama has two amendments for the metaphor oforganism.First, it imports the tension of the opposite elements into the organicconception, and it encourage the existence of the contradiction in the poeticunity. It is the extension of the organic theory.Second, drama demands a much more impelling ability to melt thediscordant or opposite elements into a new unity. This lays emphasis on theindependent and wisdom of the poem writing, comparing with the spontaneityand unconsciousness canonized by romanticism.4,To watch a drama of "Urn" closelyLet's take the analysis of the Ode on a Grecian urn of Keats in the wellwrought urn as an example of Brooks' poetic critique. This will help usunderstand the metaphors stated above much more better, and find some moreprofound sense in his poetic theory.The urn in Keats' poem acts the truth of the poem. It annotates theparadox of imagination in fictitious and realistic aspects.Brooks' interpretation of the poetry proves that poetry does not need toendure the bounds of the standard of truth. The poetry has its own standard,that is the "dramatized propriety". If the context of the work supports thecomponents of a poem, it possesses the property."Organic context" is the gainsay to the abstracted heresy of paraphrase.The meaning of a poem can only be endowed from its context as a whole. Allthe elements should be bounded by the context. And these elements in a poemalso endure the pressure of the historical context beyond the poem itself, theyare loading with abundant meanings. The poet integrates these meanings intohis poetry to remake the language. From this angle, the poet give life back tothe language and give life back to the world.Both the dramatized propriety conception and the context theory containBrooks' connatural paradox. Brooks lingers between contextualism and thecreative ability of the writer. There are even some remnant effects of Richards'psychology in his poetic theory.5,The myth of poem, the myth of criticismBrooks' critique is the estimation and recovery of the value of poetry. Hehas a firm belief, that is critique shouldn't supersede the poems, meanwhile,criticism should serve the understanding of poetry. And the critique should usethe language which is close to the ambiguous language of poetry. Themetaphors we have discussed above are the examples. The method he used inhis critique is just like a myth.Brooks' critique also predicted the revival of the criticism. The criticismswhich influenced by Brooks are so independent that they will not be afflictedby poem any longer. This is really a irony to Brooks' original intention, andalso a paradox which is derived from his own paradox.ConclusionBrooks' paradox is caused partly by his unconcern of theory building, andpartly because of he lays too much emphasis on the complicated attributes ofliterary phenomena. He noticed us to respect literary phenomena as well as theabundant meanings of the literary works. No creed or theory can replace ourreading of the literary text itself. Brooks' conception on the poetic criticism hasits own importance even at today, and we should always take this point intoaccount.