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 support@jstor.org.

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.

INTENTIONAL
JR. and M.

FALLACY
C. BEARDSLEY

K. WIMSATT,
He

owns with toil he wrote the following scenes; if they're ne'er spare him for his pains: naught, But, no commiseration him the more; have Damn on mature deliberation. For dullness to William Congreve, Prologue The Way of the World

THE

claim judgment cussions, between

of has

the been

author's

"intention"

Heresy,

notably Professors

challenged in the debate Lewis

upon in a number of entitled The

the

critic's dis

recent

Personal

in periodical plicitly 1940 in the Southern ful if this claim

like essays and Kenyon and most of its romantic

and Tillyard, and at least im those in the "Symposiums" of But it seems doubt Reviews.1 corollaries as yet in writers, of literary its implica intention of for are

subject a short

to any widespread questioning. article entitled "Intention" for raised the issue but were

criticism, or tions at any length. We that the design argued nor desirable the author as a standard is neither available

present a Dictionary2 to pursue unable

The

the success of a work of literary judging art, and it seems to us that this is a principle which into some differences in goes deep the history of critical attitudes. It is a principle which accepted or to the polar opposites of classical "imitation" points rejected and romantic expression. It entails many specific truths and about scholar biography, literary history trends of contemporary poetry, especially a There is hardly of literary criticism problem

inspiration, ship, and

authenticity, about some

its allusiveness.

in which

the critic's approach will not be qualified by his view

shall which use the to what he term, corresponds or less has had wide explicitly the poet's performance, we must

of "intention." as we "Intention," in a formula intended acceptance. "In order

more

to judge

WIMSATT

AND

BEARDSLEY

469

know

what

he

intended." Intention has

Intention obvious

thor's mind. titude We marized toward begin and

or is design in the au plan at for the author's affinities

our

the way he felt, what made his work, him write. a series of sum discussion with propositions to a degree into Stoll where they seem to us axio

abstracted

if not truistic. matic, 1. A poem does not come as Professor words of a poem,

existence has

by

accident. come

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.

2. One question

must about

ask how intention.

a critic How

to get an answer to the expects is he to find out what the poet if the poet did not succeed, and the critic must go evidence, And of an one intention that did not be in the caveat must be borne when his

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 mind," ory effective in the poem. says an eminent

"Only

intentionalist3 "the act,

in a moment

itself; repudiates ment of the creative itself." 3. Judging One demands that we mean infer a poem that the A

at the mo be judged poet's aim must that is to say, by the art of the poem a or a machine. pudding an artifact works because "A poem should not

is like

it work. intention poem

judging It is only

of an artificer. can be only it isy simply

but be."

its medium no excuse

is words?yet for inquiring

its meaning?since through in the sense that we have is, is intended or meant.4 Poetry

what

part

is a feat of style by which a complex of meaning

at once.

is handled all

succeeds because all or most of what is said or Poetry is relevant; what is irrelevant has been excluded, like implied from pudding and "bugs" from machinery. In this re lumps poetry differs from practical messages, which are success

spect

470
ful if and

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 than, a physical like an apple. rather But even a short object lyric poem is dramatic, the response to a situation of a speaker (no matter thoughts and and speaker, inference. an author, it is only to write how (no matter how universal attitudes of the

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 it. that he

if to the author

act of in which intention, intended

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 yet he's not the man in search of was not we were the man in search of. we wanted."5

"and constable, the man we were

a critic," asks Professor a Stoll, "... judge, who does own consciousness, his but determines the author's explore or intention, as if the poem were a will, a contract, or meaning "Is not not the constitution? very diagnosed he prefers. Our critic's own at birth is not poem two forms accurately The view is yet the author's the critic's own."8 He has of irresponsibility, The different. poem is detached from one which is not the

(it and goes about the world to intend his power beyond it or control about to the public. The It is poem belongs it). 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 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

and not

the author

WIMSATT

AND

BEARDSLEY

471

than

a certain "We

amount

. . . from

a standard standard

he adds, experience position." preferred every deference

of

may the poet when Professor Wellek the poem

take as this

And experience." the relevant experience the on completed the problem com has

contemplating in a fine essay

to call individual

from "a system of norms," "extracted to Mr. Richards' and he objects experience," to the poet as reader. We side with Professor Wellek to make the poet our Dictionary argued7 that there the poem) (outside Ananda article, Mr. are two kinds an authority. K. Coomara

in not wishing A critic of swamy, wrork of art: whether at all" Mr. has

the artist achieved (1) whether ever to have the work of art "ought it is worth and so "whether preserving." is not

about a of enquiry his intentions; (2) been undertaken

maintains, Coomaraswamy art qua work of art," but is rather moral that But we maintain is artistic criticism. criticism: that there is another way of art are worth

"criticism

Number (2), of of any work number criticism; (1) need not be moral (2)

whether works of deciding in a sense, they "ought" and whether, preserving to have been undertaken, criticism and this is the way of objective us to distinguish art as such, the way which enables of of works a skilful murder Mr. and a skilful poem. uses, the A and skilful in his murder is an example the difference "moral" which

between

between

Coomaraswamy the murder and

one, since one, not an "artistic" to plan is "artistically" successful. cording an enquiry more worth than (1), is of (2)

system a is simply poem out ac each if carried We and maintain that and the

is capable of distinguishing (1) name "artistic is properly criticism" II It is not so much

not

poetry given to

since (2), from murder, (2).

historical

statement, is a romantic fallacy writes: first century A.D.,

as an analytic an empirical not a judgment, to say that the intentional but a definition, one. When a rhetorician, of the presumably "Sublimity is the echo of a great soul,"

472
or tells us that

THE

INTENTIONAL

FALLACY

"Homer the

enters full this

into

the

sublime

actions

of

his

heroes" not be

and "shares

surprised terms by and greeted in the warmest of romanticism harbinger a critic as Saintsbury. so romantic One may wish to argue whether be called but there can hardly be a should romantic,8 Longinus doubt that in one three important way he is. criticism" reasonable it out?" the system are "What and If one sensi leaves Goethe's did ble, out the for "'constructive questions set out to do? Was his plan he succeed one has in carrying in effect

to find

inspiration rhetorician

of the combat," we shall as a distant considered

the author and how the middle culmination The

far did

question, and crowning beautiful

of Croce?

ticism.

is the

the ugly is the unsuccessful; or it the aesthetic fact, and the medium public part at all. Yet aesthetic of aesthetic subject reproduction remain equal." only "if all the other conditions grow Oil-paintings the text of a poem ing. dark, frescoes fade, is corrupted by bad statues copyists

of roman philosophic expression successful and intuition-expression, or private the intuition part of art in not takes the place

. . . lose noses or bad print

The Madonna of Cimabue is still in the Church but does she speak to the visitor Maria Novella; as to the Florentines of the thirteenth century? Historical

of of

Santa to-day

... to reintegrate in us the labours interpretation have conditions which in the course 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) first italics are Croce's, is an ambiguous the second ours. The

The

Croce's

of upshot on history. With such system emphasis a critic may write a close as a point of departure passages analysis or "spirit" a or Corneille of the meaning of play of Shakespeare process that involves close historical study but remains aes

?a

WIMSATT

AND

BEARDSLEY

473
or other seems to

thetic kinds have

criticism?or of non-aesthetic more

he may

write

given has "What

history. of a boost to the

sociology, biography, Crocean The system latter way

Columbia

the poet tried to do," asks we have Lecture from which already

of writing. in his Spingarn quoted,

1910 "and

how has he fulfilled his intention?" The place to look for "in
ugliness, superable" of is the "region the book into theory as Marguerite of their 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 Wilkinson's to 1931?where inspirational New about Voices, "as old as the ages "Realization." where quarters I. A. Richards'

the poetry . . . retain We close

one might fourfold distinction "intention" has

symbols and freshness" through strength two examples this section with from least expect a taint of the Crocean. Mr. of meaning been

1919

intentionalism of

probably in the past fifteen years, though "This function [intention]," self-repudiation: the others." T?te writes

into "sense," "tone," "feeling," the most statement of influential it contains a hint

ards, "is not on all fours with Mr. Allen of Poetry" Types We must

says Mr. Rich In an essay on "Three

as follows:

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 compete with science. The will asserts 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 imposed upon the material from ley's it does not grow out of the material. above; last sentence contains The the terms a promise reason why "will" of objective analysis which so the essay relies heavily and "imagination" is that Mr. of a kind of insincerity (ro

The is not

fulfilled. on

throughout T?te is accusing

the romantic

poets

474
manticism something whole of of

THE

INTENTIONAL

FALLACY

in reverse)

and

at the

same

and perhaps mysterious a "wholeness of vision life,"

to describe is trying an "imaginative indescribable, time

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 criticism describe, to describe?in but which terms doubtless that may

at a particular moment us the quality which of the "yields something at the moment If a poet had a toothache of con the like experience, that. He but Mr. is think he of

in this essay at least it is the prime need be publicly tested.

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. . . . there is a person present Will you believe me? hardly not have talked better their poetry who would about than I knew that not by wisdom Then did themselves. do they but by a sort of genius write and inspiration. poetry, poets I went That mav reiterated have been mistrust part of of the poets which we hear a rigorously ascetic view from Socrates we

in which

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 tionately has proceeded from the poets themselves. remembered, the poets have had something to say that the ana Certainly not say; their message has been more could lyst and professor

come as naturally as leaves to a tree, that poetry should exciting: or that it is emotion that poetry is the lava of the imagination, 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 often give. Thus There and a kind is only a fine of earnest Carlyle,

authors

Edward

Young,

Pater:

WIMSATT

AND

BEARDSLEY

475

I know golden Reverence This them: moved flerey every would

golden in Composition, thyself.

two

are no less rules from ethicsy which 1. Know than in life. thyself; 2dly,

is the grand let him who

secret would

for finding readers move and convince

and convinced Horace's himself. sense than is applicable in a wider we might to every writer, say: Be poet, be believed.

and retaining others, be first rule, Si vis me the literal one. To true, if you

no craft at all, without there can be no merit, that. Truth! all beauty is in the long run only fineness And of further, or what we call expression, the finer accommodation truth, of speech to that vision within. And Housman's illustration: drunk little handbook to the poetic mind yields the

following Having to the

a is a sedative pint of beer at luncheon?beer are the least and my afternoons intellectual brain, out for a walk of my would life?I of two or go portion three hours. As I went of nothing in par along, thinking at things around me and following the ticular, only looking of the seasons, there would flow into my mind, progress a line writh sudden and unaccountable sometimes emotion,
or two of verse, sometimes a whole stanza at once. . . .

This

terminus of the series already Here quoted. logical is a confession of how poems were written which would do as a definition as well as "emotion of poetry in recollected just tranquillity"?and as a to heart which rule. the young poet might equally a Drink pint of beer, in particular, look at things, for the inside truth in your discover own and well take

is the

walking,

yourself to the sound vraie v?rit?.

practical on nothing to yourself, search think of your own

relax, go surrender soul, express listen the

voice,

476
It is probably

THE

INTENTIONAL

FALLACY

true

that

all

this

is excellent

advice

for

poets.

The

young

imagination fired by Wordsworth

and Carlyle

is

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 day has probably in in young further gone persons, poetry closer than from can do ever before. Books School of are creative the Lincoln such as those issued writing evidence of what a child interesting

to manage himself All how if taught this, honestly.10 to an art separate from criticism, would appear to belong however, one might or to a discipline call the psychology of com which an individual and private valid and useful, culture, yoga, position, system of self-development to notice, but different well
poems,

or

which from

the young do poet would the public science of evaluating critics than most poets have in Arnold

Coleridge been, and perhaps which ment, of producing and

and Arnold if the critical

were

better

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

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 are day may the with arrive science when the psychology of objective evaluation, if the be convenient "fidelity," is composition but so far they of the passwords of "au

It would separate. intentional "sincerity," school,

with "genuineness," "originality," thenticity," as "integrity," "func terms of analysis such "relevance," "unity," and "adequacy," and other with "maturity," "subtlety," 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

"spontaneity," could be equated

WIMSATT

AND

BEARDSLEY

477

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 that the earlier or "it may was not successful in objectifying the attempt that it was a successful also mean objectification us we disowned when it confronted and clearly, of another."11 What Professor this is the standard Ducasse does by which not say. in the

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 of the work something

standard

is an element

reduce

to terms

evaluation against

of art remains outside IV the

of objectification. the work public;

is

measured

author.

