T.S. Eliot did not approve of the Impressionistic School of Criticism because it was purely subjective without any definite norms or principles to evaluate a literary work. Mr.Symons initiated this approach, which was further supported by Pater and Swinburne. T.S. Eliot called it "Imperfect Criticism', explaining his approach.
T.S. Eliot's objection is that an individual's personal impressions can neither be universal nor unbiased nor unprejudiced. They cannot set a standard of evaluation for others. They would differ from person to person according to one's taste, level of sensitivity, and power of discrimination. Eliot says that a critic is concerned only with the principles and precepts of poetic communication, not with the man behind a work of art. The main objective of criticism is "the common pursuit of true judgement", unconditioned by any 'personal prejudices or cranks'. A true critic encounters in a work of art its intrinsic vision, embodied on a well-organised system. In brief, T.S. Eliot launches a violent attack on all impressionistic critics who seek a kind of "self-gratification through their subjective pronouncements on writers and their works".
