PAPER- LITERARY CRITICISM

Explication of The Language of Paradox- Part 1

Introduction
Cleanth Brooks (1906-1994), the influential American New Critic is known for his
works, The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry(1947) and Modern
Poetry and the Tradition (1939). Brooks’ main argument in his theory of poetry is that
the best way to understand poetry is through the use of ambiguity and paradox. The
critic Leitch is of the opinion that Brooks has assisted in formulating formalist criticism
by emphasizing “the interior life of a poem” and advocating the dictum of close reading.
Brooks asserts that the language of poetry is different from science. Paradox springs
from the poet’s language: “It is a language in which the connotations play as great part
as denotations.” The poet has to device new ways of expressing his concerns, working
within limits and to achieve this, he has “to make up his language”. This means that the
poet must make conscious effort to convey the precise meaning through the use of
poetic language. Words are changeable and accordingly meaning changes when words
are placed in relation to one another.

Influences on Cleanth Brooks

Brooks became involved with two movements, The Southern Agrarians and The
Fugitives, while studying with Ransom and Warren. The Southern Agrarian Manifesto,
I’ll Take My Stand influenced his ideas on what good life is and how it should be. Brooks
did not object to the traditions of the South, which were conservative. The Fugitive
Movement influenced his approach to criticism. The Fugitives were a group of Southern
poets that included Ransom, Tate, Davidson, and Warren. The group would meet on
Saturday evenings to read and discuss poetry written by the members of the group.
Intensive reading that concentrated on the poem’s form, structure, imagery, and rhyme
scheme was conducted. This close analysis of the poems perhaps laid the foundation
for the New Critical movement and helped Brooks to formulate his critical principles.
The Title Well Wrought Urn and Significance of the Title
The book’s title comes from the fourth and penultimate stanza of John Donne’s
“The Canonization”:

We can die by it, if not live by love,

And if unfit for tombs and hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse;
And if no piece of chronicle we prove,
We’ll build in sonnets pretty rooms;
As well a well-wrought urn becomes
The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,
And by these hymns, all shall approve
Us canonized for love.
 The idea of the autonomy of the literary text is crucial to New Criticism. The New
Critics consider the literary language to be a form of special language and they insist
that while approaching a text, the readers need to focus on the system of relationships
operating within the text only and not beyond it. Being different from the other uses of
language, the system ensures that the literary artefact is independent. For some of the
New Critics, the metaphors involved were spatial; suggesting a view of the poem to be
an enclosed space or a container. The most enduring of this analysis is Brooks’ view of
the poem as a well wrought urn. The literary text is a free standing entity, an
autonomous object containing meanings that are specific to the context provided by the
text.
Since the literary text is considered to be an autonomous whole, the New Critic
distrusts paraphrase. To paraphrase a poem is to translate it from one medium to
another, and therefore to substitute one kind of meaning with another. This means the
textual meaning that arises from the textual context and provides the poem’s organic
system of relationships into a medium in which that system does not operate. A poem’s
meaning is specific to the system of relationships within that poem. Meaning is not only
context specific but also a part of the overall experience of the poem, for instance how it
sounds, and how it appears on the page. Paraphrase necessarily means the loss of
this context, the experience of the poem and hence the import of the complete poem.
For the New Critics, paraphrase is, as Brooks firmly puts it in the well wrought urn, “a
heresy”.

