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UNIVERSITY OF CONSTANTINE THE PHILOSOPHER IN NITRA
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES
DIPLOMA WORK
CREATIVE AND MYSTICAL ASPECTS OF POETRY
CONSULTANT: Ph.Dr. ANTON POKRIVČÁK
SCHOOL YEAR: 1999/2000
RENÁTA HORKAVÁ
EL-PHARE
UNIVERZITA KONŠTANTÍNA FILOZOFA V NITRE
FAKULTA HUMANITNÝCH VIED
KATEDRA ANGLISTIKY A AMERIKANISTIKY
DIPLOMOVÁ PRÁCA
TVORIVÉ A MYSTICKÉ ASPEKTY POÉZIE
KONZULTANT: Ph.Dr. ANTON POKRIVČÁK
ŠKOLSKÝ ROK: 1999/2000
RENÁTA HORKAVÁ
AJ-PHARE
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DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY
I solemnly declare that this diploma work was written independently using the
literature and sources listed in the bibliography by the undersigned
NITRA, APRIL 2000
........................
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Ph.Dr. Anton
Pokrivčák for his advice and encouragement which helped me very much in writing
my diploma work.
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CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................6
2. Definition of creativity: Psychological point of view..............................8
3. Poet`s persona...............................................................................15
4. Process of structuring and composing..............................................24
5. Poetic language: Symbols................................................................36
6. CONCLUSION................................................................................43
BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................44
RESUME.........................................................................................46
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INTRODUCTION
The aim of my diploma work is to look at the process of creating the poetry,
and to look at the creativity as such that governs this process. I will look at the
different aspects of the creative process as defined through the psychology.
The creative process comprises of the three important elements:created
product, creative individual, and creative phases that direct the whole process.
In my work of the creating the poetry I decided to substitute the created
product for the material that poet work with- and that is figurative speech and
most specifically the symbols. I believe that poetry originates from the
interaction of the three p´s: poet s persona, process of structuring or
composing, and the poetic language. I will try to prove this with the help of
the description of the origination of the music and production of the dance
because I believe that the personalities of artists and the ways how they
operate when producing their art are similar if not identical. In the first chapter
I will look at the definitions of creativity and the views of the different authors
on the creativity from a psychological point of view.In the second chapter I will
concentrate on the nature and persona of the poet based on the comparison
of the persona of the different types of music composers and personality of
the choreographer while the greatest emphasis will be placed on the
“Emersonian” view on the nature of poet.In the third chapter I will describe the
process of constructing the poetry based on the music and choreography
composing from which I will derive and demonstrate the possible way of
structuring the poetry supported by Poe.In the fourth chapter I will point to the
poetic language most dominantly based on the study of symbols that are in the
broader sense all the words that poets are using when creating the poetry.
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CHAPTER I.: Definition of creativity: Psychological point of view
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The predeterminance of an analyses of the creative process is the meaning
of creativity, the theory of creativity in general.
Creativity is an ongoing process that can be analyzed and looked at from
the different perspectives.Creativity is a phenomenon that is bound to every
artist, eventhough it may be only on the subconscious’s level. The reason why
is it so is probably in a fact that many artists are not sure when asked to
describe how they produced certain art products. It is a highly interesting
theme for everyone since creativity exists in many forms and in almost every
human activity. Dictionary definitions are basically the same:
Heritage Illustrated Dictionary describes the word create in a following
manner: „ To cause to exist, bring into being, originate, to give rise to, and to
give character to a role or part (appropriate to creating fictional characters, and
writing stories).“
Macquire Dictionary (An Australian dictionary) defines the word to create
as follows: „ to evolve from one´ s own thought or imagination to make by
investing with new character or functions.”
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines creativity: „ as the
ability to produce new and original ideas and things, imagination and
inventiveness“.
From the psychological point of view every creative process consists,
and is determined by the created product, the creative individual and the
creative process.
Zelina defines creativity as :”production of new and valuable ideas, solutions,
and thoughts.”(Zelina189).Every created product is evaluated based on the
certain criteria.These criteria are usually also used when defining the creativity.
Stephen H.Kim conducted the research on the essence of creativity and in his
book “The Essence of Creativity” defines the creativity in the following
manner:”Generally speaking the creativity means –novelty, but novelty does
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not always mean creativity”, and he further continues, “..for originality to be
recognized as a creativity- it has to be novelty incarnated into the product or
idea and directed towards the recognized aim.”(Kim 19)
According to C.Rogers there are three golden keys to creativity that are also
used as the parameters for measuring the creativity and that guide the process
of creating the product:
1.fluency- the amount of thoughts, ideas for one subject
2.flexibility- represents variety of ideas
3.originality-is considered the most precious characteristics of creativity. It is
the uniqueness of the thoughts, solutions, ideas in a certain
context.”(Zelina,1997,pg.84)
So, most of the created products are evaluated based on the novelty,
originality,and their practical utility or benefit for the mankind.
In the case of art it is mostly the personal message or subjective point of
view that can be novel and original, and ,therefore, interesting and valuable for
the society :”The artist`s problem is a problem of self-expression.He or she has
something that he or she wants to communicate to the world what he or she
thinks or feels. The aim of the artist`s effort is to deliver the personal message
clearly. He would like to say something to the world or he would like to
materialize something that awakens the strong impressions inside of him.”(Kim
18)
Second, and probably the most important factor when talking about
creativity is a set of specific qualities of the creative individual.
“The science and research in the area of creativity (creatology) proved that
creative people perceive the world differently. Strange, different perception of
the world becomes for them the source of their creativity.“ (Zelina 17).In
addition to being sensitive and being able to perceive the world differently,
creative individuals should according to Hungarian author M.Csikszentmihaly
possess these qualities as well:
1. Creative people have a great amount of physical, and mental energy, but
also often creative people are weak, quiet and living on the periphery.
2. Creative people are clever, skillful, intelligent, and naive at the same time.
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3. Creative people combine playfulness, discipline, reliability, and
unreliability.
4. Creative people alternate between imagination, fantasy, and grounding in
the reality.
5. Creative people are both extroverts and introverts.
6. Creative people are humble, and proud at the same time.
7. Creative people run from rigid gender stereotyping. They fight against the
obstacles of the creativity.
8. Creative people are rebellious and conservative at the same time.
9. Creative people are passionate about their work, and still are capable of
the extreme objectivity.
10. Creative people are open, sensitive, and more often they tend to suffer
thanks to and because of the creative work that is the endless source of
their pleasure, joy and happiness. (Zelina 177,185)
For another author (Kim 54) creative individuals have:
1.The ability of the intuitive perception- recognition of the associations and
similarities between the objects and concepts.
2.The ability to observe and notice the meaning of the different perspectives.
3.The ability to think imaginatively without stressing the practical realization
4.The attitude of openness and acceptance of the changes(flexibility)
Ned Hermann in his book “The Creative Brain” divides creative people as
follows:
1.The already creatives- people who actively exercise their creative gifts for
pleasure and profit;
2.The sometimes creatives-people who experience moments of creative
brilliance, but only occasionally;
3.Those who can be creative, but who have yet to tap into that potential;
Zelina agrees with the last definition of Hermann :”Every human being can be
creative.”(Zelina 189). Another author-Roger von Oech in his book “A Kick in
the Seat of the Pants” defines the creative people in the following way:
“The hallmark of creative people is their mental flexibility....Sometimes they are
open and probing, at other times they are critical and faultfinding.And finally
they are doggedly persistent in striving to reach their goals..”