There author takes can

is criticism

of which

psychology, the form of historical

poetry when

and

there

applied

a literary biography, and attractive as Mr. in itself, one approach, legitimate study to personality, would the poem argue, Tillyard being only a a it need not be with approach. parallel Certainly derogatory out personal that one points as distinct from purpose studies, in the realm of literary Yet there studies, poetic scholarship. be is danger the fault There for of confusing personal of writing the personal is a difference of between a poem. and and there is poetic studies; as if it were poetic. internal and external evidence the paradox of is only a poem, verbal

inspirational promotion; too, and then we have

is, as we have seen, to the present or future but author psychology

the meaning

And

and superficial that what is (1) internal is also public: it is dis

covered our the semantics and syntax through habitual of the language, knowledge all the literature all which that makes a through grammars, of diction through is the source

and dictionaries, aries, in general while of what

through

is (2) external as a linguistic the work

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 at the death of what on what friend or 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 so subtly that it is not always shade into one another easy (3), to draw a line between The use for criticism. 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. And the meaning of his of his utterance. On the other of a critic who is concerned with

because intentionalism, author it may intended, words and the dramatic hand, in the it may not be all run

evidence of type (1) and moderately with that of type (3) will
long produce a different sort of comment from that

of the critic who is concerned with type (2) and with it shades into (2).
The whole glittering for

(3) where

to of Professor Lowes' Road parade runs along the border between Xanadu, instance, 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 it would their Lowes seem that This there return." or fortuitous is nothing in haphazard even when Professor is not quite clear?not

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 face, that may mean ( 1 ) that Coleridge could not produce what

WIMSATT he did had not

AND

BEARDSLEY

479

read

certain

that he was limited in his creation he have, by what or or otherwise that having received experienced, (2) to return of associations, he was bound them in clusters and that the value of the on which the experiences sort of Hartleyan of propositions (a pair to. There were poem he had be may to draw.

just the way he did, in terms of described The latter

associationism

which Coleridge
be assented

himself repudiated in the Biographia) may not

other other certainly combinations, that might have been written by men who and Bruce and Milton. And

or better, poems, worse and Purchas had read Bartram this will be true no matter

the brilliant

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 Magical like "The Shaping Synthesis," Spirit," "Imagina be that Professor than Lowes he does. to say pretends There is a certain to

more

it may tion Creatrix," about the actual variation to a new sources,

deceptive pass on and more

?,1,-3 tion."

poems in these fancy chapter in the argument, stage more about "the

one expects titles; and one finds?more nature of associa

streamy

"Wohin his book.

Lowes der Weg?" quotes Professor Ins Unbetretene." "Kein Weg! is unbetreten y we should contains Floridan Travels romantic And say, a good it leads

for

the motto

of

Precisely

because from

the way poem. certain "Kubla and was haps than

Bartram's words Khan." then and

a good deal the very stuff of our language. Per passing a person who has read Bartram the poem more appreciates one who the vocabulary has not. of up Or, by looking into Khan" of the in the Oxford English Dictionary a person there quoted, other books seem to pertain But it would little had read Bartram. experience, There which and mental y or by reading know the may

the away deal of the history of that appear in conceptions of that history has passed

"Kubla some poem know of ll?c,

better.

that Coleridge ?>f sensory

to the poem to is a gross body lies behind and

480
in some be known is the sense

THE

INTENTIONAL

FALLACY

causes

every

poem,

but

can never

be and need

not

in the verbal For the all

and hence the objects

intellectual of

poem. for

which composition our manifold experience,

especially an action or talk It book The where indeed about.

intellectual which never

of the mind we should

for every unity, there is objects, cuts off roots, melts context? away or ideas or anything to have objects

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 with view in our poem evidence of a poem critical of so far type (3) has gone a case not so obvious as (yet the

preoccupation as to distort a critic's those that abound

In a well-known quatrain: Moving Men But of

journals). by John Donne

appears

following

th'

earth what

reckon

harmes brings it did and meant,

and

feares,

of the spheares, trepidation is innocent. greater farre, Though in an elaborate treatment of Donne's learning has

recent

critic of

written ...

