The power of psychological time in poetry Essay Example for Free

The exponent of mental judgment of conviction in poetry EssayPoetry is always connected to various age representations. Poets replace substantive clock time with different psychological visions and ideas of one-time(prenominal) or future events. We frequently find ourselves in a situation, when we can non completely understand the time implications of a precise poem. Thomas inflexible and T. S. Eliot were well known for their poetic skills in representing various dimensions of time. In their works, time has become a symbol, and their instinctive mode as writers was figurative, not analytic their most habitual method was symbolism, not argument. In darings Wessex heights, and Eliots Rhapsody on a blowy Night, time acquires new meaning. It is no longer the time measurement of our actions it is a psychological dimension which creates the virtual space in which we live. Our memories signify the power of psychological time in their poems, Eliot and brazen underline th e significance and power of psychological time and oppose it to the clock or seasonal time, under the impact of which we traditionally live. Wessex Heights and Hardys meaning of psychological timeHardys Wessex Heights is invariably linked to the way Hardy interprets the meaning of philosophical and psychological notions of time and space. Evidently, temporal subject is central to Wessex Heights, and the poet creates a conjunction of numerous elements, which ultimately tier what we call psychological time. There are some heights in Wessex, shaped as if by a liberally hand For thinking, dreaming, dying on, and at crises when I stand, Say, on Ingpen Beacon eastward, or on Wylls-Neck westwardly,I calculate where I was before my birth, and after death may be. (Hardy 1989, 23). This trope becomes the beginning of a readers journey to Hardys representation of psychological time and the tenaciousness of gentlemans gentleman emotions. It is not surprising that the poet uses the exact g eographic names, and seems to determine the exact geographical location for the reader. This geographical character of the poem is initially deceptive. Moreover, Hardy uses these names to oppose the reality to psychology of time, and geography serves the instrument of such opposition.It is not surprising that Wessex Heights uses the deed of conveyance of a specific locality only to emphasise dislocation, moving the speaker in and out of abstracted spaces that have, as it turns out, little connection to physical place. The starting signal stanza actually becomes the start of the readers journey into the depth of Hardys psychological time. The dislocation, about which Richards writes, is one of the most prominent characteristics to emphasise the power of psychological time, which makes memories and feelings eternal. The first stanza smoothly moves the reader into the clearer representations of the psychological time.It seems that the poet was preparing us to what we would later s ee after we move to virtual lowlands Down there I seem to be false to myself, my simple self that was, / And is not now, and I see him watching, wondering what crass cause / Can have merged him into such a strange continuator s this The reader seems to appear in the center of an action, where the past plays with the present, and where one sees ones self as a separate being. Hardy evidently opposes reality of time to its psychology, underlining the effects which psychological time may cause on a person.In order to strengthen the effect, Hardy presents the guerrilla stanza in a more structured metrical form than the first one. As a result, the past self, the chrysalis, encloses the present subject in the same self-contradictory way that rhyme enfolds Hardys chaotic language, so that these structures play against other as the poem progresses. Hardy uses the notion of locality, and exact geographical names to emphasise the mixture of the geographical and the aesthetical. In his work, geography loses its meaning when the poet speaks about ghosts in the third stanza There is a ghost at Yell ham it up Bottom chiding loud at the fall of the night. The ghosts represent the circulation of the psychological time. In distinction from the real clock or seasonal time, in psychological time a person has an opportunity to return to the past memories. In this aspect psychological time is evidently stronger than the real one. As the reader retreats from these ghosts in the first stanza, he meets them again in the third passage the conventional ghosts of the lowlands repeat their presence in a form that revises their past forms.This repetition constitutes human temporality in a particular way time is movement toward a future which will be, but never yet is, the perfected surmise of the past. The psychological time, in which the reader appears when reading Wessex Heights creates favourable conditions for separating the self and analyzing it through the prism of the past even ts. In Hardys vision, this separation and the absence seizure of a psychological line between the past and the present creates an incredible emotional atmosphere, in which any person can find a aboriginal to oneself. Rhapsody on a Windy Night Eliot and BergsonThe first