DENIS DONOGHUE
25
The ironical function in the self-dramatization of the opening lines I
have quoted is, Leavis says, "an insurance against the pride of humility;
a self-admonition against the subtle treasons, the refinements, of ego–
tism that beset the quest of sincerity in these regions." The characteris–
tic rhythm of "Ash-Wednesday" has "certain qualities of ritual; it
produces in a high degree the frame-effect, establishing apart from the
world a special order of experience, dedicated to spiritual exercises."
VI.
THAT LAST EMPHASIS was what I needed. "Ash-Wednesday" is in a sense
out of this common world, as if it were written within parentheses or
seen under glass, but it refuses merely to dissociate itself from the world.
Davie was wrong about the poem: its main impulse is to commit itself
to the reality it contemplates, without disowning the sensuous memories
and desires that officially count as obstacles. Eliot must do what he
ascribes to Lancelot Andrewes rather than to the somewhat vulgar
Donne:
Andrewes's emotion is purely contemplative; it is not personal, it is
wholly evoked by the object of contemplation,
to
which it is ade–
quate; his emotion is wholly contained in and explained by its
object....Donne is a "personality" in a sense in which Andrewes
is not: his sermons, one feels, are a "means of self-expression." He
is constantly finding an object which shall be adequate to his feel–
ings; Andrewes is wholly absorbed in the object and therefore
responds with the adequate emotion. Andrewes has the
gout
pour
fa vie spirituelle,
which is not native to Donne.
The question of rhythm, to which Leavis referred, called for further
thought: it raised the issue of distance. In Eliot's poems the experiences
invoked are presented not immediately or directly but as if in a later
light, a higher perspective, or subject
to
a final cause. He must bear in
mind that they might have to be renounced in favor of larger, more spir–
itually exacting considerations. The actual pleasure persists only
because it can't in good faith be denied. The solution is to present move–
ments of desire as if they were embodied in a ballet or transformed into
a piece of music. In "The Music of Poetry" Eliot says:
