Hypnotic Poetry: A Study of Trance-inducing Technique in Certain Poems and Its Literary Significance 9781512807448

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HYPNOTIC POETRY

HYPNOTIC

POETRY

A Study of Trance-Inducing Technique in Certain Poems and its Literary Significance

By EDWARD D. SNYDER Associate Professor of Haverford

English

College

With a Foreword by JAMES H. LEUBA Professor oj Psychology Bryn Mawr College

1930

Philadelphia U N I V E R S I T Y O F P E N N S Y L V A N I A PRESS

COPYRIGHT UNIVERSITY

OF PENNSYLVANIA

London: Oxford

P R I N T E D BY

THE

IN

I93O

THE

VAIL-BALLOU

Humphrey University

U N I T E D PRESS,

Milford Press

STATES INC.,

PRESS

OF

A M E R I C A

BINGHAHTON,

N.

Y.

To E. R. S.

PREFACE

' I ' H E first four chapters of this volume propose and support a certain idea about poetry, while the remaining chapters make practical applications of the idea to individual poems and to topics of a more general nature. I hope that people who read poetry for the sheer love of il, as well as those who are tcachcrs and professional critics, will welcome this study of the trance-inducing effect that a few poems seem to exert on the reader, and will share my interest in extending the study to poems that are less obviously hypnotic. Since Mr. Leuba has suggested in his Foreword both the nature of this study and its possible significance, I need not do so. Instead, I take this opportunity of thanking him for his kindness in reading the manuscript and in making many valuable suggestions. I should be ungenerous if I did not warn readers that, should they rely on the fact that so distinguished a psychologist as Mr. Leuba has, so to speak, guaranteed the soundness of the principal psychological views here set forth, they must not hold him responsible for such errors as may have crept in despite his warning. I must also thank all others whose interest in hypnotic poetry, or whose friendship, has enabled me to benefit by their helpful criticism—particularly Mr. Elias vii

viii

P REF AC E

Lym a n of Nort h west ern Un iversit y, Mr . Ch rist op h er Mor ley, Mr . L. Ar n o ld Post of H a ve r fo r d College, Mr . Ar t h u r B. Perry of Milt on Acad em y, an d m y sister, Miss Alice D . Sn yd er of Vassar College. Perm ission t o qu ot e variou s passages of prose an d verse has been given t h r ou gh t h e courtesy of several publish ers, t o wh o m m y in debt edness is ackn owled ged in notes to the passages qu ot ed . ED WARD D .

H a ve r fo r d College, Sept em ber 22, 1930.

SN YD ER.

FOREWORD

" P O E T I C A L crit icism is in m u ch n eed of an assistance wh ich the psych ologist on ly can give. O n e m ust t u rn to h im to learn wh at is the effect of word -sou n d s, of r efr ain , of len gt h of lin e, of rim e, of d ifferen t r h yt h m s, etc. O n e of t h e m erit s of Mr . Sn yd er is to h ave isolated fo r t reat m en t wh at seem s to m e the most in t erest in g an d con sequ en t ial of the p sych ological problem s con fr on t in g t h e studen t of poet ry. Th e sign ifican ce of states of part ial tran ce in the life of h u m an it y, wh et h er produ ced by d ru gs like alcoh ol an d h ash ish , or by psych ical m et h ods, such as those of t h e Yo gi, of cert ain ext ravagan t Ch rist ian m yst ics, of revivalists, an d even of gran d iloqu en t orat ors, is slowly com in g to be realized . Th is short book is an im port an t an d t im ely con t ribu t ion t o t h e u n d erst an d in g of the rôle p layed in poet ry by part ial tran ce. Th e aut h or sh ows t h at th ere are t wo d iffer en t kin d s of poet ry—passin g gr ad u ally in t o each ot h er, of course. O n e h e calls "h yp n ot ic," the oth er "in t ellect u alist ." H is ch ief con cern is t o m ake clear th at t h ere is a t ech n iqu e of poet ry wh ich is lit erally h yp n ot ic or t ran ce-in d u cin g, an d that poet ry is to be read an d crit icised accor d in g to its kin d . T o set fo r t h t h e ch aracteristics of the t ech n iqu e of these LX

X

FO REW O RD

t w o typ es o f p oetr y a n d t h eir resp ectiv e effects u p o n t h e r ea d er a n d u p on t h e p oet h im s e lf, r eq u ir ed t h e u n io n of m u ch p oetica l a n d p sy ch olog ical k n o w le d g e . M r . Sn y d er is k n o w n t o be w ell eq u ip p ed fo r o n e p ar t o f th is ta sk ; th e p r esen t b o o k sh ow s t h a t h e is w ell eq u ip p ed fo r t h e oth er p a r t also. If h e h a s n o t solved all th e p sy ch olog ica l p roblem s in h is w a y —w h o w ou ld ?—h e h as t h r o w n lig h t on sever a l, an d h a s a cco m p lish ed h is self-ap p oin ted task : h e h as, it seem s to m e , d em o n st r a t ed t h e existen ce o f a typ e of p oetr y w h ich ow es its a ttr a ction to a m et h o d of com p osit ion , t h e effect o f w h ich is to lim it th e in t ellect u a l activ ity, i. e., t o in d u ce a state of p a r tial tr a n ce, a n d th er eb y to fr ee in som e m ea su r e t h e em o t io n a l life fr o m t h e t r a m m e l of cr it ica l t h in k in g . T h i s a ch iev em en t car r ies w it h it t h e accep ta n ce o f a co r o lla r y of m u ch im p o r t a n ce b o t h t o read ers a n d cr it ics: P o e m s a r e to be r ea d , stu d ied , a n d cr iticised "a cco r d in g to t h e t ech n iq u e w h ich th ey e m p lo y ." T h e r ea d er of p oetr y , en lig h t en ed by M r . Sn y d er , w ill d eriv e a g r ea t er e n jo y m e n t , a n d th e stu d en t a d eep er u n d er st a n d in g a n d sou n d er p r in cip les of cr it icism . I w ou ld lik e to be p er m it t ed to ad d th at th e a t t it u d e of t h e a u t h o r seem s t o m e a d m ir a b ly ob jectiv e a n d ju d iciou s. H e n e it h er exa lts tran ce-states n o r d ecries in t ellect u a lism in p oet r y , bu t a n a ly z es in a sch olar ly m a n n e r t h e t w o typ es o f p oetr y a n d d isp assion ately ap p raises t h e m er its o f ea ch . JAMES H .