this quatrain

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 poet must is a valediction exhort 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), the tension of the moment without suggests arousing tingly in the figure of the mov and feares" the "harmes implicit his
ing earth.1*

WIMSATT

AND

BEARDSLEY

481
thesis and Donne its

The

is plausible and rests on a well-substantiated argument was deeply that Donne in the new astronomy interested In various Stella works

in the theological realm. repercussions shows his familiarity with Kepler's De leo's with He Siderius Clavius's refers NunciuSy with William

Gilbert's

on the De commentary to the newT science in his Sermon

with Gali Novay De Magnetey and of Sacrobosco. Sphaera at Paul's Cross and

In The First he Goodyer. Anniversary calls all in doubt." on In the Elegy says philosophy Prince Henry he says that the "least moving of the center" makes to shake." "the world the "new It answer Donne celestial if we is difficult it with might motion become to answer evidence not have stood full of like this, argument of like nature. There a stanza sorts of in which emotion and two and to impossible is no reason why the two kinds of And

in a letter

to Sir Henry

written for

only that science, we may believe itself remains to be dealt the analyz with, able vehicle of a complicated one may And observe: metaphor. 1 ) that the movement of the earth according to the ( Copernican is a celestial motion, smooth and regular, and while it theory cause religious or it could not be associ might philosophic fears, ated with the crudity and earthiness of the kind of commotion against he did. the background But the text of the new

astronomical

ideas

at parting. see Donne

which
there

the speaker in the poem wishes

is another of

to discourage;

(2)

that

the earth, an which has earthquake, is to be associated with the tear-floods just and of the second stanza of the poem; that "trepi sigh-tempests (3) dation" is an appropriate of earthquake, because each is opposite a or and "trepidation of the spheres" shaking vibratory motion; 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

motion of the earth; (4) that reckoning what it "did and meant"
shows that the event celestial incessant 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 antithesis the core to prefer of gard the English language, to internal. external

science stanza

add another may in question, though To make the geo-centric is to disre to public,

the metaphor evidence private

V If the distinction between critic, it has kinds them of no evidence less has implications the contemporary for a poet is but another for

for the historical and his critic.

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 may of taste, and the critical leaders say that the problems are the intentional in literary from arising scholarship fallacy matched by others which arise in the world of progressive ex

periment. The question by the poetry

of "allusiveness," of Eliot, is certainly

for example, one where

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 not one recognizes whether the that movement itself, by to be from Spenser. refrain

WIMSATT

AND

BEARDSLEY

483
to a great suggestive and extent power. it is a

Eliot's

allusions

work

when

we

know

them?and their

even when But

we do not know we find

sometimes

them, allusions

through

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 . . . that is to an appreciation of thing of importance apposite 'The Waste writes Mr. Matthiessen of Miss Weston's Land'," book, self, "has been incorporated Notes." into And the with structure of the poem it or into Eliot's such an admission

by notes, supported notes function more

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 because but it is doubtful whether existed, can be said The for an allusion sound to an obscure Elizabethan: which spring. shall something the same

Sweeney "Cf. Day,

of horns and motors, to Mrs. Porter in the of Bees:"

bring

Parliament of

says Eliot,

When A noise Actaeon Where The quite

a sudden, you shall hear, listening, which shall bring of horns and hunting, to Diana in the spring, all shall see her naked skin. . . . the quotation itself; to these lines composed by be no Eliot's of validity. next note: "I loss these lines had Eliot, furnish his The do are not as is

irony

is completed

concenceivable, there would background, grow of origin as one the reads ballad

own

conviction know the

may

from which

taken:

it was

to me from Sydney, Australia." The reported Mrs. Porter this note?on and her daughter

in important word who washed their

484
feet the need

THE

INTENTIONAL

FALLACY

in soda water?is lines for themselves the note.

