Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Poetry Themes'
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Todd, Jesse Earl. "The Major Themes of William Cullen Bryant's Poetry." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1989. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc500648/.
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This thesis explores the major themes of William Cullen Bryant's poetry. Chapter II focuses on Bryant's poetic theory and secondary criticism of his theory. Chapter III addresses Bryant's religious beliefs, including death and immortality of the soul, and shows how these beliefs are illustrated by his poetry. A discussion of the American Indian is the subject of Chapter IV, concentrating on Bryant's use of the Indian as a Romantic ideal as well as his more realistic treatment of the Indian in The New York Evening Post. Chapter V, the keystone chapter, discusses Bryant's scientific knowledge and poetic use of natural phenomena. Bryant's religious beliefs and his belief in nature as a teacher are also covered in this chapter.
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Moss, Carina M. "Elegy with Epic Consequences: Elegiac Themes in Statius’ Thebaid." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1592134478208502.
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Bateman, Vivienne Margaret. "The themes and images of classical Gaelic religious poetry." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1990. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk/R?func=search-advanced-go&find_code1=WSN&request1=AAIU032963.
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The thesis is an examination of all the published religious Gaelic poetry composed in syllablic metres. An analysis of its themes and images reveals the theological concepts of the poets and the mechanisms by which these were forged into a distinct genre of poetry. A legal metaphor forms the basis of the sociology of the poets. They held that mankind will only be redeemed by the Passion if Christ's claim for His blood-price can be met at Doom. This can only be achieved if Christ deems that mankind's debt to Him is cancelled out by the debt He owes to our kinswoman, the Virgin Mary, for having raised Him and suffered on His account. Both the ambivalence of the consequences of the Passion and the all-importance of kinship in our hopes for redemption are extensions of orthodox Catholic thinking. The corpus of poetry is remarkably homogeneous. Exceptions are the occasional and anti-clerical poems and those growing out of personal circumstance. By and large, difference in tone is seen to accord with difference in subject-matter, rather than with the feelings of the individual poet or with changes in influence over the period. Most poems contain several themes and several changes in tone, held together by a unifying metaphor. New poems are made by the reworking and rearranging of a limited scope of themes and images. The thesis, in the main, is concerned with relationships within the corpus of Classical material. However, references are also made where possible to the Gaelic poetry preceding the Classical period and to medieval thought in general. It is hoped that the thesis may be useful in doing further research aimed at placing the Classical Gaelic religious poetry in its European context.
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Larrington, Carolyne. "Old Icelandic and Old English wisdom poetry : gnomic themes and styles." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.304642.
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Schippers, Arie. "Arabic tradition and Hebrew innovation : Arabic themes in Hebrew Andalusian poetry /." Amsterdam : Institute for modern Near Eastern studies, Department of Arabic and Islamic studies, University of Amsterdam, 1988. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb35454451r.
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Shepherd, Valerie. "The circle of William Barnes's poetry : a discussion of the language and themes of his dialect poetry." Thesis, Loughborough University, 1986. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/11128.
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Barnes saw his dialect art as a means of teaching and preserving particularly for the stability of his local audience -- conservative and traditional values. Nevertheless, the poems deal rather more than has been generally realised with the challenges of the nineteenth century. Part One of this study discusses Barnes's chosen themes in relation to his contemporary audiences, both in Blackmore and beyond, and also argues that there is a warmth and energy in his perceptions which communicates vital images of rural life that can allow his work to transcend its contemporary social and political context. Part Two explains, through descriptive linguistic techniques, Barnes's practical application of his language theories and the appeal of dialect to Victorian readers. It is demonstrated that his desire to achieve a 'pure' language, together with his conviction that the circle of local speech forms are an integral part (and a signal) of local personality, may lead to artistic limitations. But it is explained that these beliefs, in freeing Barnes from the conventions of standard poetic diction, can also allow a rich individuality. There are, however, affinities (which may be appropriate in work designed to 'belong' to its rural personae) between his poems and elements of the folk tradition. Yet the blending of these with highly intricate verse patterns is handled with a skill that is able to incorporate natural speech rhythms. The dissertation develops a judgement that Barnes's aesthetics were based upon his appreciation of a harmonious 'fitness' which he believed to be God-given and identifiable in what he took to be nature and society's inevitable mixture of light and shade. Consequently the themes and structures of his dialect poetry reflect a desire for compromise, stability, and optimism in the circle of local life. The result is poetry rather too limited in its perceptions and language to be of major significance. But the value of Barnes's work lies in its demonstration of dialect's artistic potential, in its formal skill, and in the warmth and vitality of its imagery.
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Petch, Melanie Jayne. "Women, cultural duality and space : themes in twentieth-century Anglo-American poetry." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/4276.
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A longstanding critical map which has perpetuated the differences between British and American poetries is currently in the process of being redrawn. In recent years, there has been a marked interest in literary criticism which seeks to explore the rich and complex interplay between the two nations and their respective poetries. Despite this being a necessary dialogue, the contextualisation of women poets in this important field of enquiry has been largely unrecognised. This thesis responds to the problem of female negation by setting up a critical and cultural context which explores the poetic tendencies of nine Anglo-American women poets whose publishing histories span 1913-2006: British-born poets, Mina Loy (1882-1966) and Denise Levertov (1923-1997), and American-born poets, H.D. (1886-1961), Laura (Riding) Jackson (1901-1991), Ruth Fainlight (1931-), Sylvia Plath (1932-1963), Anne Stevenson (1933-), Anne Rouse (1954-) and Eva Salzman (1961-) The intent of this study is to argue that the intersection of cultural duality and gender lends this poetry by Anglo-American women a particularly dynamic energy which generates a rich fretwork of spatial negotiations. This is primarily achieved through the poets' use of symbols which reflect their preoccupations with living as an outsider who oscillates in and between two places. Often, although not exclusively, metaphors of estrangement are explicitly gendered and signify the search for a female space. The theoretical work of French feminist and poststructuralist, Julia Kristeva and Marxist philosopher and sociologist, Henri Lefebvre, proposes that the condition of the social outsider can be harmonised within the imaginative space of poetry, thus offering writers the potential to 'change and appropriate' the limitations of the social space in which they find themselves. Especially appealing for expatriate women poets then, the creative writing process precipitates their empowerment, liberation and the opportunity to reimagine a parallel world to inhabit. The concept of space and how it is perceived imaginatively in this range of poetry determines the thematic structure of the thesis. Individual chapters focus upon locations, homes, journeys, bodies and landscapes, and myth. The formation reflects a progression from spaces that are grounded in material conditions, as with locations, the home, and journeys, towards spaces that are highly intimate and abstract, as with bodies and landscapes, and myth. Responding to the limitations of binary discourses that uphold the divide between American and British poetries, as well as to the lack of feminist engagement with cultural discourses, this thesis offers a number of frameworks for reading Anglo-American poetry. While rejecting prescriptive definitions, it endeavours to set up a sufficiently open narrative that can encompass poets dating before the twentieth-century, contemporary poets in the current climate, as well as poets who will continue to complicate the AmericanlBritish axis in the future.