LEU BA

CONTENTS PREFACE FOREW ORD I. II.

PAGE

BY ¡AMES H. LEU ΒA

vii

ix

SP ELLW EAVIN G PO EMS

ι

AN ILLU M IN ATIN G H YPO TH ESIS

n

ΓΓΙ. H YP N O TISM AN D O TH ER T RAN CES

24

IV.

EVID EN CE

38

SEMIH YPNO TIC PO EMS

63

PO ETIC INSPIRATIO N

91

V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X.

FREE VERSE IN AMERICA

104

IS P O ETRY AN ESCAPE FRO M REALITY?

120

T H E SEAT O F T H E SCO RNFUL

129

TO W ARD S A SO UNDER CRITICISM

147

W O RKS CITED

157

IN D EX O F PO ETS

161

I SPELLWEAVING POEMS

I

almost every lover of poetry has been impressed by the ease wit h wh ich a good reader is occasionally able to put a room fu l of people under a sort of spell by readin g certain poem s. It is a spell not merely of silent attention but of intense emotional sympathy with the poet and the poem in question. As likely as not the listeners have n o texts wit h wh ich to follow the readin g; some of them m ay even be sitting wit h eyes half shut. T o m an y poems they are cold and in differen t , but unexpectedly they yield themselves to some one poem wit h an em otional abandon that leaves them in complete agreement wit h wh at the poet has said, and their mood in perfect h arm on y wit h that of the poem . O n a little consideration this fact becomes the m ore strikin g because these spellweavin g poems often contain phrases, lines, and even lon g sentences that are not understood by the people wh o respond to them so com pletely. An audience m ay be put un der such a spell, for instance, by the readin g of To Be or Not to Be; and later it will develop on in quiry that few, if an y, of them have a clear notion of "t akin g arm s against a sea of troubles" or of "far d els" or of "t h e native hue of resolution" or of "t h e pale cast of t h ou gh t ." Intellectually, these spellbound peoSUPPOSE

2

H YPNO TIC POETRY

pie seem to be dazed. Man y of them h ave n o exact idea why H am let shran k fr o m suicide, an d some few do not even kn ow that he sh ran k fr o m it ; but every one of them is likely to recall wit h absolute exactness the phrase, "t h e undiscovered country fr om whose bourn n o traveller ret urn s." It is also of interest that the person doin g the readin g is not always im m u n e to the spell. If h e enjoys the sound of his own voice, as most poetry-readers do, there are likely to be occasional m om ents wh en his eyes grow dim wit h tears, and other m om ents wh en he feels a suggestion of the ecstasy that betokens the sublim e. An d perhaps he has encountered the sublim e. But oftentim es he realizes wit h becom in g sheepishness, aft er the experience is over, that the passage by wh ich he has been thus moved falls far short of the usual academ ic standards of poetic excellence. Perh aps he has even been readin g Ten n yson or Lon gfellow or on e of the other poets in wh om the youn ger gen eration of critics find n o virtue wh at ever! H ere of course is a p arad ox: theory and fact do not agree. Th e theory is that such a poem is of n o literary or artistic interest. Th e fact is that its obvious power to rouse the emotions suggests a concealed artistry wh ich m ay be of the greatest interest. Let us put aside for the m om en t the question as to wh et h er these poems should be recogn ized as "great " or even as "good ," and turn our attention to distinguishin g t h em fr o m another group, wh ich do not, under ordinary circum stances, exert such a spellweavin g power. In doin g

SP ELLW EAVIN G PO EMS

3

this, it will, accordingly, be of no interest for the moment whether Lon gfellow's Ship of State is a better poem or a worse poem than Lowell's Com m em oration Ode. It will, however, be important to note that wh en the Ship of State was recited in Fan euil H all before an audience of three thousand people, it gave them an emotional experience wh ich , even aft er we have m ade due allowance for the patriotic fervor of the day, has seldom been equaled ; but that when Lowell recited his Com m em oration Ode under equally favorable conditions, the audience was not moved to any considerable pitch of emotion. It will likewise be significant that wh en , at the meetings of the literati, Poe used to turn down the lights and recite his Raven, his audience felt an ecstatic thrill wh ich they could never forget . If the word "spellweavin g" fits one type, perhaps for the purposes of this study the word "intellectualist" may be used for the other. Th u s we may distinguish one clearly spellweavin g poem of Brown in g's, hove Am ong the Ruins, fr om another of the contrasting intellectualist type, wh ich he wrote more frequently—say My Last Duchess. My m ean in g may be clearer if I suggest that one of the simplest tests of the "sp ell" to which I refer is the test of interruption. If one interrupts the reading of one of these spellweavin g poems, the emotional continuity of the listeners' experience is broken in a way that is for the time being irreparable ; even if one interrupts to explain or comment favorably on the passage concerned, there is a distinct sense that something has snapped. On the other hand if one interrupts the read-

