Elements from External Experience and from the Mind-One V. Characters mainly from External Sources-Heroines- From Actual Persons; Historical Characters-Folk Char- I. Thought a Recognition of Relations-Association by Con- tiguity and Resemblance-Poetic Thought merely Associa- tive-The Intuitive Perception of Hidden Likenesses-A Subtle Chain of Countless Rings-II. Resultant Symbolism- Relation of Symbols to Language-Figures-The Imagination does not Compare but Fuses two Images-Metaphor more Poetical than Simile-Personification-Synecdoche-Fusion of Three or more Images; resulting in highly Poetical Ex- PAGE I. Inspiration and Art-The Desires Denied by Physical Ob- Operation-Parallel in Pathological Fancies-In Dreams- THE POETIC MADNESS AND CATHARSIS I. Difficulties in the Terms-The Poetic Madness in Literature -The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet-The Desires when Denied cause Emotional Disturbance-This in high degree the Poetic Madness-The Lover's Madness analogous to the Poet's A Mad Shakespeare-II. Dreams Relieve Emo- tional Disturbance-Poetry likewise affords Relief-By Se- curing Expression-By providing a Fictional Gratification- I. The Prevention of Madness a Subordinate Use-Summary of Preceding Chapters-II. Dreams and Poetry univer- sally believed Prophetic-Explanation in the Wider View of the Unconscious Mind-A More Fundamental Explana- tion-Dreams and Visions the Shadows of All that Man Becomes-The Poet, The Prophet, and the Priest are One— III. The Analogy between Poetry and Play-Three Theo- ries of Play; Applied to Poetry-The Poet furnishes the Pattern for Action-The best Teacher-IV. The Dreamer, the Philosopher, and the Man of Action-The Dreamer sees the Land his People are to Occupy-Reasons for the Depre- THE POETIC MIND CHAPTER I TH INTRODUCTION HE working of the poet's mind, though the subject of curious interest from the time of Plato to the present, is not yet understood. The body of poetic criticism, valuable as it is, contains no discussion of the poet's imaginative creation which does not leave the reader balked and disappointed at the crucial points. The poet himself cannot explain his special faculty, as he can his ordinary mental processes; toward his own production, indeed, he is strangely impersonal as if it were hardly his own. His attitude is that of Voltaire, who, on seeing one of his tragedies performed, exclaimed: "Was it really I who wrote that?" He feels, like Milton, that inspiration comes from without: a "celestial patroness" comes "unimplored," And dictates to him slumbering, or inspires Why should the poet's mind thus hesitate to acknowledge its own faculty? There is something similarly inexplicable in the action of poetry upon the reader's mind. Lovers of poetry, the most devoted and reverent on the one hand, the most expert and critical on the other, find a mystery in its effect. A poem, they may say, has charm, but the word itself suggests magic; and this test, though as good as any, can be applied only by the feelings, never by the reason; and it cannot be rationally explained. Poetry indeed, as Shelley believed, "acts in a divine and unapprehended manner, beyond and above consciousness." |