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Artists are a specific sub-category of the creative people and besides all
the above mentioned qualities they need few more.According to Jung artist is
:”duality or a synthesis of contradictory aptitudes.On the one side, he is
a human being with a personal life while on the other side he is an impersonal,
creative process.”(Jung 185) Jung further differentiates between two types of
artist:
1.introverted- creates based on the material comprised in his conscience
2.extraverted-artist looses his individuality and becomes a medium for the
creation of his art
Artists are defined as people with partially inborn, and partially trained special
dispositions:”...as a personality determined most of all by the exceptional
inborn talent, above average aesthetical dispositions;...the artist`s personality
is also created by other dispositions such as-physical, neurological, and
intellectual abilities that can be partially inborn and partially gained”(Prokop 26)
Writers should be capable of feeling and expressing deep emotions:”as for the
writers there is a specific emotionality and most precisely imagination, and
feeling for the language.” (28) Freud in his essay”Creative writers and daydreaming describes the creative writer as a playful child:”The creative writer
does the same as the child at play. He creates a world of fantasy which he
takes very seriously.”(Freud 36) Freud also urges to differentiate between the
writers who base their work on the certain previously known facts, and on the
writers that create original work by themselves:”We must separate writers who,
like the ancient authors of epics and tragedies, take over their material readymade, from writer who seem to originate their own material.”(39)
Thirdly,the creative process usually consists of the certain stages, and
eventhough the authors name them differently the descriptions are quite
similar.
Zelina(192) acknowledges these four stages of the creative process:
1.Preparation- collection of all necessary informations
2.Incubation- thinking about something else
3.Illumination-heuristic moment-sudden discovery of a solution
4.Verification-critical analyses and evaluation of the idea
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Another author-Steven.H.Kim(14) provides similar division of the stages of the
creative process:
1. Vision-the appearance of a certain image
2. Plan-exact planning and account of how to achieve the final product
3. Implementation-of the vision and plan into the concrete situation
4. Evaluation- comes from realization of the experience and application of the
product
John Curtis Gowan recognizes these three phases in the creative process:
1.the prelude ritual
2.the altered state of consciousness or creative spell during which the creative
idea is born, starting with vibrations, thin mental images, then the flow of ideas
which are finally clothed in form....
3.the postlude in which positive emotions about the experience suffuse the
participant
Another author Gail Sheedy in his book Pathfinders defines these three
phases of the creative process:
1.Preparation-gathering impressions and images
2.Incubation-leting go of certainties
3.Immersion and illumination-creative intervention/risk
4.Revision-conscious structuring and editing of creative material
As for the artists Jung recognizes two modes of artistic creation(Jung
177,178)
1.psychological-the artist`s is an interpretation and illumination of the contents
of consciousness
2.visionary-the experience that furnishes the material for artistic expression is
no longer familiar.
Freud believes that creative process in writer`s case is the result of the
traumatic experience and neurosis:”A strong experience in the present
awakens in the creative writer a memory of an earlier experience( usually
belonging to his childhood) from which there now proceeds a wish which finds
its fulfillment in the creative work. The work itself exhibits elements of the
recent provoking occasion as well as of the old memory.”(Freud 42)
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Prokop sums up the importance of all the elements : created product,
creative personality, and creative process, as interrelated and determinant for
the whole creative process:
“.. It is about the relationship of an artist towards the art product, and towards
the creative process, and authorial realization of the art product. Between the
artist, the creative process, and the product there is an obvious, but not
necessarily automatic connection.
The predisposition of the creativity is of course the personality of an artist, who
is not only self-realized, but also manifested and created. On the other hand ,
the criteria of whether it is about the artist`s persona or about the creative
process is determined by the art product. The art product is, however, not the
simple, and the direct extension or reflection of an artist`s personality, or only
of the creative process.”(Prokop 26)
With all these thoughts in mind I would like to concentrate on the actual
creative process in which the poet writes or creates the art product- his poetry.
There are three irreplaceable factors: the artist himself-poet´s persona, the
process of structuring or composing, and the poetic language that is a building
material of every poet. As a result of an interaction of the above mentioned
elements the poem is created.There is an analogy between the
Sausseres definition about language and the process of creating or writing the
poetry:„the concept of language as a sign system or structure whose individual
components can be understood only in relation to each other and to the
system as a whole rather than to an external reality.“ (Cuddon 923). Poetry is
formed and therefore, should be analyzed and evaluated based on the
interrelation of three factors: poet´s persona, process of structuring or
composing, and poetic language.
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CHAPTER II.: Poet`s Persona
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There exist numerous types and classifications of the types of poets.In the
following chapter we will look at the poet´s persona based on the contrast of
the music composer, choreographer and the “Emersonian “ nature of poet.
Firstly,according to Zich (Prokop 27) there are three types of poets:“ visual,
audial and kinesthetic. The dominant disposition e.g. audial is sometimes
considered to be a specific talent. Such a disposition is necessary prerequisite,
and part of talent, but it can be further differentiated(e.g. stronger sense of
color than of line), and also artist`s talent is a complex of dispositions- it means
it can not exist without exceptional emotional and imaginative dispositions that
are inborn or educated.“ From some others classifications of the poets I would
like to mention Coleridge and Wordsworth theory: „They devide poets into two
categories- imaginative (real creators) and fantasizing (copying). (29) The
similar is the division of Šalda:”poet as a creator with the inner eye versus the
writer(stereotyping, craft rather than art creating poet. (29).Another lassification
of the artists is based on the the way they create : „it is a typology based on
the character and type of the creative process- the spontaneous type versus
rational or structuring type.(29).
According to Dictionary of Literary Terms (Cuddon 941), poets of the
symbolist movement believed that the poetry should be written:“so that by the
fusion of images and by the musical quality of the verse;by, in short, a form of
so-called pure oetry. The music of the words provided the requisite element of
suggestiveness. Verlaine, in his poem Art poetique (1874), for instance, says
that verse must possess this musical quality“avant toute chose“. Valery
summoned the ideas of musicality in his essay”Poetry and abstract
thought:dancing and walking”, and eventhough he draws certain analogies
between poetry, music and dance, he claims the position of the poetry to be
the most difficult one:“the musician is thus in possession of a perfect system of
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well defined means which exactly match sensations with acts“(Valery 258),
while „the poetic universe is not created so powerfully or so easily.The poet
has to borrow language-...nothing pure;but a mixture of completely incoherent
auditive and psychic stimuli. Each word is an instantaneous coupling of
a sound and a sense“(Valery 259), and thirdly, „..dance is quite another
matter...it goes nowhere. If it pursues an object, it is only an ideal object,
a state, an enchantment, the phantom of a flower, an extreme of life, a smilewhich forms at last on the face of the one who summoned it from empty space.
It is therefore not question of carrying out a limited operation whose end is
situated somewhere in our surroundings, but rather of creating, maintaining,
and exalting a certain state, by a periodic movement that can be executed on
the spot; a movement which is almost entirely dissociated from sight, but which
is stimulated and regulated by auditive rhythm.(Valery 260).
As it can be observed from the previously mentioned quotes by Valery the
certain analogies can be found between music, dance and poetry. In my
opinion, there is a great similarity on the abstract level between music
composing, dance choreographing and poetry writing. Therefore, there must
exist certain similar traits between the persona of musician, choreographer and
poet.
Famous American music composer provides us with the following
typologies of composers, based on the way each of them „conceives music“
(Copland 27,28):
1. the type that has fired public imagination most is that of the spontaneously
inspired composer-e.g. Franz Schubert- music simply wells out of him; In
a sense one of this kind begins not so much with a musical theme as with
a completed composition.
2. the second type-the constructive type, one might call it- e.g. Beethoventhis type exemplifies my theory of the creative process in music better than
any other because in this case the composer really does begin with
a musical theme. Beethoven was not a spontaneously inspired; he was the
type that begins with a theme;makes it a germinal idea; and upon that
constructs a musical work, day after day in painstaking fashion. Most
composers since Beethoven`s day belong to this second type.
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3. The third type of creator I can only call, for lack of a better name the
traditionalist type.Men like Bach belong in this category. The traditionalist
type of composer begins with a pattern rather than with a theme. The
creative act is not the thematic conception so much as the personal
treatment of well-established pattern.
As for the poets they can be also classified according to this model, and the
way they create, eventhough in my opinion all poets are combining all three
types of the procedure during their creative lives. Unfortunatelly, there was no
such classification made on the poets as it was done by Copland on the
musicians, and probably the only way in which we would be able to
differentiate the poets according to the way they create the poetry would be
through their own honestly written down notes on how they produced the
individual poems.
According to the authority in the field of the dance-Doris Humphrey- the who is
herself a famous choreographer the creator or in her case choreographer
should possess set of the characteristics neccessary for his or her creatively
productive work. This is what Humphrey writes about the persona of the ideal
choreographer:(Humphrey 20,24)
1. Choreographer should be predominantly extrovert and keen observer.
2. Choreographer must have a high resistance to novelty for its own sake
and courage to depart from the trends of the day if necessary.