4

H YP N O TIC P O ETRY

in g of an intellectualist poem , the intellectual con tin uit y is broken, to be sure, but the break is of little im port an ce; one can stop, discuss, interpret, and then pick up the t h read again with n o special feelin g of loss. Brown in g's Love Am ong the Ruins, for exam ple, will su ffer trem en dously in its effectiveness if thus in terrupted. My Last Duchess, on the other h an d, loses little and m ay gain a good deal if the interruption is pert in en t; it is evident that wh atever em otion may be aroused at the clim ax of My Last Duchess is largely the result of little increments of intellectual stim ulus. But the "sp ell" wit h wh ich I am concerned is someth in g more nearly akin to wh at listeners experience wh en a piece of music is played wit h especial effectiveness. If a poem un der consideration retains virtually its fu ll effectiveness in spite of in terruption, it is presum ably outside the class of wh at I call "spellweavin g poem s." No w, if one is sufficiently fon d of poetry to keep a m ental or written record of the effect wh ich he himself has been able to produce by readin g various poems, he will have material available wh ich m ay be of value in gettin g at certain little-recognized psychological facts about poet ry; and it is wit h a sim ple classification on this basis of effect produced that I wish to begin this study. I am aware that, in form u lat in g any theory of poetry, one must always guard against the dan ger of in ven t in g facts to support one's theory ; it is a strong and in some cases irresistible temptation, but in the present instance m y conscience is clear on that score, fo r I encountered the facts first and am merely seekin g a theory to explain them .

SP ELLW EAVIN G PO EMS

5

If we attempt to classify poems psychologically accordin g to the amount of the spellweavin g power wh ich they possess, it soon appears that we have a small group at one extreme wh ich are patently spellweavin g, and another sm all group at the opposite extreme almost purely intellectualist. Between them , of course, we have a m ixed group, by fa r the largest, of wh ich we need not speak until a later chapter.

SI'KI.I.W EAVI N G

M IXED

INTF.LLF.CT U ALI ST

Th e poems at the extreme left in the diagram are dreamily persuasive; they arouse the listeners' emotions through no obvious process of t h in kin g. Th ose at the extrem e righ t rouse the emotions, if at all, largely in response to careful study and mental alertness. It is with some hesitation that I give the titles of specific poems wh ich I have foun d to be spellweavin g in this way, because there are at least three variable factors wh ich m ake a rigid classification impossible. Th e first of these is of course the varyin g ability of differen t readers. One man has a rich sonorous tone, a leisurely m an n er, and perhaps a dign ified bearing, that enable h im to do fu ll justice to Gray's Elegy, wh ile another, though excellently equipped for dram atic readin g, will in variably fail at an yth in g of the "graveyard school." Sim ilarly one reader will manage always to m ake Keats's La Belle Dam e Sans

6

HYPNOTIC POETRY

Merci carry, while another, just missing the trick of holding the monosyllables in the last line of each stanza, will do the poem scant justice. Yet this first difficulty is not insuperable ; at least a person can listen to his own reading day after day and year after year, until he is prepared to say that such and such poems, as he reads them, are the ones most likely to produce the peculiar response to which I have referred. A second variable which makes rigid classification difficult is the relative sophistication of different audiences. Particularly where an audience is so well read that it knows both the poem under consideration and various parodies of it, as must often be the case with Poe's Raven or The Bells, it is obviously impossible to get the same reaction that one would get in reading to a less mature group to whom the poem was new. Longfellow's Wrecks of the Hesperus may be tiresome to one group but thrilling to another. Again, some listeners with no musical background may hear Shelley's Indian Serenade merely as a poem; others may instinctively associate it with a tune to which they have heard it sung, which will modify their psychological reaction to hearing it read; while still others may find their minds distracted from the poem proper by the question as to which of the two tunes that they know is better suited to it. Such conditions sometimes introduce perplexing variable quantities into the equation. Yet here again if the reader happens to be a teacher, or a public lecturer appearing continually before people of about the same level of intelligence, he will find himself gradually

SP ELLW EAVI N G P O EMS

7

get t in g in t erest in g fact s wh ich en able h im to foret ell, oft en wit h alm ost scien t ific exact n ess, wh a t effect a p oem will p rod u ce. Fin a lly, t h ere is the variable of t h e m ood in wh ich t h e au d ien ce is gat h ered . Fo r in st an ce, if people h ave com e t oget h er in an h ou r of n at ion al crisis, an y pat riot ic p oem is apt to t ake on a special sp ellweavin g q u a lit y; if the gat h erin g is a fu n er al, a religiou s p oem au t om at ically gain s for ce in p rop ort ion as it gives com for t an d p rom ise of im m ort alit y. In gen er al, wh er e an au d ien ce is alread y experien cin g a st ron g em ot ion b efore the r ead in g b egin s, the effect of a poem wh ich fu r t h er st im u lat es th at em ot ion m ust cert ain ly be d iscou n t ed . Bu t h ere again in the college classroom , wh er e sim ilar grou p s of studen ts gat h er d ay aft er d ay u n d er sim ilar con d it ion s of m ore or less volu n tary at t en d an ce, st im u lat ed perh aps by occasion al pressure fr o m the office of the d ean , we find at least on e con ven ien t place wh er e "aver age con d it ion s" m ay be said t o obt ain . At least the professor will not h ave t o m ake so great allowan ces fo r the var yin g m ood s of h is listen ers as does the occasion al read er. W it h such caut ion s an d reservat ion s as I h ave in d icat ed in the t h ree p reced in g p ar agr ap h s, I n o w ven t u re to give a fe w represen t at ive titles of fa m ilia r p oem s wh ich m y o wn experien ce suggest s b elon g t o t h e con t rast in g "sp ellweavin g" an d "in t ellect u alist " gr ou p s respect ively. T o facilit at e the read er's u n d erst an d in g of the in h eren t con t rast bet ween the t wo t ypes, I h ave lim it ed m y lists t o t h e b est -kn own exam p les of each .