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Ruck, Elaine Heather. "An index of themes and motifs in twelfth century French Arthurian poetry." Thesis, University of Reading, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.328882.
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Meyer, John Clifford. "The animal themes in Horace's Epodes." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/86343.
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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis focused on the animal themes while attempting to make a comprehensive analysis of such themes as they were portrayed in the Epodes of Horace. A close analysis of each poem that contains animals was made. The aim of such an analysis was twofold, firstly to arrive at a possible interpretation of said themes in each specific poem; secondly to indicate how Horace used these animal themes to enhance the meaning of the Epodes. To support this second aim the various animal themes were arranged according to a list of five functions associated with the themes, namely invective, irony and humour, exempla, metaphor and colouring or setting. Finally the investigation aimed at achieving not only a better understanding of the animal themes per se but also an enhanced appreciation of the entire collection.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die diere temas is die fokuspunt van hierdie tesis terwyl daar gepoog word om ‘n omvattende ontleding van die temas soos uitgebeeld deur die Epodes van Horatius, uit te voer. ‘n Deeglike ontleding van die diere temas soos gevind in die verskillende gedigte, is gemaak. Die doel van hierdie ontledings was tweeledig, eerstens om die moontlike interpretasie van die temas vir elke spesifieke gedig te verstaan; en tweedens om aan te dui hoe Horatius die diere temas aangewend het om die Epodes ruimer uit te beeld. Ter ondersteuning van die tweede doel is die verskillende diere temas volgens ‘n lys van vyf funksies wat met die temas vereenselwig kan word, ge-orden naamlik oordrewe kritiek, ironie, humor, exempla, metafoor en voorkoms of aanbieding. Ten slotte poog die ondersoek om nie net ‘n beter begrip van die diere temas te bevorder nie maar ook om waardering vir die totale versameling van die gedigte te bevorder.
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Lagan, Charles J. ""Rest and unrest": some rural and romantic themes in the poetry of Edward Thomas." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004770.
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From Preface: The scope and focus of this thesis has been determined by the fact that I have tried to present a thematic, though not exhaustive, account of the poetry of Edward Thomas. (I have analysed a representative selection of the poems.) Much has been written on his life and poetry in this past decade to coincide with the centenary of his birth which was celebrated in 1978. Edna Longley, William Cooke and more recently, Andrew Motion have thrown much light on his poetry and I am indebted to them. I acknowledge especially the work of Edna Longley; her Edward Thomas: Poems and Last Poems, though it does not include all the poems, has proved to be an invaluable source because of the many extracts from Thomas's prose incorporated into her notes on his poems. Her book is also rich in suggestive insights into Thomas's poetry. Unfortunately not all of Thomas's works are available in South Africa. On a brief visit overseas I tried without success to obtain the more important books not available here. I have had to make use of anthologies of Thomas's prose where a particular text was not available, for example, In Pursuit of Spring and The South Country. I thank Ms Yolisa Soul who through the Inter Library Loan services of the University of Fort Hare managed to obtain for me a substantial number of Thomas's prose works.
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Simmons, Samuel J. "Themes of exile in the poetry and prose of Ezra Pound in The New Age." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/29364.
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The current study offers an analysis of the American poet Ezra Pound and his years in London between 1908 and 1921, specifically those years when he contributed to A. R. Orage’s The New Age. Despite the volume of critical work on Pound, and despite the wealth of his writings in The New Age, this body of work has not previously received the attention of a full-length study. Chapter one of this thesis sets the stage for Pound’s emergence as critic of cultural modernity by exploring a key theme that resonates throughout his contributions to The New Age: the idea of the modern artist as exile. This chapter also examines the importance of the idea of translation to his thought during this period and presents a broader analysis of the economic and literary importance of The New Age to his intellectual and aesthetic development. Chapter Two broadens this analysis by examining the themes of personal exile and psychological isolation in Pound’s historical background and the effect these themes had upon his writing for The New Age. Chapters three and four examine two key ideas that animate his work for The New Age: his analysis of the importance of patronage to cultural value and aesthetic production and his developing interest in economics, C. H. Douglas’ Economic Democracy and its doctrine of Social Credit. Chapters five and six explore Pound’s literary relationship to The New Age in order to discuss how this nexus of ideas inflect two of his early masterpieces, ‘The Seafarer’ (1911) and ‘Homage to Sextus Propertius’ (1919). Chapter seven concludes by summarising Pound’s position at the end of the 1920s and considering the overall importance of his writing for The New Age to his social critique of modernity, his emerging economic radicalism and his later political ideas.
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Beahm, Brittany. ""To take posesion of the crown" : forms, themes, and politics in Julia Palmer's centuries /." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2007. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd1771.pdf.
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Al-Mufti, Elham Abdul-Wahhab. "Shakwa in Arabic Poetry during the c Abbasid Period." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.503481.
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Abu, Talib Safa M. "An analysis of Qur'anic themes in five Persian poets of the 5th/11th-6th/12th centuries, with comparative reference to Arabic 'Abbasid poetry." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1988. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/29310/.