3. Choreographer, but fascinated with all manifestations of form and
shape.
4. Choreographer must have a dramatic sense, and an ability to grasp and
hold an over-all shape-this clearly calls for an emotional nature.
5. Choreographer should have, and this ability can be trained too- good
eye and sensitive ear- the good eye knows how to choose the telling
line, the right design; also the well trained ear is sensitive to music.
6. Choreographer should have a quality-language skill-he has a mind full
of pungent, vivid or poetic language which he can use to convey his
intentions; language skill is for dances that have meaning; for those
which are based only on physical movement, the vocabulary of a drill
sergeant is quite sufficient.
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The final quote lead us back to the poet´s. The good or ideal poet should
have the quality of both a good music composer, and the qualities of a good
choreographer,only instead of working with :space,music,dancer and idea, the
poet is juggling with the structures, metres and figures of the speech, or rather
he is seeking the ultimate balance between the images he carries in his head ,
and their practical realization or manifestation in words, and verse forms. So,
as Valery writes(Valery 259): „The poet is ...obliged to speculate on sound and
sense at once, and to satisfy not only harmony and musical timing but all the
various intellectual and aesthetic conditions, not to mention the conventional
rules....“ and continues ,“you can see what an effort the poet`s undertaking
would require if he had consciously to solve all these problems....“
The previous quotes leads us to another level of classification of the poets.
Emerson in his famous essay on the poets raises many interesting questions
about the nature of the poets.
According to Emerson:“poet is a representative, poet is a young man who
admires geniuses, poet is able to perceive nature fully and is able to interpret
this truth to others. “Valery expresses similar idea in the following quote:“In my
eyes a poet is a man,who, as a result of a certain incident, undergoes a hidden
transformation. He leaves his ordinary condition of general disposability, and
I see taking shape in him an agent, a living system for producing verses“
(Valery 259), and so translating the message in a form of poetry to others.In
the last paragraph of his essay”The Poet”, Emerson writes:“Thou true landlord!sea lord!air-lord!“ I would like to include my definition of the poet-since
I expressed the similar idea of the man-poet in the poem“My Name Is Nobody“
which I had written in 1993:
MY NAME IS NOBODY.
(4 substances travelling)
My name is Nobody
I swim in Nowhere
I own some souls,but
I am not a Waterman.
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My name is Nobody
I believe in Nothing
I forge cold irony,but
I am not a Blacksmith.
My name is Nobody
I pray for Nonsense
I used to fly in wind,but
I am not a Spaceman.
My name is Nobody
I live in No-man-land
I work on the field, but
I am not a Farmer.
And I still have to wonder,
Will I find the answer?
In my opinion expressed in this poem, poets are people who can see
behind the scenes, because their imagination can travel everywhere and
eventhough the poets do not provide the mankind with the exact answer to
their questions: What is the world like? Is there a God?, still poets are able
through their work feed the imaginations of other people and push them higher
in their quest for the true answers to these basic questions of the human
existence.
It is not a surprise that there can be many parallels found between English
Romantics and Emerson`s view of the poet since they were all influenced by
the same philosophy. For example, Shelley claims: „Poets are trumpets which
sing to battle. Poets are the „unacknowledged legislators of the worlds.“
(Burghess 166). Furthermore, Wordsworth claims:“The poet is a Prophet, not
the transcriber of the other men`s true, but the initiator of the truth
itself.“(Burghess 166). Emerson summarizes this views in a following way:
“The poet has a new thought: he has a whole new experience to unfold, he will
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tell us how it was with him, and all men will be the richer in his fortune. For the
experience of each new age requires a new confession, and the world seems
always waiting for its poet.“ (Emerson 455).T.S.Eliot adds the similar idea in
his essay “The Modern Mind”: „Each age demands different things from poetry
(and poet as well), though its demands are modified, from time to time, by
what some new poet has given." (Eliot 545).
Besides positive aspects of the nature of poets, Emerson also mentions the
negative side of their nature, or prize that poets and other artists pay if their
desire to create leads them“ to lead a life of pleasure and indulgence.“
Emerson continues:“ They were punished for that advantage they won, by
dissipation, and deterioration.“(Emerson 463). We all know that many poets
and other artists drank excessively, or took drugs, or died too young. American
psychoanalyst, Rolo May, who deals with the artists maintains: „ Artists are
competing with Gods by trying to become immortal through their art. Therefore,
Gods punished them for this and their lives are often difficult and full of
disaster.“ Next important observation that Emerson made about poets is that
also ordinary men are poets because they are in love with the Nature even if
this love of the beauty is only subconscience:“Who loves Nature? Is it only
poets, and men of leisure and cultivation, who live with her? No, but also
hunters, farmers, grooms, and butchers, though they express their affection in
their choice of life, and not in their choice of words.“ (Emerson 459). Emerson
believed that beauty lies in simplicity.
This leads us to another „type“ of a poet- magician. Previous statements may
be directly contradicted with the symbolists poets that belong into so called
„transcendental symbolism.“ In this kind, concrete images are used as symbols
to represent a general or universal ideal world of which the real world is
a shadow. In the 19-th century there developed the idea that this „other world“
was attainable, not through religious faith or mysticism, but through the poetry.
Baudelaire and his followers created the image of the poet as a kind of seer or
voyant,who could see through and beyond the real world to the world of ideal
form and essence.“(Cuddon 940,941). In addition, Paul De Mann in his essay
“The Double Aspect of Symbolism” maintains the image of a poet as
a magus:”and the modern poet has often become like one of the magi,
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underway towards a new epiphany.”(De Mann 15) He and many philosophers
considered to be one of the best poets of all times German poet Holderlin :”
whose work has of late become more and more associated with this vocation
of the poet as a Kind of Magus.”(De Mann 15) I belive that concept of the
symbolists as a poet –magician, and the concept of the Emerson based on the
philosophy of transcendentalism have much in common. They percieve the
poet as a transcendental messenger between two worlds.
Emerson , however, names his poet a mystique rather than magi.
Eventhough, Emerson disagrees with a poet to be only a mystique, he often
mentions in his essays mysticism, when explaining the nature of the poets.
For example:“The people fancy they hate poetry, and they are all poets and
mystics!“(Emerson 459). Also, Eliot in his essay “The Modern Mind” (Eliot 545)
admits: „ That there is a relation, (not necessarily noetic, perhaps merely
psychological) between mysticism and some kinds of poetry, or some of the
kinds of state in which poetry is produced, I would make no doubt.“
The word mysticism comes from Greek and it means“to be initiated or
consecrated“.
Author(H.J.Storig 199) provides us with the following definition: „Mysticism as
an ecclesiastical attitude is not tied to the certain period of time. In every epoch
and at every moment of life, man has a choice to „close his eyes“, not to look
at the world, but to look into his or her inside, and to light the torch of divine
sparkle that is already there. “Master Eckhart is considered to be one of the
most distinctive personalities of the Middle Ages.
He talks about this three signs of mysticism:
1. The original God does not exist, therefore, it is like an abbys of
nothingness.
2. The uniformity of God and Soul exist. The soul is created to the image of
God. The soul consists of three spiritual powers: knowledge, anger, and
wanting. These qualities are equivalent to three virtues: faith,love, and
hope. Over these three stands the divine sparkle.
3. Mystic is trying to leave himself and to merge with God. Note the last rule
most importantly, since Eliot talks about similar experience :“The progress
of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of
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personality....It is in this depersonalization ( which is at the same time
fusion with something else..) that art may be said to approach the condition
of science“,and he continues, „ mind of the mature poet differs from that of
the immature one not precisely in any valuation of „personality“ not being
necessarily more interesting or having more to say, but rather by being
a more finely perfected medium in which special or very valued feelings are
at liberty to enter into new combinations.“(Eliot 527)
Moreover, Emerson is not right when he claims that there is a difference
between the poet and the mystic:“here is the difference betwixt the poet and
mystic, that the last nails a symbol to one sense, which was a true for
a moment, but soon becomes old and false.“ (Emerson 466). At the same time
Emerson writes exactly like Eliot- poet is a Medium between God(Nature), and
this dimension.“ Basically both of them at certain points contradict themselves,
when immediately after Eliot writes that „poet is perfected medium“, he
continues,” The point of view which I am struggling to attack is perhaps related
to the metaphysical theory of the substantial UNITY of the SOUL: for my
meaning is, that the poet has, not a personality to express, but a particular
medium(rather I would suggest he becomes medium), which is only a medium
not a personality, in which impression and experiences combine in peculiar
and unxepected ways.“ (Eliot 528).
In conclusion, the poet´s persona should not only possess all the qualities
of the good choreographer and music composer, but also the “Emersonian”
poet should serve as a transcendental messenger between the two worlds of
the fantasy and reality, and should as such try to distance himself from his real
life persona represented by his ego.
I would like to conclude the chapter on the poet`s persona with the
following
poem by Linda Pastan:
POET
At his right hand
Silence
At his left hand
Silence
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Ahead of him
Silence;
And above his head
All the letters of the alphabet
To choose from.
(Holt, et.al. 378)
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CHAPTER III.: Process of structuring and composing of poetry
The process of “choosing from the letters of alphabet”, or the actual
creative process in which poetry or poem is written, and we called it
process of structuring and composing of poetry will be discussed in the
following chapter. The actual ideas on how any work of art is composed
seem to be identical in choreographing dances,music composing and
poems writing, while most of the artists describe these stages in the
creative :good theme selection, appropriate structure selection and the
overall molding or unity of the all elements .
The selection of the theme seems to be the most dominant or important
one in a process of creation.
Firstly, choreographer Humphrey perceives the relationship between the
theme and author as a very intimate one: „The relationship of the creator to his
theme is very much like that between lovers. He is intoxicated with its charms,
embraces it on every possible occasion, dreams of it at night, delights in
decking it out in the richest ornaments at his command.(Humphrey 24).
Secondly, the music composer Copland suggests that theme should be
opened enough, and as such provide enough space for further work: „Always
remember that a theme is after all, only a succession of notes. As a matter of
fact, the experience of most composers has been that the more complete
a theme is, the less possibility there is of seeing it in various aspects. If the
theme itself, in its original form is long enough and complete enough, the
composers may have difficulty in seeing it in any other way....Great music can
be written on themes that in themselves are insignificant."(Copland 27)
Next, Edgar Allan Poe in his Philosophy of Composition proposes the exact
way of choosing his theme when writing his famous poem Raven, and he
24
derives his selection of theme based on the aesthetic principals of beauty:
„When indeed men speak of Beauty, they mean precisely not a quality, as is
supposed, but an effect – they refer in short, just to that intense and pure
elevation of soul.(664) Regarding, then Beauty as my province, my next
question referred to the tone of its highest manifestation- and all experience
has shown that this tone is- sadness.(665)..After I asked myself: „Of all
melancholy topics, what according to the universal understanding of mankind
is the most melancholy?“ Death- was the obvious reply.“ When it most closely
allies itself to Beauty: the death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably,
the most poetical topic in the world. (666)
If everything in nature is ordered,and interrelated through the precisely
correlated structures, then all the good art work should be based or formed
with the structure,or on the basis of some structure.There are at least two
types of structures : on the outer level, and on the inner level, and they are
similar in music composing, dance choreographing, and poetry structuring.
The outer structure is required “to hold together” the building material in any
of three arts we mentioned so far.First of all, music composer will need : “his
stock in trade, certain formal structural molds on which to lean for the basic
framework of his compositions. These formal molds I speak of have all been
gradually evolved over hundreds of years as the combined efforts of
numberless composers seeking a way to ensure the coherence of their
compositions.”(Copland 30). On the other hand, choreographer Humphrey
believes that origin of forms comes from :”The innate sense of structure in
people has been acquired through thousands of experiences with design.
Every day in every life, the senses are impressed with the shape of objects,
from the humble comb to huge architectural designs or natural phenomena
like mountains.(Humphrey 49).As for the writers,Longinus states about writers
that they not only need certain greatness of soul, but also certain knowledge of
how to write based on the writers that preceeded them:”Greatness of soul is
admittedly the prime requisite for great writing. But it must be fed and
developed by an enthusiastic immitation and emulation of previous great poets
and writers.”(Longinus 61)
25
In addition, Edgar Alan Poe laughs at those who believe that they can create
out of othing:”Most writers-poets in especial-prefer having it understood that
they compose by a SPECIES OF FINE FRENZY- an ecstatic intuition, and
would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes”,
and continues,”No one point in its composition is referrible either to accident,
or intuition,that the work proceeded, step by step, to its completion with the
precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem.”(Poe 663).In
addition, Humphrey agrees with Poe, when she continues:”I am not an
advocate of “emoting” as the keystone to dance structure. It is well to say
again that there is a discipline which must be followed in constructing dances.
“(Humphrey 31) Moreover, she suggests to young choreographers: “If you are
completely satisfied with the key shapes of our time, do not seek to
compose....” Furthermore, Copland believes that:”Structure in music is no
different from structure in any other art; it is simply the coherent organization of
the artist`s material,....but most masterworks ...seldom fit so neatly as they are
supposed to into the exteriorized forms of the textbooks.” (Copland 75).
As for the poetry, Wordsworth believs that poetry originates from a special
state of contemplation:”it takes its origin from emotion recollected in
tranquility.”(Wordsworth 344). On the other hand ,Eliot claims that poetry can
be formed in two ways:
“1. It may be formed out of one emotion, or may be a combination of several,
and various feelings infering for the writer in particular words or phrases, may
be added to compose final result.”
“2. Great poetry may be made without the direct use of any emotion whatevercomposed out of feelings solely.” (Eliot 527)
Moreover, Poe went further and demanded precise structuring of the writing
“good writers calculate their effects precisely”, and he worked hard at
structuring his tales.”(Poe 591).
Hunter in his Norton Introduction to Poetry writes: “Basically, the problem of
how to organize one`s material is , for the writer, first of all a matter of deciding
what kind of thing one wants to create, of having its purposes and effects
clearly in mind. That means that every poem will differ somewhat from every
other, but it also means that patterns of purpose-narrative, dramatic,
26
discursive, descriptive, imitative, or reflective – may help writers organize and
formulate their ideas. A consciousness of purpose+effect can help then reader
to see how a poem proceeds towards its goal, and often it is the organization
of the poem that helps to make clear the particular effects that poet wishes to
generate.” (Hunter,173,174). Hunter also provides the definitions of the
individual structures as follows:
1.narrative structure-based on straightforward chronological framework
2.dramatic structure-consisting of a series of scenes, each of which is
presented vividly and in detail
3.discursive structure-organized in the form of treatise, argument , or essay
4.descriptive structure-determined by the requirements of describing someone
or something
5.imitative structure-mirroring exactly, if possible, the structure of something
that already exists as an object and can be seen
6.reflective-meditative structure-pondering a subject, theme,or event, and
letting the mind play with it, skipping from one sound to another, or to related
thoughts or objects as the mind receives them. (Hunter 174)
The idea of deviding the writing process into outer and inner structuring
came to me after I read those quotes:”I think of design in general as falling into
two major categories,symetrical, and asymmetrical; each of which may be of
two kinds: oppositional, and successional. “(Humphrey 50). Copland
expresses similar idea when writing about music composing: “There are two
ways in which structure in music may be considered;1.form in relation to
a piece as a whole (outer structure),and 2. form in relation to the separate,
shorter parts of a piece(inner structure).” (Copland 77). It just reminds me of
poetry being written with the use of outer structure, such as Hunter writes
above, and with the use of inner structure such as metric system is, or being
written without exact inner system-such as free verse.
As history shows us that almost all remembered poetry has something
formal about it-that is a distinct form or structure.
“Poetic form is based mainly on the organization of sounds, ...and poetry is
a musical kind of speech.Like music, it is based on rhythm-that is on the
alternation of stressed and unstressed sounds. “ (Holt,et.al. 300) Poets have
27
a choice in the kind of rhythm they can use meter( something what Humphrey
calls symmetry in dance), or they can use free verse(something that Humphrey
calls asymmetry in dance.) Every line of poetry written in meter is made up of
metrical units called feet. We recognize these five types used by poets in
English:
1.iamb(iambic)- An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in
this line by
Tennyson: “The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls...”