8

H YP N O T I C P O E T R Y

SO M E W E L L - K N O W N SP ELL W EA VIN G P O EM S

Br ow n in g Love A mong

the Ruins

Bu rn s A uld Lang Syne John A nderson, M y Jo Byron The Isles of Greece

Colerid ge Kubla Khan Mu ch of The A ncient M ariner Fitzgerald Man y lon g passages from The Rubaiyat Gray The Elegy Keats La Belle Dame Sans M erci Most of The Eve of St. A gnes Kip lin g The Long Trail Lon gfellow Man y lon g passages from Evangeline

SO M E

W ELL-KN O W N

IN TELLEC -

TU A L I ST P O EM S

Brow n in g Rep resentative p oem s su ch as Cristina M y Last Duchess A ndrea del Sarto The Glove Mrs. Brow n in g Sonnets from thePortuguese

Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Many satiric passages from Don Juan Colerid ge France: A n Ode

Kip lin g A n Imperial

Rescript

SPELLWEAVING Masefield Sea-Fever Poe Annabel Lee To One in Paradise

POEMS

Masefield Dauber

Pope Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot The Rape of the Loc\ Epilogue to the Satires Seeger I Have a Rendezvous with Death Shelley Indian Serenade Other representative lyrics such as My Soul is an Enchanted Boat Swinburne Hymn to Proserpine, and many others Tennyson Brea\, Brea\, Breaks Crossing the Bar, and many r e p r e s e n t a t i v e lyrics such as The Bugle Song Whitman 0 Captain! My Captain!

Wordsworth (See page 84.)

Shelley Ozymandias

Swinburne Cor Cor dium Tennyson Northern Farmer (Old Style) The Higher Pantheism Whitman When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer A Noiseless Patient Spider Wordsworth The Tables Turned The World is Too Much with Us

IO

H Y P N O T I C POETRY

T o isolate some of these markedly spellweaving poems and study them intensively, is an occupation that will assuredly be pleasant and perhaps be profitable. Their very popularity with millions of readers in different countries over a considerable period of time suggests a hidden something that has thus far eluded criticism. And the fact that many of them have been openly decried of late by certain contemporary critics seems to me rather to challenge than to discourage a closer investigation, for even so opinionated a man as Dr. Johnson recognized that "by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtility and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical honors." In conclusion I would only suggest here a theme to be treated in a later chapter: if the psychologists are right in telling us that huma n conduct is conditioned less by intellect than has been supposed, and more by emotion, then the student of literature w ho should focus his attention chiefly on intellectualist poetry would be likely to find himself sadly out of date.

II AN ILLUMINATING HYPOTHESIS

R

to the two contrasting lists of poems on page 8, we see that they present a peculiar critical puzzle for our solution. Here are two groups of poems; all the poems are popular; nearly all of them have stood the test of time; yet, though we can understand in most essentials the technique by which the intellectualist poems achieve their results, we are baffled by the technique of the spellweaving poems. We are, in fact, so seriously baffled that many critics refuse a place of honor to poems like Evangeline which have endeared themselves to hosts of readers. The puzzle is, first of all, to find out how the spell is woven. It is a puzzle of which the solution has not even been attempted by most lovers of poetry, because they are so used to classifying and studying poems conventially by types that they give little thought to the desirability of classifying and studying them according to psychological characteristics. Such psychological classification is, however, desirable and even inevitable. Critics praise, as a rule, the art they understand. We are all critics to some extent, and few will question the statement that our praise is more whole-hearted, and certainly more illuminating, in those fields of art where we EVERTING

12

HYPNOTIC POETRY

know what constitutes good technique. Speaking by and large, most of us do understand the technique of an intellectualist poem. W e pick it to pieces, examine it phrase by phrase, even word by word ; we note the ideas, transitions, and the general structure; we isolate the striking pictorial passages and note their individual value and their respective appropriateness; we pass critical judgment on the versification and many other details of workmanship. In a word, we analyze it f r o m a dozen different standpoints and measure its excellence by as many critical standards. In the main our criticism of an intellectualist poem is just and reasonable. But for the spellweaving poems listed on page 8 we have no such ready norms. There is something queer about them. Some people express their admiration, but cannot justify it; hence they express it with shamefaced timidity; others simply condemn the art they cannot comprehend. Here, then, is the challenge to our intelligence—what gives these spellweaving poems their power? Shall we yield to the luxurious enjoyment of their dreamy emotionalism, thrill with the ecstasy of their compelling magic, and then say "This is not art"? Shall we, taking refuge in a convenient subterfuge of ignorance, call their art mere "felicity of diction" ? Or shall we accept the challenge ? With the material at hand which psychology has now put at our disposal, I for one have not been able to refuse the challenge. I am not greatly attracted by the study of general aesthetics, nor do I look with much hope of profit toward the

AN ILLUMINATING HYPOTHESIS

13

general controversies over "W h at is p oet ry?" wh ich have been carried on since the dawn of history. But if some striking, isolable phenomenon about a certain group of poems keeps forcin g itself on my attention, I take an interest not altogether unique, I trust, in tryin g to understand it. As I turned over in my m ind throughout a period of years the am azin g effectiveness of such spellweaving poems as I have already mentioned by title, I sought here, there, and everywhere for something wh ich would account for the phenomenon. Specifically, I sought for some fun damental characteristic common to all of these poems which would explain their peculiar power, but wh ich was not to be fou n d in the intellectualist poems wh ich I have mentioned by title in another group. "Good or bad," I kept askin g, "wh at is the art responsible for the carrying power of these p oem s?" W h en there is not one iota of proof or argum ent stated or suggested in Crossing the Bar, wh y do certain listeners get from it the overwhelm in g conviction of im m ort alit y? W h at m agic spell is woven by Brown in g in Love Am ong the Ruins, so that the phrase "Love is best" becomes indelibly imprinted on the listeners' m in ds? One can "un derst an d" many of Brown in g's poems—what is the art that makes us blindly "feel" this one ? Casually at first, then more systematically, I kept seeking the trick, the quality, or the combination of qualities, com m on to all the poems that are spellweaving but not characteristic of those that are intellectualist.