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The present thesis analyses the extensive utilisation of Qur'anic materials by Unsuri, Farrukhi, Manuchehri, Abu 'l-Faraj-i Runi and Anvari, and seeks to determine the degree to which it may be seen as a particular thematic development within Persian poetry-rather than as part of a literary tradition developed from Arabic models. The introduction is followed by a comprehensive statistical survey of Qur'anic references in the. Persian poets, with, for comparison, a similar survey covering the work of five Arab poets: Abu Nuwas, Abu al-cAtahiya, Abu Tammam, al-Buhturi and al-Mutanabbi. Each of the following chapters covers a particular thematic area and, where appropriate, is internally subdivided according to the individual episodes. The first major thematic area to be treated is that of Paradise. This is followed by an extensive survey of the materials relating to the prophets, principally Moses, Jesus and Solomon. A third chapter considers miscellaneous other Qur'anic references. Each of these three chapters is organised along similar lines: an initial statistical survey giving a comprehensive listing of the individual citations is followed by general remarks on the context of use and a more detailed commentary on verses of particular literary and thematic interest. Arab and Persian usage is compared, and attention drawn to aspects of rhetorical technique. The implication of the findings yielded by the above investigation is discussed in the final summary. This seeks to evaluate how far the themes and techniques observed in the Persian poets are also present in the diwans of five major cAbbasid poets who, on the one hand, were clearly known to the Persian poets under consideration (and hence a model for them), and, on the other, represent a period when Islamic culture and, specifically, knowledge of the Qur'anic text, had become a standard ingredient of literary training, and hence available for exploitation alongside more traditional materials of poetic discourse.
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Winberg, Christine. "Figurative language in the prose works of William Wordsworth and its bearing on some central themes of his poetry." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23065.
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Ivey, Robert Perry. "Where the Whip-poor-Will Blows." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2008. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/english_theses/32.
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These poems represent the vanishing world of the South and that tale is perpetuated by a series of fathers and sons which often act as the narrators. Each father passes his knowledge of language, hunting, lore, loss, and even sins onto the sons who repeat the tradition. The voice and age of the narrators evolves from the heavily dialectical to a more educated and contemplative voice as the thesis progresses.
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North, John Richard James. "Words in context : an investigation into the meanings of Early English words by comparison of vocabulary and narrative themes in Old English and Old Norse poetry." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.254524.
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Eriksson, Lisa. "Döden, kärleken och religionen. : En undersökning av några centrala teman i Nils Ferlins lyrik." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Estetisk-filosofiska fakulteten, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-33466.
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Denna uppsats undersöker hur tematiken i Nils Ferlins lyrik gestaltas i samtliga diktsamlingar utifrån några valda teman. Först undersöks dödstematiken som på grund av sitt omfång delas in i två kapitel, ett där döden ses som en räddare undan livsångest och ett där döden skildras som skrämmande. Vidare undersöks den religiösa kontext som är förknippad med dödstematiken. Därefter behandlas kärleksmotivet och tematiken kring detta. Slutligen undersöks dikterna där samtiden skildras utifrån Ferlins syn på människan och sin samtid. Till undersökningen används ett biografiskt material för berika analysen. Det är främst i analysen av dikterna med en tydlig dödstematik som den biografiska aspekten är viktig men paralleller till författarens eget liv dras även vid diskussionen av övriga teman. Undersökningen är en tematisk studie men även motiven undersöks då de varierar i förhållande till tematiken. Definitioner för motiv och tema härleds till Lyrikens liv (Janss, Melberg & Refsum, 1999). Döden är det vanligaste motivet respektive temat men andra motiv och teman är viktiga att belysa för en djupare förståelse för Ferlins lyrik. Exempelvis finns en tydlig koppling mellan den religiösa kontexten och dödstematiken.This paper examines how the themes in Nils Ferlin's poetry are portrayed in all poetry collections based on some selected themes. First the thematics of death is examined, and as a result of its extent it is divided into two chapters; one where death is seen as a savior from anxiety and one where death is portrayed as frightening. Furthermore the religious context associated with the thematics of death is examined. Thenceforth love motive and its thematics are treated. Lastly the poems where Ferlin depicture his vision on man and his contemporaries are examined. The survey uses a biographical material to enrich the analysis. It is primarily the analysis of the poems with a clear death thematic where the biographical aspect is important, but the parallels to the author's own life is used in the discussion of the other themes. The study is a thematic study but also the motives are examined as they vary in proportion to the thematic. Definitions of motive and theme are derived from Lyrikens liv (Janss, Melberg & Refsum, 1999). Death is the most common motive respectively theme however the other motives and themes are important to highlight for a deeper understanding of Ferlin's poetry.
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James, Ann Juli. "Figures in fine print and Hindustani hopes and fears : identity and expectations in the poetry of Kamala Das." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/27007.
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Kamala Das is one of the best-known contemporary Indian women writers, albeit largely for the controversy that her candid, confessional writing has sparked in the relatively traditional context of Indian academia. Since the publication of her first collection of poetry, Summer in Calcutta (1965), Das has been considered an important voice of her generation. Her provocative poems are known for their unflinchingly honest explorations of the self and female sexuality, urban life, and women’s roles in traditional Indian society. Critics have expressed a range of opinions on her work: some laud her boldness, compelling sincerity and striking originality, while others dismiss her work as sensationalist, limited in scope and unsophisticated. In this dissertation, issues of selfhood represented in the poetry of Kamala Das will be analysed with regard to various aspects of her identity, such as those of a housewife, a lover, an Indian, a female writer, and a confessional poet. Selected theories on identity formation posited by Erik Erikson and Norman Holland will be explored, as will relevant hypotheses on female identity by Nancy Chodorow and Judith Gardiner. I propose that selected aspects of these theories shed light on the themes, tones and subject matter of Das’s verse. Almost all of her poems are personal and are fuelled by an intense need for emotional fulfilment. I suggest that the poet’s search for love is central to her identity and I aim to show how this (largely unsuccessful) quest, as reflected in Das’ poems, stems from various expectations by and on her. The recurring theme of expectations and the resulting tones of despair (the ‘hopes and fears’) in her work will be traced and analysed. This research is valuable in that there has been little exploration into identity and expectations in Das’ work and there is almost no research on her emanating from Africa. Through close textual analysis I also aim to highlight how useful insights into identity formation and female writing can enable a more in-depth understanding of Das’s poetry. Both female identity and women’s writing are increasingly significant fields in academia today, and there has been a rise in autobiographical writing in recent years; thus this research will contribute to debates about these issues in contemporary poetry. A portfolio of my own creative writing will accompany the essay. Like Kamala Das, I am also a Malayalee woman (from the province of Kerala in India) and I identify with some of her concerns with regard to the roles of women. Although my writing is not confessional or as personal as Das’s, our shared experience of the socio-cultural expectations placed upon us (due to our gender and ethnic background) links this mini-dissertation to my poetry portfolio.Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
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Litz, Kirsten Noelle. "The Poetic Process: A Poetry Collection." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2020. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/599.