2.trochee(trochaic)- A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, as
in this line from Shakespeare:”Double,double, toil and trouble..”
3.anapest(anapestic)- Two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed
syllable, as in this
line by Byron: “The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold...”
4.dactyl(dactylic):One stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables,
as in this line from a nursery rhyme:”Hickory,dickory,dock
5.spondee(spondaic): Two stressed syllables, as in this line by Tennyson:
“Break, break,break
Oh thy cold gray stones,O sea!”
(Holt,et.al.302)
Free verse (a loose kind of rhythm in which sounds of long phrases are
balanced against the sounds of short phrases), appeared early in this century(
is probably the youngest from poetry forms), when some American and English
poets decided to get rid of the artificial sentimentality of poetry, and they
concentrated on “carrying the full emotional message of a poem.”They also
said:”We do not insist upon “free verse” as the only method of writing poetry,”
they said.”We do believe that the individuality of the poet may often be better
expressed in free verse than in conventional forms.”For example when
William Carlos Williams first began to write poems, they had none of the
familiar elements of poetry except for imagery and a kind of rhythm that
seemed more conversational than poetic, and therefore, no one took him
seriously:
This Is Just To Say
I have eaten
28
The plums
That were in
The icebox
And which
You were probably
Saving
For breakfast
Forgive me
They were delicious
So sweet
And so cold
William Carlos Williams
The big opponent of free verse Robert Frost wrote: “writing in this manner is
like playing tennis with the net down..” (Holt,et.al.303,304). The dispute could
be made on the fact whether poet should have both outer and inner structure
when writing a poem, and as Copland already said:”most masterworks seldom
fit the structures from the text-books”, but if the poet wants to write his poetry
for others not just for himself, certain structuring is necessary in order to make
his work comprehensible for public.
Besides selection of theme, and selection or creation certain structures
there is a certain process of molding all the elements together when shaping
the composition.
First of all, the music composer after he had chosen musical idea (theme), and
partially decided about the structure he should add to his material some
bridging material, and then he can work in two other ways:
1.elongation process-often the composer finds that a particular theme needs
elongation, so that its character may be more clearly defined;
2.and another way is that of working with the metamorphoses of his original
theme
29
To summarize :”all these things are necessary for the creation of a fullsized piece-the germinal idea, the addition of other lesser ideas, the bridge
material for the connection of the ideas, and their full development.” (Copland
29,30). Next, choreographer has to :”recognize four elements of dance
movement that are:”design, dynamics,rhythm, and motivation.”...and students
are asked to produce variations of the simple movements, until they have nine
of them-they can be might be loosely compared to single words, like nouns in
language. Nine”words” is quite a vocabulary in the dance, and if the student
knows how to complete them with syntax, grammar and phrasing, he will have
quite enough movement to complete a whole dance.”(Humphrey 46,47). In
addition, Poe in his „Philosophy of Composition“ writes about the same thing
like Copland`s metamorphoses of his theme, and Humphrey`s nine variation of
the same element- when he writes about the use of refrain “nevermore” that
not only ties the whole composition together by limiting or marking its structure,
but also recurrence of this phrase helps to finish the final shape of his poem
„Raven“:”in the construction of poem-some pivot upon which the whole
structure might turn-refrain;the pleasure is deduced solely from the sense of
identity- of repetition of one word only.”(Poe 665).
I purposefully did not mention the ideas of inspiration. Still, almost all artists,
and critiques agree that every author is inspired at least partially or at the
certain stages of his creative process. “Poems do not write themselves. Even if
the idea for a poem comes in a flash(as it sometimes does) poets often
struggle to get the final effect just right. Often a study of the manuscript of the
several drafts suggests the various kinds of decisions a poet may make as
a poem moves towards its final form.”(Hunter 369)For example, I would like to
demonstrate this on my own poems. One of them came in a flash, and it was
as a complete vision or image that I conveyed in first two stanzas. The last
stanza I had to change several times until it reached the desired effect- and
until it explained the title of the poem as well, but I completed the poem in few
minutes:
ROBOCOP.
30
I am cursed bloody Spot
Falling from the Ceiling
Of your Vision
With a velocity of Star
Into the corner of your Eye.
I am a piece of dirt
That you take between
Your fingers and melt
With a CO2 until
It disappears into the thin air.
You make me disappear
Because
I am your tear
And
You don`t want to be seen crying...
Second poem called LOVE IS took me almost a year to write. I literally
dwelt on the idea how to capture and express the idea that love is deep yet
simple. I knew that structure and vocabulary had to be very simple, but some
people thing that poem is very superficial because it describes what everybody
knows. Still for me this poem was the most difficult one to write:
LOVE IS
Love is just a letter
Sitting on the table
In the middle of the dust.
Love is just a phone call
With a heart
Left in the wire.
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Love is just a neigbourgh
Working in his garden
And waving to the Sun.
Love
Is
Just.
Often poets revise their work when reprinting their poems The analyses of
the changes the authors made when reprinting their poems are an excellent
source for the analyses of the process of srtucturing the poetry.An interesting
example is a poem written by Marianne Moore. I decided to include to
versions of her poem called “Poetry”:
The 1925 Version
I too, dislike it:
There are things that are important beyond all this fiddle.
The bat, upside down, the elephant pushing,
The tireless wolf under a tree,
The base-ball fan, the statistician“business documents and schoolbooks”these phenomena are pleasing,
but when they have been fashioned
into that which is unknowable,
we are not entertained.
It may be said of all of us
That we do not admire what we cannot understand;
Enigmas are not poetry.
The version Moore chose to print in her Complete Poems in 1967:
I,too, dislike it.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one
Discovers in
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It after all, a place for the genuine.
(Hunter 378)
In both versions the theme, or subject matter has not changed. What has
changed, however, is an attitude of the author to the subject matter(Poetry). In
the first, longer version author states her reasons why she dislikes complicated
metaphors or better to say eccentric metaphors by some authors and criticizes
their approach for making poetry non-understandable,and believes that what
we can not understand what we can not appreciate. In the second version
author discovers that there may be some beauty when the reader is able to
distance him or herself from reading the poetry, and enjoy or appreciate even
things that seem to be blurred or obscure.
As for the structures, outer structure has been reduced almost to the
minimum, when all the imagery in the first version reflecting the author´s
negative attitude has been reduced to only one word-“contempt”. In addition,
this reduction had an influence on the inner structure of the poem as well,
where now second version reminds me of Imagist` s style of Ezra Pound.
Nevertheless, both poems are complete, and express the finished idea of
the author even if those ideas on the same subject matter are slightly different,
now.I personally prefer the second version, for it creates more compact and
precise expression of the author´s thoughts.
Besides good theme, suitable structures, and overall shaping of the poem
there is one more prerequirement, unity, that determines whether the poem is
well written.
All artists may call it differently- choreographer Humphrey describes it as
a flow:” It begins with the most important step-the decision as to the basic idea
from which the dance will spring.All else flows from this...”(Humphrey 31). The
similar idea is expressed in these words of music composer Copland:”a great
symphony is a man –made Mississippi; ...Music must always flow, for that is
a part of its very essence, but the creation of that continuity and flow-that
LONG LINE-constitutes the be-all and end-all of every composer´s existence.
(Copland 30).I believe that every well written poem should have both the
qualities of good dance(flow), and good music(long line), and this is something
33
what every poetry writer should carry in his mind when writing. In addition, Poe
expressed the similar idea in his Philosophy of Composition:”If any literary
work is too long to be read at one sitting,...everything like totality is at once
destroyed.” (Poe 663). Poe´s idea of unity is similar to that of Humphrey´s idea
of flow and Copland´s idea of long line. Moreover, Valery confirms this idea
when he refuses to choose some lines from the poetry of V.Hugo by
saying:”What is great about poetry is not the fine line or even the percentage
of great ones that you can find in a poem and cut out from the whole; it is in
my opinion, the composition as a whole( succession of images, tones,
rhythms, sounds) which make the poem an indivisible unity....You must
experience this unity of poem...”