The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry

The eleven chapters
1. The Language of Paradox
2. Naked Babe and the Cloak of Manliness
3. The Light Symbolism in “L’Allegro – IlPenseroso”
4. What does poetry communicate?
5. The Case of Miss Arabella Fermer
6. Grey’s Stories Urn
7. Wordsworth and the Paradox of the Imagination
8. Keat’s Sylvan Historian: History without Footnotes
9. The Motivation of Tennyson’s Weeper
10. Yeat’s Great Rooted Blossomer
11. The Heresy of paraphrase
Appendix I Criticism, History and Critical Relativism
Appendix 2 The Problem of Belief and the Problem of Cognition
Appendix 3 Text of Poems

The Works Analysed by Cleanth Brooks in The Well Wrought Urn

William Shakespeare Macbeth (1606)

John Donne “The Canonisatio” (1633)
John Milton “L’Allegro/ Il Penseroso”(1631/1645)
Robert Herrick “Corinna’s Gone- A-Maying’ (1648)
Alexander Pope “The Rape of the Lock” (1712)
Thomas Gray “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”(1751)
William Wordsworth “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections
ofEarly Childhood.” (1807)
John Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn (1820)
Lord Alfred Tennyson “Tears, Idle Tears” (1847)
W.B.Yeats “Among School Children” (1927)

The Essay
“The Language of Paradox” is the first essay in the collection of essays in The
Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry. Traditional theorists consider
paradox to be a mere figure of speech but the critics of the twentieth century; especially
Cleanth Brooks extend the meaning and application of the term to connote several
deviations from common perception. They elevate the term paradox to a position that is
helpful in comprehending how its application would encompass a range of surprising
meanings that would be constructive for poetry.
Brooks commences the essay with the pronouncement: “Few of us are prepared
to accept the statement that the language of poetry is the language of paradox.” He
points out to several objections and negative views held by people with regard to the
meaning and use of the term paradox. Brooks expresses regret that critics disapprove
of assigning value to paradox because they do not consider it as an effective device for
writing poetry. Despite prejudice and the disheartening approach towards
understanding the value of paradox in poetic language, Brooks asserts that “…the
language of poetry is the language of paradox.”
Paradox literarily means the assertion of the unification of opposites; however,
Brooks assigns a greater function to paradox. According to him, paradox lends a
dramatisation of experience. A poet’s experiences are often diverse, dissonant, crude,
common and complex. He can neither present them as a statement nor as an
abstraction like a scientist. The poet adopts an indirect method to unify the complexity of
human experiences into one whole to assign the manifestation of total experience.
Paradox is an instrument to unify the opposites to form a unique entity. In this way,
paradox becomes “the language appropriate and inevitable to poetry.” A poet cannot
escape from its use because paradox springs from the very nature of poetry consciously
or otherwise.
Brooks makes a crucial distinction between the language of science and poetry.
A scientist expresses the truth through a language which is quite clear, direct and free
from literary devices and paradox, which is “a language purged of every trace of
paradox.” But a poet discovers the truth only in terms of paradox. In order to establish
his contention, Brooks analyses poems very closely and deduces that paradox is one of
the common structural properties contained in poetry. He finds that the use of paradox
in poems would enrich, enliven and render power to situations that employ the device.
This powerful device therefore cannot be considered to be cheap ornamentation that
performs an artificial function. This justifies Brooks’ anger at those who deprive paradox
of its naturalness. He says “our prejudices force us to regard paradox as intellectual
rather than emotional, clever rather than profound, rational rather than divinely
irrational”
Brooks’ Analysis of Paradox in Wordsworth’s Sonnets and the Preface to Lyrical
Ballads
Brooks illustrates examples of the use of paradox from the poems of Wordsworth
and compares the works of Pope to justify his statements about paradox. Wordsworth’s
poetry is characterised by directness, simplicity and unsophistication and yet the typical
Wordsworth sonnet “It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” is based on details.
The opening lines of the sonnet read:
It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration;….
Wordsworth is in the deep mood of adoration but the small girl walking along with him is
unaware of it. She should in fact, keep tune with the holy time and become like the
evening, Nun like. She is less reverent than nature itself. In the next stanza, the poet
notices:
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year;
And worshipp’st at the temples inner shrine,
God being with the when we know it not.
Paradox runs through these lines. The innocent girl maintains a secret communion with
or sympathy for nature throughout the year. With her innocence, she is closer to God,
than the poet who is far off the glory of God. She is filled with deeper worship for God
than the self-conscious poet because of her intimate relationship with Nature. She is
always consumed with sympathy for nature and not as is the speaker, who is in tune
with nature only when he is immersed in it. This reminds Brooks of Coleridge’s message
in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”:
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small.
In the sonnet,“It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free”, paradox has another
dimension to it. It is quite obvious that the tranquility of the evening denotes worship
even to the dull-witted and the insensitive. The tranquil evening also reveals the
religious sentiment of the Nun that is external and visible to all. The paradox lies in the
fact that the Nun’s attitude not only shows Holiness but also the external exhibition of
holiness, which is in direct contrast to the careless innocence of the girl, who cherishes
a continual secret prayer for God.
After this example, Brooks moves on analyses how paradox works in
Wordsworth’s sonnet “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”. The greatness of the
poem, says Brooks does not lie in the noble feelings or in the brilliant images depicted.
The power of the poem lies in the poet’s capacity to present an incongruous situation.
The sonnet contains hackneyed similes and items like towers, ships, domes, theater,
and temples are mentioned, but they do not appear as graphic images. All the objects
of nature, places and buildings flickering in the morning light give a foggy impression.
The paradoxical situation is ingrained in the usual unattractive, noisy, smoky industrial
city of London and the splendour of the morning in the smokeless air:
Never did sun more beautifully steep
 In his first splendour, valley, rock or hill;.…
Through these lines, the poet presents a stark contrast between the actual mechanical
and dull life of London and the freshness and glory of the morning images, the gliding
river, and its natural course. The poet is shocked and amazed watching such a
paradoxical picture of life in London. Under the semblance of death, it acquires the
organic life of nature. Further, the poem ends with the concluding couplet:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
The poet always considered the houses inanimate and dead but at night the houses
would fall asleep in the morning, what appeared to be asleep would come back to life,
as if animate! In addition to that, London, the city that teems with life is also silent and
not dead. Brooks explores the central charm of the poem, which is the treatment of
paradoxical images and thoughts.

