The Intentional Fallacy-Wimsatt

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
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THE
By
W.
FALLACY
INTENTIONAL
K. WIMSATT,
and
JR.
M.
C.
BEARDSLEY
owns with
toil he wrote
the following
scenes;
if they're
ne'er spare him for his pains:
naught,
But,
no
him the more;
have
commiseration
Damn
on mature
deliberation.
For dullness
to
William
Congreve,
Prologue
The Way
of the World
He
THE
claim
judgment
cussions,
between
Heresy,
of
the
has
been
notably
Professors
author's
"intention"
challenged
in the debate
if this
subject
a short
claim
like
essays
and Kenyon
and most
of its romantic
to any widespread
questioning.
article
entitled
"Intention"
for
raised
entitled
the
critic's
recent
dis
Personal
The
and Tillyard,
and at least im
those
in the "Symposiums"
of
But it seems doubt
Reviews.1
Lewis
in periodical
plicitly
1940 in the Southern
ful
the
upon
in a number
of
issue but were
corollaries
The
present
a Dictionary2
to pursue
unable
are
as yet
in
writers,
of literary
its implica
intention
of
criticism,
or
tions at any length.
We
that the design
argued
nor desirable
the author
as a standard
is neither
available
for
the success of a work

of literary
judging
art, and it seems to us
that this is a principle
some differences
which
into
in
goes deep
the history
of critical attitudes.
It is a principle
which
accepted
or
to
the
of
classical
"imitation"
points
rejected
polar opposites
and
romantic
inspiration,
ship, and
many
specific
truths
about
and
scholar
biography,
literary
history
trends of contemporary
poetry,
especially
a
There
is hardly
of literary
criticism
problem
authenticity,
about some
its allusiveness.
in which
It entails
expression.
the critic's approach will not be qualified by his view
of "intention."
as we
"Intention,"
in a formula
intended
acceptance.
"In
order
shall
which
use
the
more
to judge
to what he
term, corresponds
or less
has had wide
explicitly
the poet's performance,
we must
WIMSATT
what
know
he
intended."
thor's mind.
titude
Intention
We
or
is design
in the au
plan
at
for the author's
affinities
Intention
has
469
BEARDSLEY
obvious
the way he felt, what made

his work,
him write.
a
sum
discussion
with
series of propositions
toward
our
begin
and
marized
AND
to a degree
abstracted
if not truistic.
matic,
1. A poem does not come
as Professor
words
of a poem,
where
into
seem
they
existence
accident.
by
come
has
Stoll
to us axio
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.
must
ask how
a critic
about
intention.
How
2. One
question
to get an answer
to the
expects
is he to find out what
the poet
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
in the poem.
effective
says an eminent
mind,"
itself;
repudiates
ment
of the creative
of an
"Only
intention
one
that did
caveat must
in a moment
intentionalist3
not
be
in
be borne
when
his
the
at the mo
be judged
poet's aim must
that is to say, by the art of the poem
"the
ory
if the poet did not succeed,

and the critic must
go
evidence,
And
act,
itself."
a poem
3. Judging
One demands
that we
mean
that
infer
but be."
its medium
no excuse
the
A
is like
it work.
can be
only
it isy simply
poem
inquiring
or a machine.
pudding
an artifact works
because
of an artificer.
intention
is words?yet
for
judging
It is only
what
part
"A
poem
should
not
its meaning?since
through
sense that we have
in
the
is,
is intended
or meant.4
is a feat of style by which a complex of meaning
Poetry
is handled all
at once.
succeeds because
all or most
of what
is said or
Poetry
is
what
is
irrelevant
has
been excluded,
like
implied
relevant;
from
and
from
re
In
this
lumps
pudding
"bugs"
machinery.
spect
poetry
differs
from
practical
messages,
which
are
success
470
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
an
than, a physical
like
rather
But even a short
apple.
object
if and
ful
lyric poem
the response
to a situation
is dramatic,
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
For
that
he
in which
intention,
intended
and
thoughts
and
speaker,
inference.
an author,
it is only
to write
how
(no matter
how universal
attitudes
of
the
if to the author
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
same.)
"He's
rustic
sense
act of
of a speaker
(no matter
it.
"and
constable,
the man we were
yet he's not the man