I would like to conclude this chapter on the process of composing and
structuring the poems with an idea that the best poems even if they spring
from the intuitive flash or glimpse, should be carefully worked on considering
their theme, outer and inner structure selection, and with the overall shaping in
which the flow or unity of poem should be preserved.
34
CHAPTER IV.: Poetic language: Symbols
35
In the fourth chapter I would like to concentrate on the last of three named
basic elements of the creative process- and that is the material that artist has
to work with. In poet `s case it is a poetic language.Poetic language is also
called “figurative language”, and that language :”is always based on some kind
of comparison that is not literally true.”(Holt,et.all .227) Poetic language
comprises of similes, metaphors,and personification,but also of images and
symbols. The last one plays a great role in almost any type of poetry.I would
like to define the symbol in both literary and non-literary way, provide certain
classification of symbols based on the different authors, and to conclude this
chapter with the analyses of the different poems written with the use of the
same symbol.
The word symbol derives from the Greek verb symballein “to throw
together” and its noun symbolon “mark”, “emblem”, “token or sign.” It is an
object, animate or inanimate which represents or stands for something else.”
(Cuddon,
939). As Coleridge claims, a symbol “is characterized by
a translucence of the special (i.e. the species) in the individual”.
These are all the dictionary definitions of the “symbol”, but I would like to
emphasize the global or more general definition of symbols as a basic writing
tool of every poet. That is why I chose to concentrate on the symbols as
a dominant particle of the poetic language. I would like to support my believes
with the following quotes: :”in a very literary sense, words themselves are all
symbols (they stand for an object, action, or quality, not just for letters or
sounds)” (Hunter 146) Paul de Mann in his essay “The Double Aspect of
Symbolism” agrees with these definition of all poetry as a symbolic poetry in
36
a sense of “ symbol-word definition” when he argues with the words of
Parnassian poet Heredia the meaning of symbolists poets:”..But why the devil
do they call themselves symbolists?...All poets are symbolists!” . De Mann
uses another quote by Verlaine( who is himself considered to be a symbolist):
“(Symbolism) is a pure pleonasm,since the symbol is the essence of
poetry.”(De Mann 4).
There are tendencies to classify and to divide symbols according to their
usage into :
1. public or universal (Cuddon 939)
2.private or personal(Cuddon 940)
3. transcendental(Cuddon 940,941)
4. traditional(Hunter 151)
5. emotional(Yeats 30 )
6.intellectual(Yeats 30 )
7. the archetypes ( King 46 )
First of all, “public or universal symbols have been inherited- that is , they have
been handed down through history. For example,no one knows exactly who
first thought of using the lion to symbolize power, courage, and domination.
But once those qualities have been assigned to it, images of lions began to
appear on flags, banners, coats of arms, and castle walls, and the lion became
a public symbol.” (Holt,et.al.248) Another “example in literature of public or
universal symbol is a journey into the underworld (as in the work of Virgil,
Dante and James) and return from it.”(Cuddon 939).Among others public or
universal symbols are often mentioned:”lamb or fish as a symbol of Christ,
a curved sword as a symbol of the Muslim world, a six-pointed star represents
the people of Israel, an eagle came to symbolize the U.S., an image of the
rising sun came to symbolize Japan, and a winged horse came to symbolize
poetry.” (Holt,et.al.248)
Second type of symbols are so called “private or personal symbols” are those
that come from “the event that is personal, but the poet gives it significance by
the interpretation he puts upon it.”(Hunter 148).Examples of the private
symbols are also those that occur in the work of W.B.Yeats:” the sun and
moon, a tower, a mask, a tree, a winding star and hawk.(Cuddon 940)
37
Third type of symbols are transcendental symbols. “In this kind,concrete
images are used as symbols to represent a general or universal world of which
the real world is a shadow....This general or universal or ideal world was to be
achieved by the fusion of images and the musical quality of verse that would
provide its suggestiveness.” (Cuddon 941) In this case the whole
works(poems) were symbolic not only concrete images. The symbolist
movement included Moreas with progenitors such as Baudelaire, Mallarmé,
Verlaine, Rimbaud in France.(Cuddon 941) “The main representatives of
symbolist movement outside France are: “ W.B.Yeats, the Imagist group of
English and American poets(especially T.E.Hulme and Ezra Pound), and
T.S.Eliot.” (942).
Fourth type of symbols are so called “traditional” symbols. “They already stand
for something before the poet creates them. Their uses in poetry have to do
with the fact that poets can count on a recognition of their traditional
suggestions, and meaning outside the poem, and the poem does not have to
propose or argue a particular symbolic value. (Hunter 151) For example, “birds
symbolize flight, freedom from confinement,...traditionally, birds have also
been linked with imagination, and poets often identify with them as ideal
singers of songs, as in Keat`s”Ode to Nightingale.” (151)
Fifth type of symbols are according to Yeats “emotional symbols”. According to
Yeats:”All sounds , all colors, all forms, either because of their preordained
energies or because of long association evoke indefinable and yet precise
emotions....and the more numerous the elements that have flowed into its
perfection, the more powerful will be the emotion,the power..”(Yeats 30,31)”For
Yeats, Shakespeare´s works are filled with emotional symbols (“they represent
the whole spectacle of world”)”(33)
Sixth type of symbols are according to Yeats “intellectual symbols”. They are
“symbols that evoke ideas alone....and ...It is the intellect that decides whether
the reader shall ponder over the procession of the symbols, and if the symbols
are intellectual, the reader becomes the part of the pure intellect...” (Yeats 33).
For Yeats, Dante represents the writer who uses many intellectual symbols.
The seventh type of symbols is called archetypes. It is a term produced by
C.G.Jung, and it means probably the general definition of the symbol, or
38
archetypes could be used as an umbrella term for all symbols. “The theory of
unconscious archetypes is a re-expression in terms of Jungian in depth –
psychology, of an ancient idea which some of the alchemists and occult
philosophers of old expressed by the phrase”the world has a soul.” They called
the world-soul by its Latin name, anima mundi. “ Anima mundi, so it has been
said, is a sort of super-memory in which are recorded all the experiences
undergone by the myriads of living beings. In this memory are retained not just
events, but concepts-religious, philosophical and mystical theories, besides
much else” the totality of the collective wisdom(“Jungian collective
unconsciousness”), and in some other sources called Akashic
Record(Hamilton-Parker 65). Anima mundi contains within it enourmously
powerful images-the archetypes- which represent various aspects of
humanity´s experience and wisdom in much the same way as an accurate,
large-scale map represents a landscape.”(King 47) The archetypes of anima
mundi are partially expressed, so it is claimed, in the symbolism and imagery
of the tarot trumphs.(47). “At one period of his life T.S.Eliot was so fascinated
by the symbols of the tarot that he came to mentally identify the tarot card
called the Three of Wands “the man with three staves”) with the wounded
Fisher King of the legends of the Holly Grail. The appeal that the tarot symbols
had for Eliot has been felt by many others, e.g. W.B.Yeats( symbols of moon,
tower and so on..).(King 44,45). Here is how Eliot criticizes Yeats in his
essay”The Modern Mind”:” No one can read Mr. Yeats´s autobiographies and
his earlier poetry without feeling that the author was trying to get as a poet
something like the exaltation to be obtained, I believe, from hashish or nitrous
oxide. He was very much fascinated by self-induced trance states, calculated
symbolism.....”(Eliot 545).
Besides the approximate classification of symbols it is very interesting to
observe how the different authors worked and used the same symbol – rose-in
their own way to create three different poems.
(Go not too near a House of Rose-)
Go not too near a House of RoseThe depredation of a Breeze
39
Or inundation of a Dew
Alarms its walls away-
Not try to tie the Butterfly,
Nor climb the Bars of Ecstasy,
In insecurity to lie
Is Joy s insuring quality.