Paradox in the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads- The Second Edition

After examining the paradox in Wordsworth’s sonnets, Brooks makes an
estimation of Wordsworth’s statement in the Preface to the second edition of the Lyrical
Ballads that contains paradox. Wordsworth states that his intention is to choose
incidents and situations from common life, but they should be coloured in such a way
that ordinary things would be remain in the mind of the reader in an unusual manner.
Later, Coleridge classifies this statement that Wordsworth aims at lending “the charm of
novelty to things of everyday,” and exciting a feeling of the supernatural awe and
wonder”. The mind, which remains dormant and dull, opens to an avenue of “the
loveliness and the wonders of the world before us….” In other words, it is the
purposeful attempt of Wordsworth to formulate his paradoxical attitude that ‘the
common was really uncommon, the prosaic was really poetic.” The Romantics are
primarily concerned with creating wonder and surprise when presenting the familiar
world in a new light.

Summary
An active member of the New Critical movement, Brooks traces the use of
paradox as an effective tool in reading poems as well as a method of critical
interpretation. By insisting that the poetic language was the language of paradox,
Cleanth Brooks was expressing his basic concept, refusing to look at things simply and
saying what has to be said in a simple manner. This means that Brooks’ criticism of
poetry is complex. His significant declaration is that paradox is “the language
appropriate and inevitable to poetry”. This means that referential language is imprecise
for the specific message that a poet would desire to express. The language of poetry is
different from the language of the sciences. The use of referential language is
insufficient to bring out the exact meaning of words.
On reading of Wordsworth’s sonnets, Brooks arrives at the conclusion that the
paradox used in the poems creates multiple meanings, which is the hallmark of this
poetic device. The paradox at the end of the poem “It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm
and Free” implies that the girl worships nature more than the poet because she is
consumed with sympathy for nature; albeit she does not seem so. In contrast, the poet
is immersed in nature only when he is immersed in admiring nature, which is transitory.
On reading “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”, Brooks asserts that the poet does
not view London city to be a mechanical and artificial landscape, but one that is
encompassed by nature, or in fact the city is a part of nature. With regard to the use of
paradox in the Preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, Brooks mentions
that Wordsworth intentionally uses paradox to express the common in an unusual
manner. In this way, Wordsworth makes the purposeful attempt to formulate his
paradoxical attitude where the commonplace is made colourful and delightful.