in search of was not
we were
in search
the man
we wanted."5
of.
a critic," asks Professor

a
Stoll, "...
judge, who does
own
his
but determines
the author's
explore
consciousness,
or
as
a
a
were
or
the
if
poem
contract,
intention,
meaning
will,
"Is not
not
the
constitution?
is not
poem
two
forms
accurately
very
diagnosed
he prefers.
Our
critic's
own
The
view
and not
is yet
the author's
the
critic's
own."8
He
has
of irresponsibility,
The
different.
poem
one which
is detached
the author
from
is not
the
(it
and goes about
the world
to intend
his power
beyond
it or control
about
to
The
the
It is
poem belongs
it).
public.
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
at birth
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
a certain
than
he adds,
may
the poet when
Professor Wellek
of
position."
every
deference
take as this
"We
experience
to call
preferred
. . . from
amount
471
BEARDSLEY
AND
WIMSATT
a standard
And
experience."
the
relevant
experience
standard
the
contemplating
in a fine essay
completed
the problem
on
com
has
from
"a system of norms,"
"extracted
to
Mr.
Richards'
he
and
objects
experience,"
to the poet as reader. We
side with Professor Wellek
the poem
individual
to make
in not wishing
A critic of
has
swamy,
wrork of art:
the poet
our Dictionary
argued7 that there
are
about a
of enquiry
his intentions;
(2)
two kinds
the artist achieved

(1) whether
ever to have
the work
of art "ought
it is worth
and so "whether
preserving."
whether
at all"
is not
Mr.
an authority.
K. Coomara
the poem)
(outside
Ananda
article, Mr.
been
undertaken
Number
(2),
of
of any work
number
criticism;
(1)
not
need
be moral
(2)
"criticism
maintains,
Coomaraswamy
art qua work
of art," but is rather moral
that
But we maintain
is artistic criticism.
whether
works
of deciding
a
in
and whether,
sense, they "ought"
preserving
to have been undertaken,
criticism
and this is the way of objective
us
as
to
art
enables
of
of works
such, the way which
distinguish
criticism:
that
is another
there
way
of art are worth
a skilful
between
is an example
the difference
murder
which
Mr.
between
and
a skilful
Coomaraswamy
the murder
and
is capable
of distinguishing
(1)
name "artistic
is properly
criticism"
murder
in his
system
a
is
poem
simply
ac
out
each if carried
the
We
that
maintain
and
and
since (2),
from murder,
poetry
given
skilful
and
uses,
one, since
one, not an "artistic"
to
is
successful.
"artistically"
cording
plan
an
more
than (1),
worth
is
of
enquiry
(2)
"moral"
not
poem.
to
the
(2).
II
It
is not
historical
so much
as an analytic
an empirical
not a
judgment,
to say that the intentional
but a definition,
one. When
a rhetorician,
of the
presumably
statement,
is a romantic
fallacy
writes:
first century A.D.,
"Sublimity
is the echo
of a great
soul,"
472
or
THE
tells
that
the
full
to find
be
FALLACY
enters
"Homer
and "shares
heroes"
not
us
INTENTIONAL
the
into
inspiration
rhetorician
this
actions
sublime
of
his
of the combat," we shall