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Galloway, LaToya B. "Mess and madness /." Full text available online, 2005. http://www.lib.rowan.edu/find/theses.
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Biedka, Kathleen G. "Life begins at fifty /." Full text available online, 2005. http://www.lib.rowan.edu/find/theses.
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Dehon, Pierre-Jacques. "L'hiver chez les poètes latins, des origines à l'époque de Néron." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/212986.
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Bolton, Ken. "At the flash & at the baci /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phb6943.pdf.
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Cooley, Shevaun. "Homing : poetry ; &, An essay on the poetic leap in the late work of R.S. Thomas." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2013. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/850.
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Homing, as a collection, speaks to the capacity and yearning to navigate our way towards something we might call home. In animal behaviour, this seems like an instinct, hard-wired to the body. It is something I envy. By comparison, the instinct, in human behaviour, feels muffled and complicated.
These poems move between two places in which I feel ‘at home’, whatever that means: the south-west of Western Australia, where I was born and raised, and the north-west of Wales, where I lived for a time, and find myself returning to, drawn not by blood, but by longing, and a deep affinity for the landscape. Without any real intention, in the writing of the poems I found I had a lot to say about rivers. In particular, I found myself repeating images of drifting and gripping, as if these two, opposing, compulsions also said something about how we try to find our way home. The poet Mark Doty speaks of a “fierce internal debate between staying moored and drifting away, between holdings and letting go.”1 It is as if the river, too, knows something of how to arrive, and yet its movement is much like that of these poems, pulled by new hungers, at times distracted, or slowed, or apparently lost. Drift. Grip. Perhaps it is, after all, another kind of instinct.
In the critical essay that accompanies the poems, I look at the poetic leap in the work of the Welsh poet and priest R.S. Thomas. I was initially compelled by a strange parallel between an actual physical leap of escape, enacted by Thomas, who leapt a graveyard wall in order to avoid speaking to the mourners to whom he had just ministered a funeral service, and the leap found in Italo Calvino’s essay on lightness. This leap is also one of escape, in which the poet-philosopher Guido Calvcanti places a hand on a grave and leaps lightly over it, in order to elude the taunts of some local louts. Calvino calls this act, “an auspicious image for the new millennium.”2
In poetry we find the leap in the act of making metaphor, in enjambment, even in a kind of concentration. In Thomas’s work, the leap is focused in the form of the raptor; a presence repeated through his oeuvre, carrying with it many of his chief concerns, about God, love, and the inherent ferocity of the natural world. In a close reading of those poems, and with the aid of thinkers as disparate as Helene Cixous, Roland Barthes, Simone Weil and Edward Said, this essay is an attempt to trace the ways the leap works in Thomas’s poetry. It is also an attempt to analyse and understand the way poetry itself works to move the reader, in all senses of the word.
1Doty, M. (2001). Still life with oysters and lemon. Boston: Beacon Press, p.7
2Calvino, I. (2009). Six memos for the new millennium. (P. Creag, Trans.) London: Penguin Classics, p.12
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Jarvis, Fiona Mary Patricia Alcibiadette. "A study of the theme of exile in old English poetry." Thesis, Cardiff University, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.308203.
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Papastamati, S. "Gamos in archaic and classical Greek poetry : theme, ritual and metaphor." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2013. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1389425/.
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This thesis considers how advances in optical network and optoelectronic technologies may be utilised in particle physics applications. The research is carried out within a certain framework; CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) upgrade. The focus is on the upgrade of the ”last-tier” data links, those residing between the last information-processing stage and the accelerator. For that purpose, different network architectures, based on the Pas¬sive Optical Network (PON) architectural paradigm, are designed and evaluated. Firstly, a Time-Division Multiplexed (TDM) PON targeting timing, trigger and control applica¬tions is designed. The bi-directional, point-to-multipoint nature of the architecture leads to infrastructure efficiency increase. A custom protocol is developed and implemented us¬ing FPGAs. It is experimentally verified that the network design can deliver significantly higher data rate than the current infrastructure and meet the stringent latency require¬ments of the targeted application. Consequently, the design of a network that can be utilised to transmit all types of information at the upgraded LHC, the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is discussed. The most challenging requirement is that of the high up¬stream data rate. As WDM offers virtual point-to-point connectivity, the possibility of using a Wavelength-Division Multiplexed (WDM) PON is theoretically investigated. The shortcomings of this solution are identified; these include high cost and complexity, therefore a simpler architecture is designed. This is also based on the PON paradigm and features the use of Reflective Electroabsorption Modulators (REAM) at the front-end (close to the particle collision point). Its performance is experimentally investigated and shown to meet the requirements of a unified architecture at the HL-LHC from a networking perspective. Finally, since the radiation resistance of optoelectronic components used at the front-end is of major importance, the REAM radiation hardness is experimentally investigated. Their radiation resistance limits are established, while new insights into the radiation damage mechanism are gained.
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Wahlert, Blake Jorgensen. "The Poetry of Reality: Frederick Wiseman and the Theme of Time." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2019. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1505236/.
