deeply felt just like emotions Eliot sees this as a sign of great poetry because it shows how closely connected their minds and hearts are He believes that this unity makes their poetry more powerful and true to life Reflective Poets Separate Thought and Emotion In contrast Eliot criticizes the reflective poets such as Tennyson and Browning They divide thought and feeling He says about these poets They do not feel their thought as immediately as the odour of a rose For Eliot this separation weakens their poetry because it lacks a deep connection between intellect and emotion Reflective poets think deeply but do not fully feel what they think This leads to poetry that feels detached from genuine emotion Intellectual Poets Combine Different Ideas Together Eliot praises intellectual poets for their ability to combine different and often unrelated experiences together in a unique way He says The poets of the seventeenth century possessed a mechanism of sensibility which could devour any kind of experience This means that they could bring together various ideas and emotions to create something entirely new and meaningful in their poetry However reflective poets often keep experiences separate This leads to fragmented or less impactful poetry Reflective Poets Lack the Depth of Intellectual Poets Eliot argues that reflective poets are more likely to meditate on ideas rather than transform them into living emotions He states about Tennyson and Browning that Think but they do not feel their thought For Eliot thinking alone is not enough for great poetry What makes intellectual poets superior is their ability to make their thoughts come alive through deep immediate feelings Intellectual Poets Use Language to Express Both Thought and Emotion Eliot admires how intellectual poets use language to express both complex ideas and strong emotions in a unified way For instance Donne s poetry is filled with complex metaphors like comparing lovers to a pair of compasses These images always express a deeper emotional truth Eliot believes this ability to blend thought and feeling makes their poetry more touching and everlasting Reflective Poets Only Reflect Instead of Creating Something New According to Eliot reflective poets manage to reflect on emotions They are unable to create new emotional experiences in their poetry This reflective nature can make their poetry more distant and less engaging Eliot prefers poets like Donne and Herbert because they do not merely reflect but create powerful emotional experiences by combining intellect and feeling In short Eliot prefers intellectual poets because they connect thought and emotion in a powerful way Reflective poets while good do not mix thinking and feeling as well This makes their poetry less impactful Intellectual poets create poetry that touches both the mind and heart and that s why Eliot values them more