i4

HYPNOTIC POETRY

After trying various explanations, so unsound and so unimportant that I need not bring them before the attention of the reader, I repeatedly tried the theory that these poems gain their spellweaving power because of the perfection of their versification; and here, it seemed to me, I was nearer the truth than in any of the other conjectures. It developed that every poem of this sort is characterized by an excellent versification, and so far the explanation was satisfactory. But the flaw in the theory appears as soon as it is applied negatively to the poems of the contrasting group. Immediately we realize that Pope's Essay on Criticism is one of the most perfectly versified pieces in the English language, and that it has, roughly speaking, no emotional effect. The same may be said of The Rape of the Loc\. This leads us at once to suspect that the theory is inadequate. Now, going on to those narrative poems in The Canterbury Tales, the versification of which has aroused the praise of critic after critic, poetry-lover after poetry-lover, ever since the re-discovery of Chaucer, we realize that perfection of versification is also a frequent characteristic of the intellectualist poems. Up to a certain point in my researches, the net result of this prolonged effort to find an essential characteristic which was common to the spellweaving poems but which did not appear in any considerable number of the other group was this: nothing seemed very satisfactory; but the characteristic of extremely good versification might be a partial cause of the spellweaving effect. This alone was not enough to account for the phenomena observed, but if an

AN ILLU M IN ATIN G H YP O TH ESIS

15

adequate explanation should be fou n d this element wou ld probably constitute part of it. Fu rt h er ligh t subsequently cam e fr om a study of Poe. It happened that I carried on this prelim in ary clearin g of the grou n d, wh ich I h ave been able to review in a fe w paragraph s, over a period of several years, d u rin g wh ich I had occasion to concentrate m y attention from time to time on Poe's poetry, wh ich is sin gularly spellweavin g, and on his theories of poetry. Poe's am ateurish interest in hypnotism (m esm erism ) was keen en ough to m ake me sometimes won d er just h ow he wou ld restate his theories of poetry were he livin g today possessed of all the accurate in form ation about hypnotism wh ich science has put at our disposal. W ou ld h e not find a parallel or even an identity between his own dream ily spellweavin g sort of poetry and the art of the hypnotist ? W ou ld not Poe, were he livin g today, recognize that the "rh yt h m ical creation of beaut y" by wh ich the poet approaches "supern al beaut y" is sometimes, in reality, the skillfu l com bination of rh yt h m s and other psychological stim uli wh ich produce the state of light trance so oft en experienced by the patient in the hypnotic clinic and by the religious mystic in his solitary ch am ber? Such questions, un an swered, d rew me eventually into considerin g the possible soundness of such a theory, regardless of wh et h er Poe wou ld have held it or not. Perh aps these spellweavin g poem s are actually and

literally hypnotic. Fr o m such considerations as I have tried to indicate in this chapter I was n aturally led to fo r m a theory, or a work-

16

H YP N O T I C P O ET RY

in g h ypoth esis, wh ich m ay be stated first con servat ively an d then m ore vigorou sly. Con servat ively : If poetry-lovers in gen eral an d critics in part icu lar wo u ld pay m ore attention to the possible con n ection bet ween poet ry an d h ypn ot ism , we m igh t en joy som e of our poet ry m ore an d h ave soun der crit icism of it. More vigor ou sly: Cert ain poem s gain their em ot ion al appeal by p u t t in g th e listeners in t o a h ypn oid al state or som e state of t ran ce akin to th e h ypn oid al, an d since the h arm on iou s pat t ern of soun d contributes great ly t oward p rod u cin g this state, it follows, I. Th a t an opin ion fr o m a strictly silent reader 1 on the value of such poem s can n ot be given serious con sid erat ion ; II. Th at wh at ever crit icism such poem s are subjected to sh ould be radically d ifferen t fr o m that to wh ich intellectualist poem s are su bject ed ; an d III. Th a t an y com preh en sive theory of poetics wh ich fails to t ake in t o accoun t the foregoin g con sideration s sh ould be m od ified accordin gly. Such a theory wou ld of course am p ly exp lain the bafflin g t ech n ique of the sp ellweavin g p oem s—if it sh ould prove to be soun d. It wou ld sh ow that th e listen ers' p o wer fu l em ot ion al response to the p oem is n ot a n orm al result of in tellectual st im uli, but rat h er is an u n u su al psych ological state in duced by a very special t ech n iqu e. If this suggestion contributes an yt h in g t oward s t h e solution of the p u zzle, it solves it com plet ely. Th e an swer wou ld be: n ot beau t ifu l r h yt h m alon e, but a certain kin d of r h yt h m 1

F o r a fu l l e r s t a t e m e n t of w h a t is m e a n t b y a "s t r i c t l y sile n t r e a d e r , " see p a g e s 13 1 f i .

AN I LLU M I N AT I N G H YP O T H ESI S

17

com bin ed wit h ot h er st im u li to pu t t h e listeners in t o a ligh t state of t ran ce—a wa k in g t ran ce in wh ich aesthetic en joym en t is h eigh t en ed un t il it m ay even reach ecstasy. Sh ou ld such a t h eory be establish ed, n o m atter wit h h o w m an y reservat ion s, its crit ical im plicat ion s wou ld be far-reach in g. It wo u ld give fr esh em ph asis to the im port an ce of read in g alou d the poem s ad m it t ed ly h ypn ot ic. It wo u ld establish the fu t ilit y of dissect in g such poem s fo r t h e applicat ion of ord in ary crit ical tests of excellen ce; an d con versely it wo u ld en able us to ap p ly the usual critical tests t o n on -h ypn ot ic poem s wit h m ore con fid en ce. It wo u ld en able us—even requ ire us—to m ake of certain part s of the poetic field a psych ological survey not yet att em pt ed . It wou ld give us a n ew van t age grou n d fr o m wh ich to review t h e h ist orical d evelopm en t an d declin e of the free-verse m ovem en t . It wo u ld u n d ou bt ed ly t h row som e n ew rays of ligh t on the perplexed m atter of "poet ic in sp irat ion ." Ab o ve all, its ju d iciou s applicat ion to poem s wh ich are n eit h er pu rely h ypn ot ic n or pu rely in tellectualist , bu t m ixed , wou ld h elp solve problem s relat in g to in d ivid u al poem s wh er e crit ical opin ion is n ow in sad disagreem en t . It wou ld n ot be a pan acea fo r all the ills fr o m wh ich crit icism of poet ry n o w su ffers, but it wou ld provid e an excellen t psych ological classificat ion of poem s, on t h e basis of wh ich sou n d er crit icism wou ld be in evit able. T h e fact that m ost st an dard treatises on poet ry do not set for t h this t h eory, or even h azar d it as a con ject ure, is an objection m ore apparen t t h an real. If the wo r ld has been interested in poet ic th eory fo r well over t wo th ou-

