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The spirit of place and the reflective consciousness in a selection of twentieth century Scottish poets
Author
Chia, Joanne Weiting
Supervisor
Lumsden, Robert
Abstract
This thesis investigates 'spirit of place' in relation to a selection of Contemporary Scottish poets. I am interested in the way 'spirit of place' influences the poetry they choose to write, and the characteristics of such poetry. Poetry has a peculiar capacity for the unknown and to write in this medium is as well a personal commitment to a particular mode of being and thinking. Scottish culture is especially aware of certain moods or atmospheres that may be gesturing towards an idea of an Otherworld. There is for them great resonance in being informed by the place, such that the place becomes or represents to a great extent their consciousness as well. Seen together with the immense popularity of poetry in Scotland, there is an area of reality or particular consciousness that the poets are writing in. When we come to the poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid. Norman MacCaig, Edwin Morgan and Edwin Muir, we realise that this both constrains and informs their poetry. Writing in a particular sphere, or a particular mood defines their poetry. Indeed, their poetry leans towards the unsayable which we cannot quite approach with the same confidence we do with the familiar; our response to what are "merely" reverberations is significant because the poetry is present in a different way for us: we access it in a particular way that goes beyond the words that we read. As Edwin Morgan says, there is "something active rather than passive, pulsing, something alive, something beyond grammar and lexis though obviously containing these" (Morgan 223). The poets are writing to a huge extent in ambiguity: there is a particular knowledge of things that we cannot will, so much as grant. There is in imagination an authentic area of knowing that we cannot access with foreknowledge.
Date Issued
2005
Call Number
PR8571 Chi
Date Submitted
2005