Emily Dickinson,1878
( Hunter 155)
Firstly, Emily Dickinson uses the image of rose. In her case, rose
represents love- the roses are in this poem used as a traditional symbol“House of Rose”.Also, the symbol “House of Rose can be associated with
Beauty, which would make the rose – emotional symbol. The word rose
evokes in the readers images associated with beauty. The different
interpretation of the symbol would , consequently led to a different
interpretation of the whole poem. While in the first case the House of Rose
interpreted as a symbol of love would suggest that “it is better to love someone
from distance....line1(Go not too near a House of Rose-) and it is better to be
unsure or with unreturned love...line7(In insecurity to lie), than to be involved in
love relationship ...line 6(Nor climb the Bars of Ecstasy), and try to restrict the
freedom of the other person-line 5(Nor try to tie the Butterfly) . On the other
hand, the poem can be interpreted based on the interpretation of the rose as
a symbol of beauty – as a subject that is beautiful, and can be admired only
from a distance-line 1(Go not too near a House of Rose-), because the rose
has thorns and the person can get hurt when he/or she would come too
close.Also, the rose is more beautiful when in nature in “Breeze, and Dew”
and alive “left free” (Nor try to tie the Butterfly)-line5, rather than cut off from
the nature and put in the vase.
Secondly, William Carlos Williams used the image of rose rather to express
one compact idea, the whole poem is based on simile of rose and poem:
POEM
The rose fades
And is renewed again
40
By its seeds, naturally
But where
Save in the poem
Shall it go
To suffer no diminution
Of its splendor
William Carlos Williams,1962
(Hunter 155)
The rose in this case serves not only as simile, but also as an “universal
symbol”- it represents nature and its constant rebirth .While in the rose´s case
the seeds from which the flower grows are always the same, in the case of the
poem the seeds-the words from which the poem is comprised of are never the
same. Williams believes that good poem should have all the quality of the
rose- it should be beautiful, and magnificent.In this case the symbol of rose is
that of”transcendental” when the rose serves as a reflection of a well written
poem.
Thirdly, Dorothy Parker uses the “traditional” symbol of rose as a symbol of
conventional way of expressing affection:
One Perfect Rose
A single flower he sent me, since we met.
All tenderly his messenger he choose;
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wetOne perfect rose.
I knew the language of the floweret;
“My fragile leaves,” it said, “ his heart enclose.”
Love long has taken for his amulet
One perfect rose.
Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it s always just my luck to get
41
One perfect rose.
Dorothy Parker, 1937
(Hunter 155)
In Parker` s case , the rose is used as something less worthy. The symbol of
rose is used in a traditional way (I knew the language of the floweret; “My
fragile leaves,”it said, “his heart enclose.”), but the poem is constructed on the
contrast of the traditional symbol of rose, and “one perfect limousine” as a new
symbol - concept of something precious and luxurious. The conventional
overuse of the traditional symbol of rose is emphasized throughout the whole
poem with a refrain of the line:”One perfect rose.” In this poem the rose is used
to represent something old, and archaic that has grown out of fashion.
In conclusion, symbols are “words that describe not only a verbal universe
but a world in which actions occur, acts have implications, and events
mean.”(Hunter 146) I provided partial classification of the symbols, yet I believe
that the most important idea is that all poetry is written in symbols. I chose
symbols as broader or generalized definition of the poetic language or
figurative speech, in order to demonstrate how much is the process of
constructing the poem determined through the poet´s persona with an
individual choice of symbolism, and how much the same symbol can inspire
totally different results when writing poetry.
42
CONCLUSION
In my work I tried to analyze the creativity and the creative process through
which the poetry is created.
Firstly, in the first chapter I included the psychological point of view on the
creativity and the theoretical background for the whole diploma work.
I intoduced and described the three basic elements of the creative process:the
created product, the creative individual, and the stages that govern this
creative process. I would like to emphasize that creative process in which
poetry is created is determined by the interaction of the three p´s : persona of
the poet, process of structuring or composing, and the poetic language.
Secondly, I dealt with theory of the nature of the poets based on the
transcendetalism of Emerson in the context of the other arts such as music
and dance,in the second chapter.
Thirdly, in the third chapter I described the way in which the poetry could be
structured or composed based on the evaluation of the music composing,
dance choreographing, and Poe´s Philosophy of Composition.
Next,in the fourth chapter I tried to partially classify the poet´s language more
specifically symbols, because all the words that poets are using are symbols.
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In conclusion I would like to emphasize that the creativity as such is a very
broad term, and that I was able only partially demonstrate what it is. With my
diploma work I was only able to prove that the creative process or the process
in which poems are created is determined by and must be analysed in the
context of the interaction of : the author´s persona, process of structuring or
composing the poems, and the author´s individual choice of the poetic
language.
B I B L I O G R A P H Y.
1.Zelina M., Ako sa stať tvorivým, Fontana Kiado,1997,17-185
2.Zelina M., Stratégie a metódy rozvoja osobnosti dieťaťa,Iris,Bratislava,1996
189-192
3.Kim S.H., Podstata tvorivosti,Open Windows,Bratislava,1993, 14-54
4.Jung C.G.,Psychology and Literature, 20-th Century Literary Criticism,ed.
David Lodge, Longman, London and New York,1992, 177-185
5.Prokop D., Oběcná uměnoveda, Gryf, Praha,1994, 26-29
6.Freud S., Creative Writers and Day-dreaming,20-th Century Literary
Criticism,ed.David Lodge, Longman, London and New York,1992, 36-42
7.Cuddon J.A., Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory,3 ed., Penguin
Books,England,1991, 923-942
8.Valery, (Poetry and abstract thought: dancing and walking),20-th Century
Literary Criticism, ed. David Lodge, Longman, London and New York,1992,
258-260
9.Humphrey D., The Art of Making Dances,ed.Barbara Pollack,Grove
Press,Inc./New York,1977, 20-50
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10.Copland A.,What to listen for in Music,A Mentor Book from New American
Library, New York and Scarborough, Ontario,1967, 27-77
11.Emerson R.W.,The Poet,The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 3
ed., Volume I, W.W. Norton and Company,New York, London,1989, 455-466
12.Burghesse A.,English Literature, Longman,London,1971, 166
13.Eliot T.S.,The Modern Mind,CRITICISM:THE MAJOR TEXTS, ed. Walter
Jackson Bate, New York, Hardcourt, Brace and Company,1952, 545
14.Eliot T.S., Tradition and the Individual Talent,CRITICISM:THE MAJOR
TEXTS,ed. Walter Jackson Bate, New York,Hardcourt, Brace and
Company,1952, 527-528
15.De Mann P.,The Double Aspect of Symbolism, from Yale French Studies,
published by Yale University Press, ed. Kevin Newmark, nr.74, 4-15
16.Poe E.A., Philosophy of Composition,The Norton Anthology of American
Literature,3 ed., Volume I, W.W. Norton and Company, New York,
London,1989 591-666
17.Holt , et.al., Elements of Literature, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,Inc.,1993
227-378
18.Longinus,CRITICISM:THE MAJOR TEXTS,ed. Walter Jackson Bate,New
York, Harcourt, Brace and Company,1952, 61
19. Wordsworth,Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, CRITICISM:THE MAJOR
TEXTS,ed.Walter Jackson Bate, New York, Harcourt, Brace and
Company,1952, 344
20. Hunter J.P.,The Norton Introduction to Poetry, 4-th ed.,New York,W.W.
Norton and Company,1991, 148-378
21.Storig H.J., Malé dějiny filozofie, Zvon,Praha,1991
22.Yeats W.B.,Symbolism in Poetry,20-th Century Literary Criticism, ed.David
Lodge, Longman, London and New York, 1992, 30-33
23.King F.X.,The Complete Fortune-Teller, Guild Publishing, London,1989,4447
45
RESUME.
Cieľom mojej diplomovej práce je preskúmať proces tvorenia poézie
a preskúmať tvorivosť, ktorá tento proces riadi.
V prvej kapitole ponúkam určitý teoretický pohľad na tvorivosť z hľadiska
psychológie a zároveň táto kapitola slúži ako teoretické východisko celej práce.
Každý tvorivý proces pozostáva a je determinovaný vytvoreným produktom,
tvorivým indivíduom a tvorivým procesom. Vytvorený produkt je často
vyhodnocovaný na základe novosti, originality a praktickej užitočnosti alebo
úžitku pre spoločnosť. V umení je však najdôležitejší osobný odkaz alebo
subjektívny pohľad jedinca. Cieľom umelcovej práce je preto doručiť, či
komunikovať tento osobný odkaz čo najvernejšie a najpresnejšie. To, či sa to
umelcovi podarí je deteminované aj jeho osobnosťou.