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Employing a textual analysis within an auteur theory framework, this thesis examines Frederick Wiseman's films At Berkeley (2013), National Gallery (2014), and Ex Libris (2017) and the different ways in which they reflect on the theme of time. The National Gallery, University of California at Berkeley, and the New York Public Library all share a fundamental common purpose: the preservation and circulation of "truth" through time. Whether it be artistic, scientific, or historical truth, these institutions act as cultural and historical safe-keepers for future generations. Wiseman explores these themes related to time and truth by juxtaposing oppositional binary motifs such as time/timelessness, progress/repetition, and reality/fiction. These are also Wiseman's most self-reflexive films, acting as a reflection on his past filmmaking career as well as a meditation on the value these films might have for future generations. Finally, Wiseman's reflection on the nature of time through these films are connected to the ideas of French philosopher Henri Bergson.
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Hunnings, Kelly Joanne. "Patronage and Poetic Identity in Eighteenth-Century Laboring-Class Poetry: Mary Leapor, Ann Yearsley, and Janet Little." OpenSIUC, 2013. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1218.
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The purpose of this project is to shed light on three female laboring-class poets who have gone largely overlooked by scholars of eighteenth-century studies, Mary Leapor, Ann Yearsley, and Janet Little. This paper argues that when discussed together these poets exemplify the shift from Augustan models of intellectualism to proto-Romantic thought. Issues of literary patronage and trend are highlighted in this thesis as the laboring-class poetic tradition enjoyed a long vogue in the eighteenth-century. Chapter One offers a look in the literary marketplace of the period and what scholars have said about the subject of laboring-class writing so far. Chapters Two, Three, and Four focus on the poetry of Leapor, Yearsley, and Little, with particular attention to tribute poems with the goal of highlighting the role of laboring-class writers from Augustan poetry to proto-Romantic poetry.
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AMORA, ANDRE LUIZ ALVES CALDAS. "THE THEME OF BEING: QUASE IN MÁRIO DE SÁ-CARNEIRO´S POETRY." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2007. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=10726@1.
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COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIORMário de Sá-Carneiro, Poeta pertencente ao modernismo português e um dos criadores da revista Orpheu, apresenta em sua obra poética aspectos que revelam uma profunda angústia existencial. Em nossa pesquisa, trabalharemos a estranheza e a inadaptação do Poeta frente ao mundo, que redundará, em seus Últimos poemas, na auto-rejeição violenta e dolorosa. Centraremos nossa atenção em algumas imagens insistentemente repetidas na sua poesia como a do labirinto, a do desnorteamento do eu-lírico. Abordaremos, também, a sensação de incompletude - o eterno quase -, marca indelével de sua poesia.
Mário de Sá-Carneiro, portuguese poet and writer, was one of the founders of the magazine Orpheu, which started the Modernism movement in Portugal. In this paper, we will deal with the poet´s feelings of awkwardness and strangeness before the world, particularly present in the imagery of his Last Poems (Últimos Poemas) which reflect his painful and violent self rejection. The frequently recurrring image of the labyrinth and the misdirection of the lyrical self will be tackled as well. In doing so, we will attempt to approach the sense of incompleteness and the perennial almost (quase) - an indelible feature of Mário de Sá-Carneiro poetry.
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Wan, Kong, and 溫剛. "The relationship between plant metaphors and poetic themes in the Shijing." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2008. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B41547214.
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Valencia, Heather M. "'Bashtendikayt' and 'Banayung' : theme and imagery in the earlier poetry of Abraham Sutzkever." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2186.
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This study analyses the poetry which Sutzkever wrote between 1935 and 1954, emphasising the themes of the poetic word and the poet's role. During this formative period Sutzkever established his complex of images, and laid the foundation for the often hermetic later poetry. The earlier work is characterised by tension between the aesthetic and the ethical, the ikh and the world. The earliest manifests both strands, combining Romantic individualism with awareness of the social nature of poetry. In 'Valdiks' (1940), nature imagery develops into an inner language expressing an aesthetic vision, giving way in the war years to doubts, but also to a conviction of the poet's ethical task ('Di festung', 1945). In Israel Sutzkever achieved new confidence in his poetic identity, which he expressed through Jewish and biblical imagery ('In fayer-vogn', 1952). The African environment gave him a sense of freedom and renewed nature inspiration, and he explored new imagery of paganism, sensuality and myth ('Helfandn bay nakht', 1950-1954). The poeme 'Ode tsu der toyb' (1954) is the climax of the first period, resolving the conflict between aesthetic and ethical, past and present, and pointing the way towards the mature aestheticism of the later work. The study focusses on significant aspects of this process. Sutzkever's constant underlying theme is the nature of poetry itself. He investigates this through permanent images which develop specific symbolic connotations and become a metapoetic language. The resolution of the conflict between the aesthetic and the ethical lies in Sutzkever's belief in the equivalence of the spiritual and the corporeal, in the power of the word, and in the unbreakable goldene keyt of birth, death and renewal. The later aestheticism is foreshadowed in this period by the idea of the essence of poetry as the ineffable silence which the poet struggles to reach through the word.
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Coffin, Tammis. "Finding Poetry in Nature." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2001. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/CoffinT2001.pdf.
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Simons, Penelope. "The theme of education in twelfth- and thirteenth- century French epic and romance." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1990. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3055/.
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This study examines the description of characters' education in twelfth- and thirteenth-century French epic and romance with two broad aims: to establish how education is described, and to suggest reasons why it is portrayed in the particular way that it is. The discussion is divided into three parts. The first provides the contextual framework for the second two, and presents a brief overview of the history of education in the period, together with a survey of the theory and practice of education in school and at home. Critics and historians have noted the link between education and literature and we provide a model of contemporary educational background, theory and practice, against which literary descriptions may be compared and understood. In Part II we analyse these literary descriptions, hitherto not comprehensively explored. Taking a large corpus of works, we examine the content of characters' education, drawing comparisons across genre and timespan, and with the model from Part I. This, together with further examination of where poets draw their inspiration, what they choose to include and how it is presented, provides a context within which particular features, descriptions or texts may be discussed. Part III examines particularly interesting treatments of education. Five different studies of individual works or groups of texts illustrate the range of ways education may function, and help us to establish the status of the education description in Old French literature. We conclude that poets deliberately describe and exploit education in various ways. These range from delineation of character, where we see authors shaping the raw material of narrative for their own ends, to major thematic use, essential for understanding a text. Study of the theme of education reveals its contribution to and reflection of the importance of medieval education and its influence on vernacular literature.
