Modernist Alchemy: Poetry and the OccultCornell University Press, 1995 - 218 pages The occult has been a source of both ideas and images for modern poets from W. B. Yeats to James Merrill. Poets as diverse as Ezra Pound, H.D., Sylvia Plath, Robert Duncan, and Ted Hughes were both fascinated by, and skeptical of, such phenomena as alchemy and astrology, Ouija boards and Tarot cards, Indian mysticism, the kabbalah, and gnosticism. All of these poets, Timothy Materer says, approached the occult with a modernist sophistication and a self-consciousness that are not entirely credulous nor entirely skeptical. Modernist Alchemy takes a close look at the work of twentieth-century poets whose use of the occult constitutes a recovery of discarded beliefs and modes of thought: Yeats and Plath try to dismiss conventional religion, Hughes captures a sense of adventure, H.D. seeks to liberate repressed concepts, while Duncan and Merrill hunt for a lost understanding of sexual identity which will allow for androgyny and homosexuality. Materer ends with Merrill, whose attempt to suspend both doubt and belief marks the culmination of the poetic style initiated by Yeats. |
Contents
Introduction Literary Occultism | 1 |
Two Ezra Pound as Magus | 49 |
Five Robert Duncan and the Mercurial Self | 107 |
Seven Ted Hughess Alchemical Quest | 141 |
Eight James Merrills Romantic Unconscious | 157 |
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alchemical alchemist Auden belief Blavatsky Blavatsky's Brancusi Cantos Cave Birds Changing Light Chapter Christian conception critics crystal cult daemonic dead death describes divine doctrines double dream elements Ephraim essay experience expressed Ezra Pound figure Freud Freudian ghost Gnostic gold Golden Dawn gyre Hermes Hermes Trismegistus Hermetic Hermeticism Hughes's human influence interpretation James Merrill Jung Jung's Jungian Leon Surette Light at Sandover Little Gidding Magi magic magus Maria Mercury Merrill's mind modern mysteries mystical nature occult occultist Ouija board passage persona play Plotinus poem poem's poet poet's poetic poetry Prospero psyche psychic quester reference religion religious reveals Richard Ellmann ritual Robert Duncan says secret seems sense Sibyl skeptical soul sphere stanza suggests Sylvia Plath symbol T. S. Eliot Tarot Ted Hughes theme tradition transformation Trilogy unconscious University vision W. B. Yeats W. H. Auden Waste Land wisdom word writes wrote Yeats's occultism Yeatsian