Title: Aspects of Alienation in the Poetry of Derek Walcott
Abstract:When Arnold proposed that poetry be a substitute for reli gion, he conceived of poetic genre as artistic medium that is most likely to produce an intimacy of communion between poet and reader. His pre...When Arnold proposed that poetry be a substitute for reli gion, he conceived of poetic genre as artistic medium that is most likely to produce an intimacy of communion between poet and reader. His premise was that, in poetry, writer comes nearest to being able to utter truth and to incite his reader, through power of language, to participate imaginatively in his experience of the world made flesh.1 The underlying assumption is that poet's work is genuine. He writes not what is necessarily pleasing but what he must for, as he engages in creative act, he is — as it were — a passive agent, freed from intrusion of will or personal desires, reacting to and interpreting a variety of experiences in light of their possibilities for human fulfilment. But it is this very sensitivity to pulses and impulses of life which induces his alienation. Leon Gottfried claims that a number of Arnold's poems suggests his attempt to fly from modern world into poetry rather than fuse two.2 While valid arguments may be raised against Gottfried's idea of flying from, Arnold himself recognized that coming to terms with ourselves, with what we feel, does entail a kind of separation or alienation from societal demands or expectations. In his Lines Writ ten in Kensington Gardens, he apostrophizes spiritual calm and insights that may accrue when one is removed from jangling dis cords of everyday life:Read More
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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