18

HYPNOTIC POETRY

sand years, it may seem inherently improbable that a specific theory not mentioned in famous treatments of the subject should have any importance. But such is not the case. First, such a theory lies outside the scope of those studies which concern the general principles of what all poems have in common, for even in the most unguarded moment no one will suppose that all poems, or even all good poems, have a trance-inducing effect. Second, such a theory could not have been formulated until recently, for hypnosis and analogous states of trance have been understood for only a few decades. Indeed in England and America the prejudice against the use of hypnotism has been so strong that even now there is little interest in it outside the ranks of scientists. Third, any theory emphasizing the parallel or identity between poetry and hypnotic stimulus could not be formulated except by a person who happened to be familiar with one all-important technical point; namely, the existence of a state of trance sometimes called hypnoidal, a state clearly demonstrable as abnormal yet so light that the subject is unaware of his temporary partial hypnosis. For these three reasons, then, the tacit omission of a discussion of hypnotism and trance from most books on poetic theory is not a valid objection to the theory's being sound, or probably sound. The fact that the Aurora Borealis was not explained as an electrical phenomenon by early scientists who knew nothing about electricity, is not a valid argument against the soundness of the electrical explanation!

AN ILLUMINATIN G H YPO TH ESIS

19

Du rin g the past few years, however, the view that a poem may put the listeners into an actual state of trance has been hinted at and openly stated by enough writers to lead me to think it must be accepted at least as a workin g hypothesis for criticism. Am on g volumes of pertinent interest are Mr. I. A. Richards' Principles of Literary Criticism , Mr. Max Eastman's Enjoym ent of Poetry, and Miss Jun e Down ey's Creative Im agination. I shall speak briefly of these three works partly because two of them con firm the hypothesis wh ich I had put into writ in g before I read them, and partly because I do not wish to claim any particular originality for an idea which has already been set fort h in print by others. Mr. Richards con firm s, or rather anticipates, the exact position which I am setting fort h . On pages 143-144 of his Principles of Literary Criticism he includes in his chapter on Rhythm and Metre t wo paragraphs about the hypnotic effect of rhythm , wh ich are significant because they include this statement: ". . . that a certain handlin g of metre should produce in a slight degree a hypnoidal state is not surprising." It is perhaps regrettable that Mr. Richards dismisses the matter so briefly. It would appear that a fu ller realization of the significance of his own words m ight have led to a more exact statement of his m ean in g, which must, I thin k, have been followed by a detailed application of the theory to some of the critical problems with which he is concerned. But the crucial thin g in Mr. Rich ards' testimony is that he

20

H YP N O TIC PO ETRY

assumes as a matter of course, as som ething n eedin g no special proof, the absolute soundness of the only debatable point in the general position I am u ph old in g. Mr . Eastm an 's Enjoym ent of Poetry is rich wit h hints of the sign ifican ce of a poetic technique wh ich he discusses and illustrates by comparison wit h h ypn otism . In the chapter on W ine and Sleep and Poetry he shows himself to have a wide backgroun d of poetic experience and to h ave reflected on its psychological m ean in g. H e evinces, nevertheless, a certain tim idity about m akin g a direct application of psychological principles. H e does not m ake it clear that some rhythm s do, and others perhaps do not, tend to prom ote an actual state of trance. In this state of doubt or con fusion he hopes for an eventual explanation "by a m ature science" and leaves the matter there. But science is already mature enough to have established in the psychotherapeutic clinics of Europe the fact that the curative effects of post-hypnotic suggestion are felt by patients wh o do not realize they have been h ypn otized. An d by the same token poetic theory ough t to be mature enough to recognize that there are at least a few poems wh ich d o produce, under favorable conditions, an actual state of trance in the listeners. Th e fullest statement I have yet encountered of the hypnotic effect of poetry, and of art in gen eral, is in Ch apter XXVI I I of Miss Down ey's Creative Im agination. H ere we find an illum in at in g discussion of the wh ole subject fr om a psychological standpoint, a discussion wh ich con firm s, and m ore than con firm s, m y opinion that certain poems

AN ILLU MINATING HYPOTHESIS

21

do actually put the listeners into a light state of trance. Th at Miss Down ey's views did not arouse more discussion wh en they were set fort h previously in The Bookm an for Febru ary, 1919, is probably due to t wo causes. First , she does not sufficiently em phasize the fact that hypnotic poems are in a class by themselves, that they em ploy a technique of their own . Second, her essay may be interpreted as t ryin g to prove too much ; it gives the impression that all art tends to m ake frequen t use of hypnotic technique—a thesis so startling that the casual reader n aturally discounts her words by assum ing that she uses the word hypnotic in a loose, inexact sense. Alt h ou gh her position m ay be sound, her claims are apt to be dismissed as m erely specious, or else accepted wit h such mental reservations as m ake them of little significance. Th ese and other less important references to the entran cin g effects of poetry, although tendin g to con firm the opinion I had independently form ed , have not seemed very satisfactory. (Parenthetically I m ay rem ark that we h ave had some excellent studies of the entranced m ood of the poet h im self; but to m y m in d we should find little interest in the "in spired tran ce" of the poet unless he had the power to put his readers into som ething of a tran ce.) Th is unsatisfactory treatment of the theory is natural in view of the cleavage, wh ich until recently has been pretty general, between psychologists on the one hand and literary critics on the other. Rou gh ly speakin g, we m ay say that the literary critics have not been accurately en ough in form ed on the psychological technicalities involved to