References

Web Links
https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.34395/2015.34395.Well-Wrought-Urn-
Studies-In-The-Structure-Of-Poetry_djvu.txt
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27544142?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Well-Wrought-Urn
https://isistatic.org/journal-archive/ma/40_01/gurney.pdf
http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/GardosBalint/New_Criticism_reading.pdf
https://imageryandbeyond.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/the-language-of-paradox-1947-
cleanth-brooks/
http://www.tijdschriftframe.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/03.-Joost-Burgers-Tropes-in-
Distention-Cleanth-Brookes-and-the-Rise-of-the-Paradox-in-Postwar-America-main.pdf

Blamires, Harry. A History of Literary Criticism. Macmillan, 1990.

Brooks, Cleanth. “In Search of New Criticism.” American Scholar, vol. 53, 1984,pp.43.
---. The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry. Brace and Company,
1970.
—. “The Formalist Critics”. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, edited
by Vincent B. Leitch. W.W.Norton and Company, 2001.
Cowan, Louise. The Southern Critics. University of Dellas Press, 1971.
Eagleton Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Basil Blackwell, 1985.
Lodge, David, editor. Twentieth Century Literary Theory: A Reader. Longman, 1972.
Nagarajan, M.S. English Literary Criticism and Theory: An Introductory History. Orient
Longman, 2007.
Newton, K.M. Twentieth Century Literary Theory: A Reader. Macmillan, 1997.
Selden, Raman, editor. The Theory of Criticism from Plato to the Present: A Reader.
Longman,1988.
Singh, R.S., editor, Cleanth Brooks: His Critical Formulations. Advent Books
Division,1991.
Waugh, Patricia, editor. Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide. Oxford
University Press, 2006.

OBJECTIVES
.

 To comprehend the significant aspects of the essay “The Language of Paradox”.

 To outline the contribution of Cleanth Brooks to literary criticism.
 Estimate Cleanth Brooks as a critic.

 Frequently asked Questions (FAQ)

Answer the following questions in a sentence or two.
1.What is Brooks’main argument in his theory of poetry?
a.The best way to understand poetry is through the use of ambiguity and paradox.
2. Brooks became involved with two movements during his early years. Which are they?
a.The Southern Agrarians and The Fugitives
3. What does Ransom’s essay request for?
a.The Fugitives were a group of Southern poets that included Ransom, Tate, Davidson,
and Warren. The group would meet on Saturday evenings to read and discuss poetry
written by the members of the group. Intensive reading that concentrated on the poem’s
form, structure, imagery, and rhyme scheme was conducted. This close analysis of the
poems perhaps laid the foundation for the New Critical movement and helped Brooks to
formulate his critical principles.
4. Which is the central critical principle of New Criticism?
a. The idea of the autonomy of the literary text is crucial to New Criticism. The New
Critics consider the literary language to be a form of special language and they insist
that while approaching a text, the readers need to focus on the system of relationships
operating within the text only and not beyond it.
5.How do theorists differ in their opinions on paradox?
a.Traditional theorists consider paradox to be a mere figure of speech but the critics of
the twentieth century; especially Cleanth Brooks extend the meaning and application of
the term to connote several deviations from common perception. They elevate the term
paradox to a position that is helpful in comprehending how its application would
encompass a range of surprising meanings that would be constructive for poetry.

