Objective Correlative
Objective CorrelativeT.S. Elliot defines an objective correlative as “the only way of expressing emotion in the form of art … a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately invoked.” The following is a set of objective correlatives extracted from the literature in the book “Thinking, Reading, and Writing Critically”. All objective correlatives are rated from least impactful to most profound.
Among the great poems that express the importance and illustrate the value of Elliot’s observation is John Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn. This poem presents many objective correlatives and will be sighted on multiple occasions in this paper. In line forty-five of this poem Keat writes “As doth eternity; Cold Pastoral!” Cold Pastoral is referring to the vase (Grecian Urn), that will live on for eternity, for the vase is really just a symbol for love, a driving force in the world. It was there in the beginning, before men, and will be there in the end. It is cold because it will never die and always show beauty and love that men cannot have forever. The word pastoral is used because it is beautiful and everlasting like a painting of a lovely countryside.
Another testimony to Elliot’s brilliance and the truth of his discovery is seen in Sonnet 73 by Shakespeare. The first of the many objective correlatives contained within this sonnet is in reference to seasons. Shakespeare writes “When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold” and in these two lines he says quite a good deal of information. The “yellow leaves… on the bough” sets a wonderful mood. The reader gets the feeling of autumn, where the leaves are falling of the trees that are not already bare, and a cold wind is blowing through the branches. With all these mental images one cannot help but imagine a desolate and barren place, one which is in the middle of a terribly bare time. A grove of trees perhaps, set in a meadow which no longer has the protection of the trees from the elements.
Shakespeare also writes the lines “That on the ashes of his youth doth lie” in Sonnet 73. This is again, a fantastic example of Elliot’s objective correlative. The ashes Shakespeare speaks of seem to be the youth falling off of the man. His being, soul, essence, eternally on fire shedding ashes as it ages until the day comes when he is no more. The projection of a very morbid attitude is given here. One saying that we will all die and be no more than a pile of ashes when it all comes to...
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