Tradition and the Individual Talent MCQ Quiz : 20 Questions

Updated On: 11/01/2026

Tradition and the Individual Talent MCQ Quiz with 20 Questions

Tradition and the Individual Talent MCQ Quiz : This essay explains the meaning of tradition in poetry and how a poet must relate to the past. The writer says that English critics seldom use the word tradition positively. Many people think tradition means copying old ways or repeating old styles, but true tradition is deeper. Tradition means feeling the whole past living inside the present, not only the work of one or two poets.

Table of Contents

Every poet inherits a long line of writing. A mature writer understands that poetry of past ages—from Homer to Shakespeare—exists side by side with modern literature. Tradition must be earned by hard work, not merely by admiration. It needs a historical sense: the ability to feel that literature of all periods forms one ongoing order. When a new poem appears, this order shifts slightly to make room for it. In this way, the past shapes the present, and the present also reshapes the past.

A major idea here is impersonality in poetry. An artist should not simply express private feelings or personal biography. Rather, the poet must allow emotions, images, memories, and experiences—maybe his own, maybe others’—to combine and transform inside the mind. The poet’s mind is like a catalyst—a substance that helps create a chemical reaction without becoming part of the product. Likewise, the poet remains separate from the poem. Poetry becomes a new creation made from ordinary emotions, but shaped by pressure and art.

Key Ideas in the Essay

Concept	Meaning
Tradition	Living connection with all past literature
Historical Sense	Feeling past and present together
Poet’s Mind	A catalyst that transforms emotion
Impersonality	Poetry is separate from the poet’s personal life

The essay finally points out that critics should value poems more than poets. True appreciation understands that the emotion in art is impersonal, created by fusion of many elements. Only poets with genuine feeling can escape personality and create art that lives beyond the individual. [Full Text]

Tradition and the Individual Talent MCQ Quiz

Tradition and the Individual Talent Quiz

1 / 20

1. In which year was T.S. Eliot’s essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent" first published?

A. 1919

B. 1922

C. 1920

D. 1918

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2. Which literary magazine first published "Tradition and the Individual Talent"?

A. The Times Literary Supplement

B. The Athenaeum

C. The Criterion

D. The Egoist

3 / 20

3. The essay was later included in which famous 1920 collection of Eliot’s essays?

A. Selected Essays

B. The Waste Land and other Poems

C. Homage to John Dryden

D. The Sacred Wood

4 / 20

4. To which literary period does this essay belong?

A. Modernist Period

B. Victorian Period

C. Romantic Period

D. Post-modernist Period

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5. According to Eliot in Part 1, how is the word "traditional" usually employed in literary criticism?

A. To denote historical accuracy

B. As a term of highest praise

C. In a derogatory or censuring sense

D. To describe classical authors only

6 / 20

6. What do readers typically look for when appreciating a writer, according to Eliot?

A. Their use of archaic language

B. Their moral standing

C. The way they stand out from their predecessors (difference)

D. Their adherence to classical rules

7 / 20

7. Eliot claims that the best parts of a poet’s work are often those in which:

A. The poet is most unique

B. The poet breaks completely with the past

C. The poet expresses his personal suffering

D. The dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality

8 / 20

8. The essay suggests that if 'tradition' is used agreeably, it usually implies a reference to which science?

A. Chemistry

B. Biology

C. Psychology

D. Archaeology

9 / 20

9. According to the author, criticism is as inevitable as what bodily function?

A. Sleeping

B. Seeing

C. Eating

D. Breathing

10 / 20

10. When praising a poet, the author notes that people tend to dwell upon which aspects of the work?

A. The historical context

B. Those in which he least resembles anyone else

C. The technical flaws

D. Those which resemble his ancestors

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11. What specifically does the 'historical sense' involve, according to the text of the essay?

A. A perception of the pastness of the past and of its presence

B. Prophesying the future

C. A rejection of modern themes

D. A knowledge of dates and biographies

12 / 20

12. The historical sense compels a man to write with which generation in his bones?

A. His own generation

B. The Victorian generation

C. Future generations

D. The generation of Homer

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13. How does the author describe the existence of the whole literature of Europe?

A. As a linear progression

B. As a graveyard of dead ideas

C. As a simultaneous existence composing a simultaneous order

D. As a chaotic collection of distinct works

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14. What happens to the existing order of monuments when a new work of art is introduced?

A. The new work is rejected

B. The whole existing order is altered

C. The old monuments lose their value completely

D. Nothing changes

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15. The author emphasizes that a poet must inevitably be judged by what?

A. The standards of the past

B. The politics of his time

C. The sales of his books

D. The canons of dead critics

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16. When the author says the poet is 'judged' by the past, he clarifies that this judgment is strictly a...?

A. Competition

B. Amputation

C. Condemnation

D. Comparison

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17. What is the difference between the present and the past according to the essay?

A. The conscious present is an awareness of the past

B. The past was more creative

C. The present is smarter

D. There is no difference

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18. Regarding the learning required of a poet, the author believes that Shakespeare acquired more essential history from which source?

A. Plutarch

B. Holinshed's Chronicles

C. Oxford University

D. The British Museum

19 / 20

19. The author compares the process of depersonalization in art to the condition of which field?

A. Philosophy

B. Religion

C. Politics

D. Science

20 / 20

20. To reach impersonality, the poet must surrender himself wholly to...?

A. The work to be done

B. The audience

C. His emotions

D. The critics

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Girdhari Lal Suthar

Girdhari Lal Suthar is a dedicated Senior Teacher in English and the founder of Gyankundli.com. With 2+ years of blogging experience, he shares valuable content on English Grammar, Literature, Language, and Educational updates, helping aspirants, students and teachers stay informed and prepared.

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