22

H YP N O TIC P O ETRY

speak wit h assurance, wh ile the professional psychologists have not seen that the t h eory, if accepted, has far-reach in g im plications in the field of literary criticism . Even wh ere a specific im plication is m ade that poetry may induce a state of trance, false in feren ces m ay be d rawn fr om the discussion. O n e m igh t in fer, for instance, that good versification alone is sufficient to produce the hypnotic effect —to m y m in d a patent error. O r one m igh t in fer that any good poem is supposed to be capable of producin g the alleged effect . O r one m igh t in fer that the hypnotic effect is of psychological rather than literary interest. As I see the m atter n ow, it has taken such defin ite shape in my m in d that I should like to state the wh ole hypothesis, or unproved theory, fu lly en ough to avoid being misunderstood and to suggest that we cannot longer shut our eyes to its literary im portan ce. ι. Certain poems (relat ively fe w) can be counted on to produce an actual state of trance in the listeners wh en the poems are read aloud un der favorable conditions. 2. Th ese poems h ave in com m on a technique wh ich uses physical an d psychical stim uli (discussed at length in Chapter I V) sim ilar to, and often identical wit h , the stimuli used by hypnotists to put the subject into the hypn oidal state. O n e can h ardly em phasize enough that m etrically arran ged words alone, without the support of other stim uli, are not likely to induce a state of trance. 3. T o produce the trance effect , the poem should be read aloud wit h out in terruption un der conditions like those in the h ypn otic laborat ory; i. e., the listeners should be com-

A N I LLU M I N AT I N G H YP O T H ESI S

23

fort ab le, the r oom qu iet , an d the read er sh ou ld h ave ( in ad d it ion t o wh at on e u su ally expects of a r ead er ) the d ign it y of b ear in g n ecessary to in spire respect an d atten tion . 4. Th ese poem s stan d at the opposit e p ole fr o m cert ain in t ellect ualist poem s, an d the t wo ext rem e types m ay well be st udied in con t rast. 5. H yp n ot ic an d in t ellect ualist poem s respect ively dem an d rad ically d iffer en t m et h od s of t reat m en t by read er, list en er, an d crit ic. 6. An y com pet en t critic of poet ry sh ou ld h ave as a part of his eq u ip m en t t h e abilit y to recogn ize a h ypn ot ic p oem wh en h e sees it, t o experien ce its fu ll valu e h im self, to read it alou d wit h som et h in g of a t ran ce-p rod u cin g effect , an d to criticise it fr o m an appropriat e p sych ological stan dpoin t . 7. As an in d irect result of this abilit y, wh e n the crit ic en coun t ers an d recogn izes a p u rely in t ellect ualist p oem , he will be able t o ap p ly ap p rop riat e crit ical m et h od s wit h increased con fid en ce. 8. H a vin g gon e thus fa r , we sh all be better able to en joy, read , an d crit icize those "m i xe d " or "sem ih yp n ot ic" poem s wh ich fo r m a great part of the bod y of sign ifican t En glish poet ry. 9. In so fa r as w e are in t erest ed in th eories of poet ry an d in t h eorizin g about p oem s, we sh all seld om find a case wh er e ou r views are n ot at least colored by the in t elligen t applicat ion of som e of t h e p reced in g p rin cip les.

III

HYPNOTISM AND OTHER TRANCES

B

proceeding to argue whether the poems I have called "spellweaving" are actually capable of producing a light state of trance in the listeners, it is necessary to review briefly certain well-established facts about hypnosis and other somewhat similar states of trance. I shall begin with hypnosis, which has been made the subject of extended investigation under laboratory conditions, and then consider certain other analogous trances. In making this review I shall omit all controversial matters (especially the moot point as to whether hypnotic or psychoanalytical treatment is better for certain nervous disorders), holding fast to the facts on which psychologists are in general agreement. EFORE

HYPNOTISM

The facts about hypnotism which might have some bearing on the study of poetry may be treated under four headings: the conditions for producing hypnosis, the methods of producing it, the difference between heavy and light hypnosis, and the nature of post-hypnotic suggestion. ι. The conditions for producing hypnosis are few and simple: The subject or patient must be in a comfortable posture (usually sitting) ; he must not oppose his will to that 24

H YP N O TISM AN D O T H ER T RAN C ES

25

of the h ypn ot ist ; he m ust m ake som e effor t to fix h is attention as directed an d sh ould subm it to such in fluen ces or stim uli as the hypn otist m ay exert . W h e n the h ypn otist is some one in wh o m the subject has im plicit con fid en ce, the problem of prod u cin g h ypn osis is n at u rally sim p lified . 2. The m ethod of inducing hypnosis is to em ploy certain ph ysical an d psych ical st im uli wh ich experien ce has sh own to be effect ive. Alt h ou gh som e doctors facilit at e the process by a prelim in ary use of d ru gs, I shall disregard this addition al stim ulus because it is rarely used and it introduces an unnecessary elem en t of con fu sion in our study. a. The physical st im uli used are such as to fix the attention wh ile ret ardin g m en t al act ivit y. Rh yt h m ic sounds so regu lar as to be m on oton ous are oft en u sed ; am on g the com m on est are the beat of a m et ron om e at h alf-secon d intervals and the t ickin g of a clock or wat ch ; even the regu lar clickin g of the h ypn otist's fingernails h as proved satisfact ory. Rh yt h m ic "passes" are also used, som etim es wit h out contact, in wh ich case t h eir effect is visual. A lu m in ou s object is h eld in such a position as to cause the subject fat igu e fr o m eye-strain ; in the m ore elaborately equ ipped laboratories a rot at in g m irror is fixated by the patien t so that the fat igu e fr o m eye-strain is com bin ed wit h a rh yt h m ic sensation. O ft en the "p asses" of the h ypn otist are m ad e in contact wit h the subject's foreh ead or body so that another elem ent of sen sin g the soot h in g effect of rh yt h m ic m on oton y is in t roduced. Th er e are, of course, other ph ysical stim uli continuous rat h er t h an rh yt h m ic, but these are the com m on est. Th ey fix the patien t's h earin g, sigh t , an d