as a distant
considered
surprised
terms by
and greeted
in the warmest
of romanticism
harbinger
a critic as Saintsbury.
so romantic
One may wish to argue whether
be
but there can hardly
be a
called
should
romantic,8
Longinus
in one
that
doubt
Goethe's
is.
three
did
the author
ble,
out
the middle
the
culmination
and how
The
ticism.
he
way
important
for "'constructive
questions
set out to do? Was
his plan
far did
he succeed
one has
question,
and crowning
beautiful
is the
in carrying
in effect
are "What
criticism"
and
sensi
If one
leaves
reasonable
it out?"
the
of Croce?
system
of roman
philosophic
expression
successful
and
intuition-expression,
or private
the intuition
part of art
the ugly
is the unsuccessful;
or
it the aesthetic
fact, and the medium
public part
at
all.
of
aesthetic
Yet
aesthetic
subject
reproduction
remain equal."
only "if all the other conditions
grow
Oil-paintings
the text of a poem
dark, frescoes
fade,
is corrupted
by bad
statues
copyists
in not
takes
the
place
. . .
lose noses
or bad print
ing.
The Madonna
of Cimabue
is still in the Church
but
she
Maria
does
Novella;
speak to the visitor
as to the Florentines
of the thirteenth
century?
of
of
Santa
to-day
...
to reintegrate
in us the
labours
interpretation
course
have
the
conditions
which
in
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)
Historical
The
first
italics
are Croce's,
is an ambiguous
the
second
ours.
The
of
upshot
on
With
such
system
emphasis
history.
a critic may write a close
as a point of departure
passages
analysis
or "spirit"
or Corneille
of the meaning
of a play of Shakespeare
Croce's
?a
process
that
involves
close
historical
study
but
remains
aes
WIMSATT
AND
he may
thetic
criticism?or
kinds
of non-aesthetic
have
more
write
sociology,
biography,
Crocean
The
system
history.
of a boost to the
given
has
"What
473
BEARDSLEY
seems
of writing.
in his
Spingarn
to
latter way
the poet tried to do," asks

we have
Lecture
from which
already
Columbia
or other
quoted,
1910
"and
how has he fulfilled his intention?" The place to look for "in
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
ugliness,
superable"
of
is the "region
the
book
into
theory
as Marguerite
the poetry
. . . retain
We
close
Wilkinson's
to
1919
of
New
about
Voices,
"as old as the ages
inspirational
1931?where
symbols
and freshness"
through
strength
two examples
this section with
from
least expect a taint of the Crocean. Mr.
their
one might
fourfold
distinction
has
"intention"
probably
in the past fifteen years,
though
"This
function
[intention],"
self-repudiation:
ards, "is not on all fours with

Mr. Allen
of Poetry"
Types
where
quarters
I. A. Richards'
into "sense,"
"tone,"
"feeling,"
the most
statement
of
influential
of meaning
been
intentionalism
of
"Realization."
the others."
T?te
writes
it contains
a hint
says Mr. Rich

In an essay on "Three
as follows:
must
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
asserts
with
science.
The
will
compete
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
the
material
from
ley's
imposed upon
it does not grow out of the material.
above;
We
The
last
is not
sentence
The
fulfilled.
on
throughout
T?te
is accusing
a promise
reason why
contains
the
terms
"will"
the romantic
of objective
analysis which
so
the essay relies
heavily
and "imagination"
is that Mr.
poets
of a kind
of
insincerity
(ro
474
THE
in reverse)
manticism
something
whole
of
of
INTENTIONAL
and
FALLACY
same
at the
to describe
is trying
an
indescribable,
"imaginative
time
and perhaps
mysterious
a
of vision
"wholeness
life,"
at a particular
moment
us
which
the quality
of the
"yields
something
at the moment
If a poet had a toothache
of con
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
but which
describe,
to describe?in
criticism
terms
the
like
experience,
that. He
but Mr.
is think
in this essay at least

it is the prime
need
be publicly
tested.
doubtless
that may
he
of
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.
.
.
.
a person present
there is hardly
Will
you believe me?
not have talked better
their poetry
who would
about
than
not
I
Then
knew
that
did
themselves.
wisdom
do
they
by
a
sort
but
of
write
and
poetry,
poets
by
genius
inspiration.
I went
That
reiterated
mav
have
mistrust
been
part
of
of the poets which we hear