"ballad." their "ballad"

And

if one

should

feel

from

Ultimately, of such notes as parts integrity about information stitute special

there would be little quality, the inquiry must focus on the of the poem, for where they con

poem, they other words notes were

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

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 the price Eliot "had have considered muffling muffling. on which stratum of the explanatory poems or poetic the dramatic is built stuff is a dangerous F. W. Mr. has plausibly that Bateson argued responsibility. "The Sailor Boy" would if half the stanzas be better Tennyson's The omission from were omitted, owe Spens" and their 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, minstrel has taken 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 poem, necessary similated material loose beside for the lying meaning of the verbal symbol, but not integrated, so that 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 like

notes to the

author's parts

yet they ought any intention, judged to a particular of a composition arrangement (verbal special so judged and when their reality as parts of the poem, context), or their imaginative the rest of the poem, may with integration come into titles question. for poems Mr. Matthiessen, and his epigraphs for are instance, informative sees

other

that

Eliot's

appara

WIMSATT

AND

BEARDSLEY

485

tus, and

like

the notes. that Eliot at the same

But while

thinks

the note

Matthiessen it," Mr. struc of not being sufficiently "is not at all open to the objection to enable to secure the poet he says, "is intention" tural." "The a condensed epigraph poem." practice The expression in the to form is designed And Eliot in terms

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

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 in two ways: in mv mind because he is associated 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)

bitrarily, with the Fisher King himself.

And more perhaps he is to be taken in his Norton in a note, than when 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 meaning I would when be very fine; My But the fact is that I have nothing planned to be a moment it were Unless merry. If Eliot fault, we and it may other be contemporary poets too much.1" in planning is one of several the more the most would abstract have any characteristic

Allusiveness have

in poetry

critical

issues by which

illustrated be for today

issue of

it may practice

allusiveness

important appear to be

but intentionalism, a illustration. As poetic an in some recent poems

486
extreme

THE

INTENTIONAL

FALLACY

corollary as a critical issue

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 intentionalist Pr?f rock," towards each the mermaids semblance the end, occurs to each," and the line: "I have this bears "Teach me heard re a certain

the

romantic

Alfred

Mermaides

singing, to a line in a Song by John Donne, so that for the reader singing," the

to heare to a cer

acquainted

with Donne's tain degree poetry, to Donne's? line an allusion Eliot's Donne? Is Eliot are two radically There question. which thinking different

critical Is Pr?f We

about Donne? of

arises: Is question rock thinking about that there suggest an answer to this

inquires about Donne. thinking Prufrock asks, "Would

ways is ( 1 ) the way whether it makes In an it have into

looking

for

of poetic analysis and exegesis, sense if Eliot-Prufrock is any earlier been part of the poem, when . . . To have worth while, his words take half their and the passionate lines of

the universe squeezed and irony from sadness Marvel may (To child maids, which "To wonder hear His

a ball,"

certain Mistress."

Coy whether mermaids is in Donne's

energetic But

considered

a mandrake

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,

them

inquirer exegetical as "strange sights" to getting with analogous

de Nerval. This method of in by G?rard to the conclusion lead that the given resemblance be quiry may tween Eliot and Donne is without and is better not significance thought viding is the of, or the method no certain conclusion. true and objective of may the disadvantage we submit Nevertheless, of criticism, as contrasted have of that pro this

in a line of a sonnet

way

to what

the very critic quiry,

uncertainty to undertake: in which,

tempt a second kind of exegesis might or genetic the way of biographical in (2) of the fact that Eliot is still taking advantage

WIMSATT and alive, critic writes in mind. Eliot all in the

AND

BEARDSLEY who would

487 settle a bet, the or if he had Donne

a man spirit of to Eliot and asks what shall answer not here

We

he meant, the probabilities?whether weigh at all, nothing answer to such furnish point a clear such had

would in mind?a

that he meant good might Our

in an unguarded irrefutable limit, such an

sufficiently moment answer.

nothing a question?or and, within an answer

at

its to

is that

to do with the poem "Pru have nothing inquiry would un not be a critical Critical it would inquiries, inquiry. frock;" are not in this way. Critical like bets, are not settled inquiries the oracle. settled by consulting

FOOTNOTES

173-94; Modem

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. 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
1940;

INTENTIONAL
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.

Cambridge, Inspiration, 1942. phia, The nCurt Ducasse,

psychology' and "Tra his though 1941, pp.