impression from reading Eliots Rhapsody on a Windy Night is in that the poet creates a kind of coherent imaginative vision of time. Eliot has brilliantly incorporated Bergsons understanding of time into his poetic work . As with Hardys Wessex Heights, Eliot underlines the impossibleness to measure time in traditional clock or seasonal terms. The poet clearly keeps to the idea of time being more psychological than seasonal. As a result, the reader acquires additional opportunities to return to the past, and to analyze the future actions through the prism of the past events.The major difference between Wessex Heights and Rhapsody on a Windy Night is in that Hardy creates a vision of unlimited time through the use of g eographical names and localities. In his turn, Eliot emphasises the opposition between the clock time and psychological time. His poem takes the reader away from traditional clock measurements which do not give any space for the analysis of the self and the continuity of time Twelve oclock. Along the reaches of the street Held in a lunar synthesis, Whispering lunar incantations Dissolve the floors of storage And all its clear dealings Its divisions and precisions,Every street lamp that I pass Beats like a fatalistic drum (Eliot 1991, 16) Eliot starts each stanza in a similar way the head of the clock time symbolises its irrelevance and insignificance towards the relations, divisions, and precisions of the psychological time. It is not a secret, that Eliots creative work was dramatically influenced by the works of Henri Bergson in terms of time concept. In his works, Bergson distinguished the two different types of time real and mathematical. In Bergsons view, real time was indiv isible and continuous, while mathematical time could be measured.In Eliots poem, the reader faces the challenge of distinguishing real time from mathematical time measurements. Real time in Eliots view stands in the form of indivisible psychological continuum, which is broken by mathematical measurements in the form of clock time at certain regular intervals. There is a indomitable impression that Eliots Rhapsody continues the logical time line of Hardys Wessex Heights by mixing past with present, and recognising the insignificance of mathematical measurable time The past exists in the present, which contains the future.The concrete and ever present instance of duration is life, for each of us living in his own time. Eliot speaks about memories, which do not win over with time. He speaks of time as psychological notion, which cannot be measured. Half-past three. / The lamp sputtered, / The lamp muttered in the dark. / The lamp hummed / Regard the slug The moon, and not the clock is the sign of the reality of time, but even the moon can lose memory The moon has lost her memory. Through the whole poem, Eliot seems to seek the means of time measurability he tries to use lamps, moon, and clock to distinguish his time into separate passages.Yet, these measures only confirm the continuity of psychological time, and the continuity of memories which actually constitute this psychological time. In his Rhapsody, Eliot adds the influence of time and its inescapable nature. depot and the past bring into focus relationships and lack of personal fulfillment. As psychological time cannot be measured, it serves a measure in itself the measure of Eliots passion, emotiveness, and the memory which is the key to eternity. Conclusion Poetry is inherently separated from any traditional measurements of time.In their works, Hardy and Eliot were trying to create a border between the clock (seasonal) and psychological time. Both were striving to mix past with future, and to sho w the futility of traditional time measurements against the power of memories and psychological time. Both have incorporated either geographical names or traditional measures of time to emphasise their irrelevance towards peoples emotions. Bergson says that reality has extension as well as duration. However, space is not a void or vacuum which is filled by reality. Things are not in space, space is in things. As a result, psychological time is not an objective reality it is extremely subjective and stems from the personal memories and interpretations. Subjective notions cannot be measured, and both poets were trying to deliver this essence to the reader. Ultimately, after reading the two poems, the reader finds oneself in a new environment, which breaks traditional limits of time and produces a completely new vision of the self.BIBLIOGRAPHYBergson, H. The Creative Mind An Introduction to Metaphysics. New York Kensington publishing Group, 1946. Eliot, T. S. Rhapsody on a Windy Night . In Collected Poems, 1909-1962, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991, p. 16. Hardy, Thomas. Wessex Heights. In Thomas Hardy Wessex Heights, ed. N. Philip, London Bloomsbury Pub Ltd, 1989. , p. 23. Maxwell, D. E. S. The Poetry of T. S. Eliot. Routledge Kegan, 1960. Richards, J. The History of Error Hardys Critics and the Self Unseen. Victorian Poetry 45 (2007) 24-29. Siebenschuh, William R. Hardy and the Imagery of Place. Studies in English Literature 39 (1999) 101-103. Thomson, E. T. S. Eliot The Metaphysical Perspective. Southern Illinois University Press, 1963.