a rigorously
ascetic view
from
Socrates
in which
we
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
has proceeded
from the poets themselves.
remembered,
the
have
to say that the ana
had
poets
Certainly
something
not
has been more
could
say; their message
lyst and professor
tionately
come as naturally
as leaves to a tree,
that poetry
should
exciting:
or
that poetry
is the lava of the imagination,
that it is emotion
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
authors
often
give.
Thus
There
and
Edward
is only a fine
of earnest
a kind
Young,
Carlyle,
Pater:
AND
WIMSATT
golden
Reverence
golden
in Composition,
thyself.
secret
is the grand
let him who
This
them:
are no less
rules from
ethicsy which
1.
than in life.
Know
thyself;
2dly,
two
I know
475
BEARDSLEY
would
for finding
readers
move
and convince
and retaining
others, be first
rule, Si vis me
the literal one. To
and convinced
Horace's
himself.
sense than
is applicable
in a wider
we might
to every writer,
say: Be
poet,
be believed.
moved
flerey
every
would
if you
true,
no craft at all, without

there can be no merit,
that.
Truth!
run
all
is
in
the
And
of
further,
beauty
only fineness
long
or
we
what
call
the
finer
accommodation
truth,
expression,
of speech to that vision within.
And
little
Housman's
to the poetic
handbook
mind
the
yields
illustration:
following
a
is a sedative
pint of beer at luncheon?beer
are
and
the
afternoons
least
intellectual
my
brain,
a
out
of
would
life?I
for
walk
of two or
my
go
portion
three hours.
As I went
of
in par
along,
thinking
nothing
me
at
around
and
the
ticular, only looking
things
following
the
of
there
would
flow
into
seasons,
progress
my mind,
a line
writh sudden
and unaccountable
sometimes
emotion,
Having
to the
or
This
two
drunk
of
a whole
sometimes
verse,
stanza
at
once.
. . .
is the
terminus
of the series already
Here
quoted.
logical
is a confession
of how poems were written
which would
do as
a definition
as
as
of poetry
well
"emotion
in
recollected
just
tranquillity"?and
as a
to heart
walking,
the young
poet might
equally
a
Drink
pint of beer,
in particular,
look at things,
rule.
practical
on
nothing
to yourself,
search
think
yourself
to the sound
vraie
which
of your
own
for the
inside
truth
voice,
in your
discover
well
take
relax, go
surrender
own
soul,
and
express
listen
the
v?rit?.
476
INTENTIONAL
THE
It
The
true
is probably
that
all
FALLACY
this
is excellent
imagination fired by Wordsworth
young
for
advice
poets.
is
and Carlyle
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
has probably
in
in young
further
gone
persons,
day
poetry
closer
than
ever
from
before.
Books
of
the Lincoln
School
are
such as those issued

writing
evidence
of what a child
interesting
creative
to manage
himself
All
how
if taught
this,
honestly.10
an
to
to
art
from
would
appear
separate
criticism,
however,
belong
one might
or to a discipline
call the psychology
of com
which
an individual
and private
valid and useful,
culture, yoga,
position,
can do
or
system of self-development
to notice, but different
well
the young
do
poet would
the public
science of evaluating
which
from
poems,
Coleridge
been, and
and Arnold
were
better
critics
than most
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
if the critical
and
perhaps
which
ment,
of producing
poets have
in Arnold
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
day may
the
with
arrive
science
are
when
the psychology
of objective
evaluation,
if the
be convenient
It would
separate.
intentional
"sincerity,"
school,
"fidelity,"
is
composition
but so far they
of the
passwords
of
"spontaneity,"
could be equated
"au
with
"genuineness,"
"originality,"
thenticity,"
as
"func
terms of analysis
such
"relevance,"
"unity,"
"integrity,"
other
and
and
with
"maturity,"
"subtlety,"
"adequacy,"
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
WIMSATT
AND
477
BEARDSLEY
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
the
that
earlier
or "it may
was not successful