Answer the questions in a paragraph of 100 words

1. The distinction between the language of science and poetry, according to Brooks.
a. Hints: A scientist expresses the truth through a language - clear, direct and free from
literary devices and paradox- poet discovers the truth only in terms of paradox- poems -
deduces that paradox is one of the common structural properties contained in poetry-
use of paradox in poems - enrich, enliven and render power to situations that employ
the device- cannot be considered to be cheap ornamentation that performs an artificial
function- justifies Brooks’ anger at those who deprive paradox of its naturalness- says
“our prejudices force us to regard paradox as intellectual rather than emotional, clever
rather than profound, rational rather than divinely irrational”

2. How does explain paradox and its function in poetry?

a. Hints:Paradox literarily means the assertion of the unification of opposites; however,
Brooks assigns a greater function to paradox- dramatisation of experience- poet’s
experiences are often diverse, dissonant, crude, common and complex- neither present
them as a statement nor as abstraction like a scientist- indirect method to unify the
complexity of human experiences into one - Paradox is an instrument to unify the
opposites to form a unique entity- “the language appropriate and inevitable to poetry.”
A poet cannot escape from its use because paradox springs from the very nature of
poetry .

Answer the following question in an essay of about 250 words

1. Brooks’ analysis of Paradox in Wordsworth’s sonnets
a. Elaborate:Brooks illustrates examples of the use of paradox from the poems of
Wordsworth - directness, simplicity and unsophistication and yet the typical Wordsworth
sonnet “It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” is based on details-
Wordsworth is in the deep mood of adoration - small girl walking along with him is
unaware of it- less reverent than nature itself- The innocent girl maintains a secret
communion with or sympathy for nature throughout the year- innocence- closer to
God, than the poet - filled with deeper worship for God than the self-conscious poet -
consumed with sympathy for nature and not as is the speaker- in tune with nature only
when he is immersed in it- “It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free”, paradox has
another dimension to it- tranquility of the evening denotes worship even to the dull-
witted and the insensitive- reveals the religious sentiment of the Nun that is external
and visible to all- paradox lies in the fact that the Nun’s attitude not only shows holiness
but also the external exhibition of holiness, which is in direct contrast to the careless
innocence of the girl, who cherishes a continual secret prayer for God.

Quiz
1. What is inevitable to poetry, according to Brooks?
a. Paradox b.tension c.simile d. emotion
2. Which is the manifesto of the The Southern Agrarians?
a.Spectator b.The Kenyon Review c. I’ll Take My Stand d.The Southern Review
3. The title “Well Wrought Urn” is taken from
a.The Canonization b.The Dream c.The Flea d. Holy Sonnets
4. Identify the work where Brooks analysed the use of paradox in the essay “The
Language of Paradox”.
a. Daffodils b. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyardc.The Solitary Reaper
d. The Dream
5. What is specific to the system of relationships within a poem?
a. identity b.language . c.reference d.meaning

Glossary
dictum: pronouncement
assertion: affirmation
contention: opinion; belief
incongruous: incompatible; out of place
inanimate: lifeless
hackneyed: clichéd
dormant: inactive; undeveloped

Assignment
I. Answer the following questions in a sentence or two.
1. Explain the title “The Well Wrought Urn”
2. What do the New Critics mention about literary language?
3. Name the two movements that influenced Cleanth Brooks.
4. How does Brooks begin the essay “The Language of Paradox”?
5. What are considered to be the impediments to objective criticism?
II. Answer the questions in a paragraph of 100 words
1. Paradox in the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads.
2. The importance of paradox in poetry, according to Brooks
3. Comparison between the use paradox in the sonnets of Wordsworth

III. Answer the following questions in an essay of about 250 words

1. Justify Brooks’ statement: “…the language of poetry is the language of paradox.”

Subject Expert (Official Address)

Dr. C.G.Shyamala
Assistant Professor
Post-graduate Dept. of English and
Research Centre for Comparative Studies
Mercy College, Palakkad
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