Cirrus@Austlit

'This essay will examine the role of the unconscious drive in the impulse to write the lyric poem, particularly contemporary lyric verse, in the 'universe of quanta' when meaning and certainty are deemed indeterminate. This impulse or urge to write will be treated as the key part of the central stage in the three-stage process of composition, which will be described, noting its differences and similarities to Paul Valéry's notion of this process. It should be made clear from the outset that this study is concerned with the psychology of composition of lyric verse, and not with the science of objective evaluation of poetry. It will be argued that the unconscious drive in the impulse to write is sourced through 'unintention,' during a 'poetic state,' or 'hyperconsciousness,' (stage II) that is driven by the poet's deep-rooted, subterranean personal forces, in concert with and subsequent to the intention or vocation or preparedness to write poems (stage I). Key to this examination is what I call the 'poet-paradox': the notion that the self is not only what the lyric poet needs to discover and represent, but that it can be most vividly and truly represented only when the poet is not 'present,' during the peculiar focus of the 'hyperconscious,' when the poet is least self-conscious. It will be useful to establish just what it is that lyric poetry expresses, in general terms, and why it is that the difficulty or peculiarity of this expression generally necessitates 'hyperconsciousness.'' (Author's abstract)