Tradition and the Poet’s Talent: A Comparative Study between Abdul-Aziz Al.Maqaleh and T.S. Eliot

Abstract EN

Abdul-Aziz Al.Maqaleh (1939- ) and Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) suggest comparison for the tremendous influence they had each on the literary trend of their age.

Both of them had played crucial roles in the promotion of a distinct poetic style.

Eliot‘s modernist approach, however, exerted a wider influence on poets from all over the world including our poet, Al.Maqaleh.

This paper, therefore, endeavours to explore the modernist aspects in the writings of Al.Maqaleh and Eliot particularly with regards to tradition and the role of the poet and to what extent Eliot‘s modernist views informed and shaped Al.Maqaleh‘s poetic outlook.

Both poets preserved a great deal of reverence for their literary traditions.

Al.Maqaleh, I argue, voices similar views like that of Eliot‘s on the importance of tradition and how tradition is indispensable for the artistic conception.

This study is also concerned with framing a discussion of the poet‘s talent in relation to literary tradition, experimentation and in reconciling between the past and the present through employing symbols, myths, and allusions to historical literary texts in an innovative way.

Through close readings, I use the poets‘ essays and some lines of their poems as my primary source and enrich my study with secondary sources.

The reason behind the choice of this topic is to address a gap by throwing more light on the aspects of Eliot‘s influence and its nature, especially tradition and the role of the poet‘s talent, having realized that this topic has indeed received very little attention.

It is concluded that Al.Maqaleh and Eliot shared a similar attitude towards poetic experimentation and innovation yet their appreciation of the past and insistence on the preservation of tradition prove unquestionable.