in objectifying
the
attempt
that it was a successful
also mean
objectification
us
we
when
it confronted
and
disowned
clearly,
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
evaluation
measured
the work
of
against
is the standard
of another."11 What
Professor
this
standard
does
by which
not say.
is an element
in the
to terms
reduce
of art remains
outside
something
Ducasse
the
of objectification.
the work
public;
is
author.
IV
is criticism
There
author
takes
can
psychology,
the form of
of
which
and
poetry
when
is, as we have
seen,
to the present
or future
but author psychology
there
applied
inspirational
promotion;
too, and then we have
a
literary
biography,
and attractive
as Mr.
in itself, one approach,
legitimate
study
to
would
the
argue,
poem
Tillyard
personality,
being
only a
a
it need not be with
approach.
parallel
Certainly
derogatory
one
out
that
as
distinct
from
purpose
personal
points
studies,
in
the
realm
of
Yet
there
studies,
poetic
literary
scholarship.
be
historical
is danger
the fault
There
of confusing
personal
of writing
the personal
is a difference
the meaning
for
of
and
and there is
poetic
studies;
as if it were poetic.
internal
and external
evidence
between
a poem.
And
the
paradox
is only
verbal
and superficial that what is (1) internal is also public: it is dis

covered
the semantics
and syntax
through
habitual
of the language,
knowledge
our
and
dictionaries,
aries, in general
while
of
what
all
the
through
literature
all
is (2) external
as a linguistic
the work
which
that makes
of
a poem,
through
is the source
through
grammars,
of diction
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
or
on what
at
death
what
the
of
friend
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
one
so
another
not
into
that
shade
it
is
easy
(3),
subtly
always
to draw
a line
for criticism.
between
use
The
because
intentionalism,
author
it may
intended,
words
and the dramatic
not be all
it may
hand,
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.
the meaning
of his
of his utterance.
On the other
And
of
a critic who
is concerned
with
evidence of type (1) and moderately with that of type (3) will
in the
long
run
produce
a different
sort
of
comment
of the critic who is concerned with type (2) and with

it shades into (2).
The
whole
that
from
(3) where
to
of Professor
Lowes'
Road
parade
runs
the
border
between
Xanadu,
instance,
along
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
glittering
for
it would
their
seem
return."
that
This
or fortuitous
is nothing
in
haphazard
even when Professor
is not quite clear?not
there
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
Lowes
face,
that may
mean
( 1 ) that Coleridge
could
not produce
what
AND
WIMSATT
479
that he was
limited
in his creation
he
have,
by what
or
or otherwise
that
received
having
experienced,
(2)
to return
of associations,
he was bound
them
in
clusters
not
he did
had
BEARDSLEY
read
certain
just the way he did,

in terms of
described
The
that
and
the
value
of
the
poem
he had
on which
the experiences
sort
of
of
(a
propositions
Hartleyan
pair
latter
to.
associationism
himself repudiated in the Biographia) may not
which Coleridge
be assented
be
may
to draw.
were
other
other
certainly
combinations,
that might
have been written
by men who
There
or better,
poems, worse
and Purchas
had read Bartram
and
Bruce
and Milton.
And
be true no matter
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
like "The Shaping
Magical
Synthesis,"
Spirit,"
"Imagina
this will
the brilliant
it may
tion Creatrix,"
about the actual
more
variation
deceptive
pass on
to a new
and more
sources,
?,1,-3
that Professor
be
than
poems
in these fancy chapter
in the argument,
stage
more
about
to say
pretends
There
is a certain
Lowes
he does.
"the
one expects
titles;
and one finds?more
streamy
nature
of
to
associa
tion."
Lowes
der Weg?"
quotes Professor
Ins Unbetretene."
"Kein Weg!
"Wohin
book.
his
is unbetreten
the way
Bartram's
poem.
certain
words
Travels
should
contains
Floridan
romantic
and was
Precisely
it leads
of
because
the
away
deal of the history
of
that
in
appear
conceptions
of that history
has passed
say,
a
good
from
into
then
Khan"
"Kubla
in the Oxford
English
Dictionary
a person
there quoted,
other books
seem to pertain
But it would
little
some
of
poem
better.
know
that Coleridge
had
?>f sensory
and mental
of
the motto
a good
deal
the
stuff of our language.
Per
very
passing
a person who has read Bartram
the poem more
appreciates
one who
the
has not.
of
up
Or,
by looking
vocabulary
And
Khan."
"Kubla
haps
than
and
y we
for
ll?c,
the
read Bartram.
experience,
y or by reading
know
the
may
There
to the poem
to
is a gross body
which
lies behind
and
480
THE
in some
sense
causes
every
in the verbal
be known
is the
INTENTIONAL
poem.
for
For
the
the
all
which
or
we
never
talk
It
book
The
should
be and need
not
intellectual
of
which
composition
our manifold
experience,
for every unity,