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Hueppauff, Anna. "The social value of contemplating poetry." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2022. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2522.
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Justifications for defunding the Arts and Humanities are well rehearsed: public funds should be reallocated toward developing skills directly leading toward sustainable employment, that is, toward labour streams demanded by industry. President John F. Kennedy took a different view, envisioning the role of the artist (and poet in particular) as an essential moral function. For Kennedy, the poet is both philosopher and prophet, providing a moral compass that leads the nation back to its better self when excesses of power have corrupted it from within. The role Kennedy assigned to poets echoes the civic/cultural practice of theoria (contemplation), a pilgrimage for the pursuit of knowledge enacted by ancient Greek intellectuals. Notably, for Plato and earlier Greek intellectuals, the insight gained from this contemplative endeavour was expected to have practical value and advance the city state, which indicates that outcomes mattered. Like Plato, Hannah Arendt also links the progress of civilisation with the quality of our thinking. As is well known now, Arendt attributes banal acts of evil to thoughtlessness, thus heightening the imperative ‘to think what we are doing’. There is evidence to suggest that contemplative compassion training can work as a potential mode to bridge the motivational gap between empathetic awareness and moral action. Western pedagogic and psychotherapeutic strategies incorporate contemplative principles for their capacity to support transformation. These interventions draw on Buddhist conceptions of wisdom, distress tolerance, and non-judgmental awareness to develop a structure for training compassion, thereby enabling the agent to move from intention to productive action. This thesis therefore explores the potential for poetry to participate in this work.
The first part of this thesis considers how poets have long modelled the capacity of poetry to do political work, as demonstrated by fifth century BCE poet-legislator Solon, who recorded justifications of his laws in poetry. The second part examines how the Romantic poets foreshadowed Kennedy’s idealised philosopher poet by 200 years, including the 18th century poet Anna Letitia Barbauld, who enacted the political work elevated by Arendt through poetry and prose that outlines the obligations of the citizen and critiques the actions of the state. The third part explores how poets in the early 20th century participated (or not) in this kind of work. The contribution of ‘High Modernist’ T. S. Eliot is assessed as well as the Modernist anarchist poet, Lola Ridge, who advocated for marginalised, incarcerated, and deceased identities in both the public and private realm. By reinserting poetry into the public sphere, Ridge models how poetry can be repurposed toward political/moral ends and provide a unique platform for social critique and the emergence of new identities. The thesis concludes by considering how, in addition to public advocacy, poetry may also participate in compassion training. Following psychotherapeutic interest in Buddhist principles to facilitate transformation, this thesis explores the capacity of poetry to participate in cultivating compassion by reading T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ and Four Quartets and Lola Ridge’s ‘The Ghetto’ (and other poems) through the Buddhist lens of the Four Noble Truths. These readings demonstrate that poetry can do more than provide aesthetic pleasure. As an effect of and a medium for contemplation, poetry can facilitate critical thinking; further, it can stimulate creative possibilities toward realising moral ends. Crucially, it can cultivate moral agency by enlarging our capacity for compassion. In short, the contemplation of poetry can enable us to follow Arendt’s council to ‘think what we are doing’.
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Kinsella, John. "The pastoral and modernity: AUTO visitants hunt as textual investigation of self and poetry." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2000. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1354.
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AUTO is a prose work about poetry and the “growth of the poet’s imagination”, to quote The Poet. A poet? If we remember correctly. Reference? Is/was that how it should be worded? Maybe this is a mistake? But an error is a textual truth in itself. It tells us something. AUTO. It is also a metatextual work that is concerned with its own means of production. The voice of self shifts position in relation to the construction of narratives. Stories are told, anecdotes conveyed, portraits suggested. The autobiographical voice is as much an onlooker as the centre of activity. AUTO is a text about the nature of memory, about recall and remembering. There are many possible pasts, and the text moves in and out of alternatives constructions. There is repetition and reconsideration – situations and occasions are examined from different angles. Even footnotes become part of the text. Recall is both historic and mythological – truth and fiction struggle to define and declare themselves, or subvert each other. Poetry appears in the text when the moment being considered is remembered as a trigger, or is a specific point in time for a poem being drafted. Every draft is a valid poem – book-published versions are interpolated for the original draft, early drafts replacing the polished end product. End product? There is no closure – memory isn’t that stable. The text might seek validation in “external” information – a quote, a textual reference – it may become “archaeological” in trying to reconstruct a specific environment. But the tension between place and emotion, the creation of poem and “inspiration”, is a constant. There is a prologue – a “before we begin”. But that’s here and now, where “I write”. The text ends where YOU and I write and read. The roles of reader and writer are blurred. Whose story is being told here, who owns the copyright on the poems? The declaration that accompanies this manuscript claims it is John Kinsella – I? “My name is John Kinsella. I make poems.”
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Edwins, Jo Angela Kenyon Jane Hall Donald Carver Raymond Gallagher Tess. "Working against the sadness personal loss and poetic healing in the poetry of Jane Kenyon, Donald Hall, Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher /." Full text available online (restricted access), 2001. http://images.lib.monash.edu.au/ts/theses/edwins.pdf.
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De, Garis Jenny. "Two Books of Poetry: Spinning Outside In, [and], Green Winter, White Summer : and an Essay, Two Books of Poetry and a Dream About Listening." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1995. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/265.
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These two books of poetry comprise several exercises in 'translation'. The central work is my self-transformation: a marriage-migrant from England (the first three sections of Spinning Outside In ) into an Australian writer. The writing has been the site of my growing awareness of what being in Australia means in terms of loss and of gain, and, through alienation, of learning to listen to my inner Self - this Self being conceived in a post-jungian context.
