Cirrus@Austlit

'Deriving from the Ancient Greek etymons eidos ('form') and eido ('to see'), the modern term `'eidolon' transmutes into English in two interconnected ways: an eidolon can either be an idealised person or thing, or a spectre or phantom. In poetry, the term is often associated with Walt Whitman's poem of the same name, included in his 'Inscriptions' section of the 1881-82 edition of Leaves of Grass. In this apocryphal text, stanzas repeatedly conclude on the word 'eidolon' as if the repetitions are one means (semantic satiation) by which to challenge connections between signified and signifier. The American transcendentalist's poem offers 'a theory ; about  how a poet should handle, or mediate, form and materiality' Cohen 1), and the eidolon  remains paradoxical for Whitman, a 'spiritual image of the immatrerial' of which 'seeks to demonstrate the incompleteness of our understanding of reality' (Richardson 201)...' (Introduction)