there
is
objects,
cuts off roots, melts
context?
away
or ideas or anything
to
have objects
about.
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
where
with
preoccupation
as to distort a critic's
those
objects
intellectual
of the mind
can never
but
and hence
especially
an action
indeed
poem,
FALLACY
that
evidence
of a poem
view
in our
abound
In a well-known
poem
so far
type (3) has gone
a
case
so
as
not
obvious
(yet
of
critical
journals).
by John Donne
appears
the
following
quatrain:
Moving
Men
of
th'
reckon
earth
what
harmes
brings
it did and meant,
and
feares,
of the spheares,
trepidation
is innocent.
greater
farre,
Though
But
recent
written
critic
of
in an elaborate
this quatrain
treatment
of Donne's
learning
has
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
is a valediction
exhort
poet must
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),
moment
the
of
the
tension
without
suggests
arousing
tingly
in the figure of the mov
and feares"
the "harmes
implicit
his
ing
earth.1*
WIMSATT
AND
481
BEARDSLEY
is plausible
and rests on a well-substantiated
argument
was
that Donne
in the new astronomy
interested
deeply
The
in the theological
realm.
repercussions
shows his familiarity
with Kepler's
De
leo's
Siderius
with
with William
NunciuSy
refers
in a letter
and
works
its
Donne
Stella
with Gali
Novay
De Magnetey
and
of Sacrobosco.
Sphaera
Gilbert's
on the De
commentary
to the newT science
in his Sermon
Clavius's
He
In various
thesis
at Paul's
Cross
and
to Sir Henry
In The First
he
Goodyer.
Anniversary
all
in
calls
on
doubt."
In
the
says
philosophy
Elegy
Prince Henry
he says that the "least moving
of the center" makes
to shake."
"the world
the "new
It
to answer
is difficult
answer
it with
evidence
celestial
might
motion
not have
if we
become
Donne
stood
full
of
like this,
argument
of like nature.
There
written
two
for
a stanza
sorts
astronomical
of
in which
emotion
ideas
and
and
to
impossible
is no reason why
the two kinds of
at parting.
see Donne
And
only
that
science, we may believe
itself remains
to be dealt
the
with,
analyz
able vehicle
of a complicated
one may
And
observe:
metaphor.
of the earth according
to the
( 1 ) that the movement
Copernican
a
is
celestial motion,
smooth
and regular,
and while
it
theory
cause
or
it
not
could
be associ
might
religious
philosophic
fears,
ated with
the crudity and earthiness
of the kind of commotion
the background
But the text
against
he did.
which
there
of
the new
the speaker in the poem wishes

is another
to discourage;
(2)
that
the earth, an
which
has
earthquake,
to
is
be
associated
with
the tear-floods
just
and
of the second stanza of the poem;
that
sigh-tempests
(3)
"trepi
dation"
is an appropriate
of earthquake,
because
each is
opposite
a
or
and
of
the
shaking
vibratory
motion;
"trepidation
spheres"
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
of
motion of the earth; (4) that reckoning what it "did and meant"
shows
that
incessant
the event
celestial
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
the core
antithesis
of
to prefer
gard the English