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Quint, Arlo. "Nine New Poets: An Anthology by Arlo Quint." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2004. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/QuintA2004.pdf.
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Rhinehart, Linda Maria. "Major themes in contemporary ecopoetry : four poets and their literary and cultural contexts." Thesis, Aberystwyth University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2160/ab9bbaa1-ca4f-485c-9199-0527ba5fa417.
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Smatt, Kristen M. "A Yeatsian definition of the poet and the poet's role /." View abstract, 2001. http://wilson.ccsu.edu/theses/etd-2002-??/ThesisTitlePage.html.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2001.Thesis advisor: Richard Bonaccorso. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-66). Also available via the World Wide Web.
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Carden, Stephen. "An Exploration of Sound & Sense in Poetry." TopSCHOLAR®, 1991. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1378.
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Various theorists have treated the problem of sound and sense in poetry. The influence of sound in poetry can be found both in the overall musical structure of a poem and in the internal sounds of rhythm and diction. Plato suggests that rhythm and harmony have a direct effect on man, and can establish either balance or disproportion within the soul. The debate whether sound determines sense or sense determines sound is rejected in favor of a third possibility: an interdependent relationship between sound and sense, an intrinsic formal structure, as the ideal governing the creation of poetry. Further, Aristotle proves to be quite close to Plato in suggesting a moral character to certain sounds. Poe, in emphasizing the distinction between poetry and prose, points to sound as the distinguishing characteristic of verse. Yeats stresses the rhythm of poetry in linking man with an ancient past. Eliot uses care in describing the function of music in poetry, but reaffirms its significance as interdependent with the meaning of the words. Stevens explores the relationship of music and poetry, and offers a rich theory that poetry is the embodiment in sound of a bridge between spirit and reality. The influence of free verse on Eliot and Stevens appears in their conversational tone, yet the sound of their poetry determines its value to a significant extent. This tracking of the ideas about sound and sense from Plato and Aristotle to Poe, Yeats, Eliot, and Stevens helps to clarify the nature and range of the problem.
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Haas, Benjamin David. "Autobiographical Performance Poetry as a Philosophy of [Authenticity]." OpenSIUC, 2010. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/273.
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This thesis begins the process toward a concept of [authenticity] that is both fragmented and performative. I outline a history in philosophy and performance studies where authenticity has been deployed, and demonstrate how it is often tied to modernist ideologies. I then offer "[authenticity]," with brackets, as a means to allow for this term to challenge these modernist conceptions of the self. I then track the ways in which "[authenticity]" opens the possibilities for a new approach to performing by exploring my performance of the poem, "Hydrangeas."
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Gary, Barry. "Desire: An Essential Element in Wallace Stevens' Poetry." TopSCHOLAR®, 1988. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/2387.
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Man naturally pursues that which brings pleasure, and Wallace Stevens recognizes this inescapable desire, exploring it fully in his poetry, prose, and letters and depending upon it to build the foundation for many, if not most, of his major themes. For Stevens, one's world evolves through the use of poetry, and this world, complete with jubilations of fulfilled desire and frequent despair as illusions of fulfillment are destroyed, chronicles the life of every man. As a result, different kinds of desire and different attempts at satisfying these desires emerge as one reads Stevens--three of which will be advanced in this study.
The first, the desire for an ideal truth, takes an intellectual approach, searching for a clue to reality, for a "first idea." This ideal, though, in order to prove satisfactory to the intellect, needs to reconcile the apparent "war between the mind and sky." How do the realm of the imagination and the realm of reality work together? For Stevens, the attempt at an intersection often occurs in the realm of poetry, a world which provides a means of ordering the chaos of reality.
Stevens' investigation of human desire in this world is not limited to the intellect, however. At times the sensuous world itself provides the most appropriate objects for our desire. The wonders of our world, the mere experience of living, may provide needed stability in an otherwise precarious existence. Just as the jar placed in Tennessee gives order to the surrounding landscape, a life of observation and experience, established through the beautiful objects which are the focus of the lover's desire, attempts to provide an order.
The third, and perhaps the most interesting desire, occurs in the mind of the believer. Stevens recognizes the basic need for a deity; however, he also recognizes the origin of belief to be the collective creation of the myth-making force of a people, implying the ability to create new beliefs as unsatisfactory gods fade from importance. Stevens takes part in this recreation of myth through the emergence in his poetry of supreme fictions, possibilities he provides as examples of adequate beliefs.
This study, then, focuses on desire as a major thematic element in Wallace Stevens' poetry and emphasizes the role of desire in man's search for a harmonous existence with this world. In three major chapters the desire to reach an ideal truth through the blending of reality and Imagination, the desire to find pleasure in a world of objects, and the believer's creation and "decreation" of major fictions will be examined as key aspects of the essential element of desire in Wallace Stevens' poetry.
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Davies, Kevin. "Paraphernalia : four poems in seven drafts /." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2006. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/DaviesKX2006.pdf.
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De, Laine John. "The maternity ward : a poetry book /." Title page and table of contents only, 2005. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AR/09ard3341.pdf.
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Blizzard, Amy. "The nightingale in poetry and music." Thesis, connect to online resource. Access restricted to the University of North Texas campus, 2003. http://www.library.unt.edu/theses/open/20031/blizzard%5Famy/index.htm.
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Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of North Texas, 2003.Accompanied by 3 recitals, recorded Nov. 28, 1994, Mar. 5, 2001, and Feb. 17, 2003. Recording for June 10, 1996 missing. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-74).
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White, Michael James. "The theme and poetic function of space in Theodor Fontane's works." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/969.