Každý tvorivý jedinec má podľa rôznych autorov určité vlastnosti, pričom by
sa tieto definície dali zhrnúť do dvoch základných kategórií: nadpriemerná
citlivosť a emotívnosť a určitá syntéza vzájomne si protirečivých vlastností.
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Ďaľšou zložkou tvorivosti je tvorivý process, ktorý pozostáva z určitých fáz,
z ktorých prvá je prípravná a v nej vzniká určitý nápad vo forme myšlienky,
alebo môže mať aj vizuálnu podobu.Druhá fáza by sa dala nazvať aj
spracovávajúca a počas tejto fázy dochádza k určitému formovaniu idey
tvorivým jedincom až kým nedosiahne konečnú podobu. Tretia fáza sa nazýva
vyhodnocovacia a v nej dochádza k zhodnoteniu konečného výsledku a efektu
aký vyvoláva vytvorené dielo alebo produkt.
Štúdium tvorivého procesu ma priviedlo k nasledovnej myšlienke, ktoré je
zároveň aj tézou celej diplomovej práce:”Poézia vzniká ako výsledok
vzájomnej interakcie básnikovej osobnosti, procesu štruktúrovania, či
komponovania a výberu básnických jazykových prostriedkov- v našom prípade
symbolov.
V druhej kapitole sa zaoberám analýzou rozličných typológii básnikov a ich
porovnaním s typológiami hudobných skladateľov a choreografov, pričom
básnické osobnosti sú syntézou oboch spomenutých umeleckých typov a líšia
sa len výrazovými prostriedkami, ktoré pri tvorbe využívajú. Napriek tomu, že
nebola vytvorená klasifikácia ako v prípade hudobných skladateľov na základe
spôsobu, akým komponujú: spontánne tvoriaci,ktorí nezačínajú tvoriť od
hudobnej témy, ale v podstate majú už hotovú kompozíciu, druhým typom sú
skladatelia, ktorí začínajú komponovať z hudobnej témy a tretí typ tvorí na
základe určitého vzorca alebo schémy, došla som k záveru , že väčšina
básnikov môže tvoriť všetkými spomenutými spôsobmi, v závislosti od situácie.
V tejto kapitole sa tiež zaoberám analýzou Emersonovského pohľadu na
básnika a jeho osobnosť a došla som k záveru, že básnik je v prvom rade
trancendentná bytosť uspôsobená na prenášanie informácií vo forme poézie
medzi dvoma svetmi- svetom reálnym a svetom fantázie.
V tretej kapitole popisujem proces písania poézie za pomoci popisu
zákonitostí komponovania hudby a tanca,keďže názory na spôsob akým
vzniká hudba, tanec a poézia sa zdajú byť podobné ak nie identické. Väčšina
z horeuvedených umelcov popisuje tieto etapy procesu vznikania diela: dobrý
výber témy, vhodný výber štruktúr, a celkový proces doformovania diela pričom
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musí byť zachovaná celistvosť všetkých prvkov v diele. Ako hlavné dielo v tejto
kapitole som použila Poeovu “Filozofiu kompozície”, ktoré ako jedno z mála
vypovedá detailne o procese vzniku básne.
Tento proces výstavby básne je determinovaný výberom dobrej témy, či
nápadu, ktorý by mal byť otvorený a tak inšpirujúci. Ďalej sa zaoberám
analýzou rôznych štruktúr z hľadiska cieľa, alebo zámeru básnika,
a z hľadiska vnútornej štruktúry básne skúmam ako možno meniť spôsob
vyjadrenia básnika. Básnik môže použiť metrický systém, alebo písať voľným
veršom, ale stále je nútený použiť určitú štruktúru ak chce aby jeho básne boli
zrozumiteľné aj pre širokú verejnosť a aby bol schopný komunikovať svoje
osobné posolstvo ďalej.
V závere tretej kapitoly analyzujem zmeny, ktoré nastanú ak sa autor
z dôvodu znovuvydania rozhodne zrevidovať svoje dielo z hľadiska obsahu
a štruktúry a myslím si že je to veľmi dôležité , lebo podobným spôsobom
postupujú básnici, keď prvotne tvoria svoje básne.
V štvrtej kapitole sa zaoberám štúdiou básnickových výrazových
prostriedkov, kedy som sa rozhodla skúmať symboly z hľadiska ich širsej
definície ako :” všetkých slov, ktoré používajú básnici”.
V prvej časti tejto kapitoly som sa pokúsila o čiastočnú klasifikáciu
symbolov na základe mne dostupných literárno-kritických
prameňov.Čiastočne som rozdelila symboly a to do týchto siedmych kategórií:
1. verejné alebo univerzálne
2. súkromné alebo osobné
3. transcedentálne
4. tradičné
5. emocionálne
6. intelektuálne
7. archetypy
Za najzaujímavejšie považujem práve archetypy, alebo archetypálne symboly,
ktoré tvoria kategóriu do ktorej by sa dali zaradiť všetky ostatné symboly.
Zaujímavá je aj teória, ktorú uvádzam v súvislosti s tým ako archetypy
umožňujú lˇudskému podvedomiu naladiť sa na pokladnicu, či zdroj nápadov
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zhromaždených počas celej histórie lˇudstva Jungovo kolektívne nevedomie,
a ako viacerí básnici boli zaujatí skúmaním týchto archetypov, čo sa prejavilo
aj v ich básnickej tvorbe.
V druhej časti tejto kapitoly sa venujem analýze použitia toho istého
symbolu- symbolu ruže – v troch rozličných básniach .Symbol ruže použili
básnici troma rozličnými spôsobmi.
V prvom prípade v básni Emily Dickinsonovej (“Go not too near a House of
Rose”) bola ruža použitá ako tradičný symbol vyjadrujúci lásku, alebo ako
emocionálny symbol vyjadrujúci krásu. Použitie symbolov dvoma rozličnými
spôsobmi, vedie k dvom rozličným interpretáciam tej istej básne.
V druhom prípade William Carlos Williams v jeho básni (“Poem”) použil symbol
ruže ako univerzálny symbol, v ktorom ruža reprezentuje prírodu a jej neustále
znovuzrodzovanie. Zároveň ale môže byť symbol ruže v tejto básni chápaný
ako transcedentálny, kedy ruža slúži ako zrkadlový obraz dobre napísanej
básne. V tomto prípade je tak isto možné interpretovať báseň dvojakým
spôsobom v závislosti na ponímaní symbolu.
V treťom prípade Dorothy Parkerová v básni (“One Perfect Rose”) používa
ružu ako tradičný symbol- ako konvenčný spôsob vyjadrenia lásky. Ale napriek
tomu, že ruža je tu použitá ako tradičný symbol, pomáha vytvoriť báseň
z hľadiska kontrastu medzi ružou ako klasickým spôsobom a limuzínou ako
žiadúcim novým spôsobom vyjadrenia lásky. Ruža je použitá v refréne počas
celej básne a autorka tak zdôrazňuje jej opotrebovanie a v istom zmysle
zastaranosť ako symbolu na vyjadrenie lásky.
V tejto kapitole som sa snažila poukázať na to, že symboly reprezentujú všetky
slová,či básnický jazyk z hľadiska ich širšej definície, zároveň som sa snažila
poukázať na to do akej miery môže byť proces konštruovania básní cez
osobnosť básnika podmienený individuálnym výberom symbolov, a ako
dokáže ten istý symbol inšpirovať absolútne odlišné výsledky pri písaní básní.
V závere by som chcela upozorniť na to, že pojem tvorivosti je tak obsiahly,
že sa mi len čiastočne podarilo poodhaliť, čo sa za ním vlastne skrýva. Svojou
prácou som sa snažila dokázať len to, že tvorivý proces, alebo proces tvorby
básní je determinovaný a musí byť skúmaný v kontexte- štúdia autorskej
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osobnosti, tvorivého procesu výstavby štruktúry diela a výberu a uplatnenia
individuálneho spôsobu použitia jazykových prostriedkov.
Renáta Horkavá
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