language,
to internal.
external
add another
may
in question,
though
To make
the geo-centric
science
stanza
the metaphor
evidence
private
is to disre
to public,
V
the distinction
If
for the historical
between
critic,
kinds
of
evidence
them
no
less
it has
has implications
the contemporary
for a poet is but another
for
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
of taste,
and the critical
leaders
may
say that the problems
are
the
in
from
intentional
literary
arising
scholarship
fallacy
and his critic.
matched
by
others
periment.
The
question
by
the poetry
which
arise
in the world
of "allusiveness,"
of Eliot,
is certainly
for example,
one where
of progressive
ex
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
one recognizes
not
movement
whether
the
that
itself,
by
to be from Spenser.
refrain
AND
WIMSATT
Eliot's
allusions
even when
But
we do not know
we
sometimes
we
when
work
find
know
them,
allusions
483
BEARDSLEY
to a great
them?and
their
through
suggestive
and
by notes,
supported
notes
function more
extent
power.
it is a
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
.
.
.
to an appreciation
that is apposite
of
thing of importance
Mr.
'The Waste
writes
Matthiessen
of
Miss
Weston's
Land',"
book,
self,
"has
been
into
incorporated
or into Eliot's
And
Notes."
the
structure
with
of
the poem
such an admission
it
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
it
is
because
but
whether
doubtful
existed,
can be said
for an allusion
The
sound
Sweeney
"Cf. Day,
Actaeon
irony
of Bees:"
is completed
shall
bring
spring.
says Eliot,
the quotation
itself;
to
these
lines
composed
by
concenceivable,
there would
background,
grow
of
origin
which
a sudden,
you shall hear,
listening,
which
shall bring
of horns and hunting,
to Diana
in the spring,
all shall see her naked
skin. . . .
quite
may
Elizabethan:
of
noise
Where
The
of horns and motors,

to Mrs.
Porter
in the
Parliament
When
A
to an obscure
something
the same
as one
the
reads
ballad
be no
Eliot's
from which
of validity.
next note: "I
loss
these
lines
to me from Sydney, Australia."

The
reported
Mrs.
Porter
this note?on
and her daughter
as
had Eliot,
furnish
his
The
do
are
not
is
own
conviction
know
taken:
the
it was
in
important word
who washed
their
484
THE
lines
themselves
their
if one
And
should
from
feel
there would
be little
quality,
the inquiry must
focus on the
of the poem,
for where
they con
"ballad"
the note.
for
need
FALLACY
"ballad."
in soda water?is
feet
the
INTENTIONAL
Ultimately,
as parts
notes
such
of
integrity
about
information
stitute
special
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
poem,
they
other words
were
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
notes
the price Eliot

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

any
intention,
judged
a
to
of a composition
arrangement
(verbal
special
particular
so judged
and when
their reality as parts of the poem,
context),
or their imaginative
the rest of the poem, may
with
integration
parts
come
Eliot's
into
titles
question.
for poems
Mr.
Matthiessen,
and his epigraphs
for
instance,
are
informative
sees
that
appara
the notes.
like
tus,
and
same
at the
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
But while
that Eliot
thinks
the note
485
BEARDSLEY
AND
WIMSATT
Matthiessen
it," Mr.
struc
of not being sufficiently
"is not at all open to the objection
secure
to
to
the poet
he says, "is
enable
intention"
tural." "The
a condensed
poem."
is designed
And Eliot
practice
in terms
epigraph
in the
expression
to form
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
two
in
he
associated
in
mind
because
is
mv
ways:
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)
The
bitrarily, with the Fisher King himself.

more
perhaps he is to be taken
in his Norton
in a note, than when
And
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
I would
when
be very fine;
My
meaning
But the fact is that I have nothing
planned
to be a moment
it were
Unless
merry.
and
If Eliot
it may
fault,
Allusiveness
we
have
it may
practice
other
be
contemporary
poets
too much.1"
in planning
in poetry
illustrated
be for
today
allusiveness
is one
the more
abstract
the most
would
of several
have
critical
any
characteristic
issues by which
issue of
important
appear to be
but
intentionalism,
a
illustration.
As
poetic
an
in some recent poems
486
THE
extreme
INTENTIONAL
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
corollary
as a critical issue
Pr?f
Alfred
the mermaids
semblance
Mermaides
the
FALLACY
romantic
towards
rock,"
each
intentionalist
the end, occurs