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This thesis proposes a new view of space in Theodor Fontane’s writing as both a mode of literary expression and an object of literary inquiry: space serves a poetic function and is a thematic concern. The research draws on theories of literary space which focus on spatial structures and topographies, as well as those which provide critical tools for analysing individual passages of description, especially focalisation, which elucidates the influence of the viewing figure in the text. Significantly, the subjective experience of a perceptive observer is central to Fontane’s conception of aesthetic processes, and as a result, an analysis of spatial representation often uncovers reflexive discourses on art, its function and value. On the basis of this insight, this study provides new readings of a range of texts, including less well-established and non-fictional works, as well as recognised masterpieces. In Fontane’s local travelogues, the Wanderungen, the poetic function of space is rare, while many passages reflect on the environment’s potential significance. The early novels explore spatial representation as a means of constructing textual symbolism. Spatial representation in Vor dem Sturm functions as a strategy of relativisation; in Schach von Wuthenow and Graf Petöfy topographies and pregnant descriptions serve as commentaries on characters’ levels of awareness. The mature novels Irrungen Wirrungen and Unwiederbringlich explore the sources and practical implications of reading objects in the world as signs. Space retains its formal role, but the represented figural experience of the novels’ worlds becomes a vehicle for reflexive analysis of the world’s perceived meanings. Similarly, in Der Stechlin different types of relationships with exterior reality are expressed spatially, and, as elsewhere, the capacity for aesthetic appreciation is represented positively. This entails and indeed produces critical distance towards modernity: isolated Stechlin is a locus of poetry, a testament to literature’s importance and vitality.
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Leber, Deanne. "Constellations – a space in time that’s filled with moving." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2016. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1810.
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Constellations in the sky have been a source of inspiration, in both science and literature, for aeons. Working within the constraints of the ‘official’ 88 constellations, as devised by the International Astronomical Union, this study involved researching the myths and histories of constellations, and then creating a collection of poems based upon those. Thematic connections between the eight modern constellation “families” or groups of constellations were explored and it is in these groupings that the poems work, to tie together, through experimentations with language, a somewhat cohesive fabric of poetry.
Each constellation consists of three poems. The first is a dense prose poem. The poem is then reconfigured, containing elements of the old prose poem, but offering new associations and meanings as punctuation and words are removed. The third and final poem reflects the actual constellation shape, as observed in star maps. It is a movement of poetic archaeology, with new poems emerging through excavation of the first two pages. The poems challenge notions of language, such as closure, dealing with repetitions, renewal and discontinuous narrative threads. There is an element of play with the work, and the final page encourages reading beyond the left to right formation of conventional reading structures, instead making connections to be traversed in an improvised reading process.
The poems are presented as four pages for each constellation. Three pages are the poems, and the fourth page, on the reverse of the final constellation shape, is the actual constellation map. The pages are clipped and folded into a black storage box. This design is to encapsulate the feeling of discovering a box of maps, with the folding and unfolding process aimed at being part of the play involved in reading and discovering the poems.
Accompanying the box is a Powerpoint presentation on a USB stick. This is a ‘Twitter’ type feed, where a one sentence epigraph, derived from the beginning of each constellation, is inscribed in a continuous feed, in an attempt to illustrate the futility of trying to comprehend and keep up with an endlessly shifting landscape of words online, and in particular, in social media. The 88 phrases revolve aimlessly across the screen. It becomes a blank space, littered with odd words and phrases, recognizable but fleeting The accompanying exegesis discusses language, mapping and orienteering. It explores theoretical concerns in poetry and language, and how, by looking at constellations and the way we interpret them, that they can be seen as metaphors for the way the constellation poems have been created.
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Jackson, Janet Ruth. "A coat of ashes: A collection of poems, incorporating a metafictional narrative - and - Poetry, Daoism, physics and systems theory: a poetics: A set of critical essays." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2018. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2125.
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This thesis comprises a book-length creative work accompanied by a set of essays. It explores how poetry might bring together spiritual and scientific discourses, focusing primarily on philosophical Daoism (Taoism) and contemporary physics. Systems theory (the science of complex and self-organising systems) is a secondary focus of the creative work and is used metaphorically in theorising the writing process.
The creative work, “A coat of ashes”, is chiefly concerned with the nature of being. It asks, “What is?”, “What am I?” and, most urgently, “What matters?”. To engage with these questions, it opens a space in which voices expressing scientific and spiritual worldviews may be heard on equal terms. “A coat of ashes” contributes a substantial number of poems to the small corpus of Daoist-influenced poetry in English and adds to the larger corpus of poetry engaging with the sciences. The poems are offset by a metafictional narrative, “The Dream”, which may be read as an allegory of the writing journey and the struggle to combine discourses.
The four essays articulate the poetics of “A coat of ashes” by addressing its context, themes, influences, methodology and compositional processes. They contribute to both literary criticism and writing theory. Like the creative work, they focus on dialogues between rationalist or scientific discourses and subjective or spiritual ones.
The first essay, “An introduction”, discusses the thesis itself: its rationale, background, components, limitations and implications. The second, “Singing the quantum”, reviews scholarship discussing the influence of physics on poetry, then examines figurative representations of physics concepts in selected poems by Rebecca Elson, Cilla McQueen and
Frederick Seidel. These poems illustrate how contemporary poetry can interpret scientific
concepts in terms of subjective human concerns.
The third essay, “Let the song be bare”, discusses existing Daoist poetry criticism before considering Daoist influences in the poetry of Ursula K. Le Guin, Randolph Stow and Judith Wright. These non-Indigenous poets with a strong awareness of the sciences have, by adopting Daoist-inflected senses of the sacred, been able to articulate the tension engendered by their problematic relationships with colonised landscapes. Moreover, the changing aesthetic of Wright’s later poetry reflects a struggle between Daoist quietism and European lyric commentary.
The final essay, “Animating the ash”, reflects on the process of writing poetry, using examples from “A coat of ashes” to construct a theoretical synthesis based on Daoism, systems theory and contemporary poetics. It proposes a novel way to characterise the nature and emergence of the hard-to-define quality that makes a poem a poem. This essay also discusses some of the Daoist and scientific motifs that occur in the creative work.
As a whole, this project highlights the potential of both the sciences and the more ancient ways of knowing — when seen in each other’s light — to help us apprehend the world’s material and metaphysical nature and live harmoniously within it.