to each," and
Is Eliot
are two radically

There
question.
which
the
the universe
squeezed
and
sadness
irony from
"To
may
wonder
hear
(To
His
earlier
been
a ball,"
into
certain
Mistress."
Coy
whether
mermaids
them
looking
re
me
to heare
to a cer
arises:
Is
question
rock thinking
about
that there
suggest
for
an answer
to this
of poetic analysis
and exegesis,
sense
if
is
Eliot-Prufrock
any
In an
it have
We
heard
a certain
acquainted
Is Pr?f
of
ways
is ( 1 ) the way
whether
it makes
"Teach
critical
about Donne?
thinking
different
inquires
about Donne.
thinking
Prufrock
asks, "Would
Marvel
this bears
singing,
to a line in a Song by John Donne,
so that for the reader
singing,"
with Donne's
tain degree
poetry,
to Donne's?
line an allusion
Eliot's
Donne?
the line: "I have
part of the poem, when

. . . To have
worth
while,
his words
take half
their
energetic
But
and
passionate
lines
of
the
inquirer
exegetical
as "strange
sights"
to
with
analogous
getting
considered
is in Donne's
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,
a mandrake
child
maids,
which
in a line of a sonnet
de Nerval.
This method
of in
by G?rard
to
lead
the conclusion
that the given
resemblance
be
quiry may
tween Eliot
and Donne
is without
and
not
is
better
significance
thought
viding
is the
of, or the method

no certain conclusion.
true
and
the very
critic
quiry,
objective
of
criticism,
as contrasted
of
that
pro
this
to what
tempt a second kind of

exegesis might
or genetic
the
of biographical
in
way
(2)
of
the
that
fact
Eliot
is
still
taking advantage
uncertainty
to undertake:
in which,
way
have
the disadvantage
we submit
Nevertheless,
may
of
WIMSATT
a man
spirit of
to Eliot
and asks what
in the
and
alive,
critic writes
in mind.
AND
We
Eliot
would
all
in mind?a
shall
answer
in an unguarded
irrefutable
limit,
not
here
answer.
good
might
Our
who
would
487
settle a bet, the
or if he had Donne
he meant,
the probabilities?whether
weigh
that he meant
sufficiently
moment
BEARDSLEY
at all,
nothing
answer
to such
furnish
point
a clear
is that
such
nothing
a question?or
and, within
at
an answer
to
had
its
such an
to do with
the poem "Pru
have nothing
inquiry would
un
a critical
not
Critical
would
be
it
inquiries,
inquiry.
frock;"
are not
in this way.
Critical
like bets, are not settled
inquiries
the oracle.
settled by consulting
FOOTNOTES
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.
173-94;
Modem
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
Cambridge,
Inspiration,
1942.
phia,
The
nCurt Ducasse,
INTENTIONAL
1940;
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.
psychology'
and "Tra
his
though
1941,
pp.

The Intentional Fallacy-Wimsatt

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The Intentional Fallacy-Wimsatt

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The Intentional Fallacy

Author(s): W. K. Wimsatt Jr. and M. C. Beardsley

issue but were

the success of a work

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

the way he felt, what made

if the poet did not succeed,

is a feat of style by which a complex of meaning

yet he's not the man

a critic," asks Professor

the artist achieved

of art are worth

of the combat," we shall

the poet tried to do," asks

ards, "is not on all fours with

says Mr. Rich

that the lines

in this essay at least

of the poets which we hear

no craft at all, without

imagination fired by Wordsworth

such as those issued

dried up the poetry

he can about the genesis

was not successful

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

and hence arises the difficulty

of the critic who is concerned with type (2) and with

that there were clusters of associations,

just the way he did,

himself repudiated in the Biographia) may not

for every unity,

the speaker in the poem wishes

gard the English

for the historical

Or, since every rule

ear and is sensitive

not much matter

of horns and motors,

to me from Sydney, Australia."

to pay in order to avoid what he

the price Eliot

It can be said in favor of this plan that at least

yet they ought

"In each case the

bitrarily, with the Fisher King himself.

the end, occurs

are two radically

the line: "I have

part of the poem, when

of, or the method

tempt a second kind of

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