26

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P O ETR Y

feelin g (an y or all) on a sensation physically com pellin g but m en tally of n o interest to h im . b. The psychical stim uli usually take the form of a verbal "su ggest ion "—words chosen to induce the subject to fall in to a heavy (or ligh t ) h ypn otic sleep. In the act of in ducin g hypnosis the hypnotist usually "suggest s," aft er a fe w minutes of physical stim ulus of the sort already described, that the subject's eyelids are growin g h eavy, that he cannot open them , and finally that he is sleeping. c. The com bined physical and psychical stim ulus is easily achieved wh en the hypnotist puts this "suggest ion " ( b ) into a sim ple phrase wh ich he repeats wit h the soothing rh yt h m ic m on oton y characteristic of a. In recent years many hypnotists have become so expert that in all but the most difficult cases they do not avail themselves of any physical stimulus except that of the operator's own voice, calm , d ign ified, reassurin g, repeating a "suggest ion ." Th is does not m ean, of course, that physical stim ulus is fut ile. It m eans that the only one needed is the monotonous rh yt h m of sound, wh ich is supplem ented by various psychical influences of m an n er an d personality givin g force to the words of the "su ggest ion ." Alt h ou gh these matters are too well kn own to need extended docum entation , it m ay be well to include here a brief statement fr o m pages 94 and 95 of W illiam Brown 's standard treatise on Suggestion and Mental Analysis:1 "Ge n e ra l l y s p e ak i n g, th e m o n o t o n o u s stim ulatio n of sense o rg an s te n ds to p ro d u ce h yp n o s i s —t o t h ro w th e patie n t in to a 1

Secon d Edit ion . N e w Yo r k : George H . Doran Co., 19 22.

HYPNOTISM AND OTHER TRANCES

27

state that resembles sleep. T h e patient lies on a couch and fixates, say, an ophthalmoscope mirror or a faceted diamond held about ten inches from the eyes and slightly above the normal plane of vision, so that to fixate it he must turn his eyes upwards and inwards to the bright object. After a few minutes' fixation he will, if he is a satisfactory subject, experience more and more difficulty in keeping his eyes open, and will pass into the hypnotic state. Suggestions may be given to him that he will get drowsy and that he is going to sleep, with the result that he falls into an artificial sleep, but continues to hear the words of the operator, and later may lose consciousness of everything else. This is a deep stage: he is apparently asleep to everything except the physician's words. Lighter stages can be produced, where he is conscious of wh.it other people say or conscious of voices around him, but where, nevertheless, his mind is concentrated upon the physician's words. H e has no great power to move his attention from one thing to another. It is fixed upon the words of the physician. "The bright object may be replaced by a monotonous sound. A metronome beating at two a second is very useful. T h e patient lies listening to the beat of the metronome, and gradually falls into a state of dissociation. Another means of producing sleepiness is the use of rhythmical passes with or without contact. W e may smooth the forehead at a definite slow rate, or again we may make passes down the subject's body without touching the body at all." T h e second paragraph in the quotation above is the pertinent one in tracing the parallel between poetry and hypnotism. It shows that f o r the physical stimulus rhythmic monotony of sound is enough. A s I indicate in more detail in the next chapter, the beats of the metronome at half-second intervals give almost the exact time of the oc-

28

H YPN O TIC PO ETRY

currence of the heavily stressed syllables in readin g En glish poetry aloud. 3. Heavy and light hypnosis must be clearly distinguished. In the heavier states the subject is in a m an ifestly abn orm al con dition ; he is apparently unconscious of every one in the room save the hypnotist, wit h wh om he is completely en rapport. Laboratory experiments testing the degree to wh ich the subject is compelled by the conditions of hypnosis to be obedient to the com m ands of the operator, have n ow been carried on systematically, and the results have been recorded, for m any years. Th e most clearly defin ed lim it to the subject's slavish obedience lies in his u n iform refusal to perform any act wh ich would be m orally revolt in g to h im wh en in a norm al state of consciousness. Volum es h ave been written on the startling and often am usin g way in wh ich a deeply hypnotized person will accept the com m an ds or "suggestion s" of the hypnotist— calm ly lickin g wit h his tongue a fr og under the suggested delusion that it is a snowball, chasing nonexistent butterflies about the room , etc. Th e facts are matters of com m on kn owled ge. In the hypnoidal or light state of trance, the subject's behavior is practically n orm al. H e is aware of the presence of others in the room ; he obeys the suggestions of the hypnotist (if at all) m ore reason ably; he is, h owever, subject to post-hypnotic suggestion. O ft en wh en the trance is so ligh t that the subject believes himself to be perfectly n orm al, the existence of the hypnoidal condition is capable of bein g established by convincing proof. Hypn otists wh o

H YPNO TISM AN D O TH ER TRAN CES

29

have cured numerous patients of headaches and insomnia report that the patient, though originally expecting to be hypnotized, says later, "Bu t Doctor, you didn't hypnotize m e!" 4. Post-hypnotic suggestion is usually a command or im pulse for the subject to do a specific thing, or behave in a specific manner, aft er he has emerged from his hypnotic sleep. An d here again , both in the clinics and the psychological laboratories, the results of many experiments have been carefully recorded. Th us the subject, wakin g from his hypnotic sleep and acting on a previous post-hypnotic sugg e s t i o n , will put in an unnecessary telephone call, w i l l m ove a book fr om a table to a shelf, will call some one in the room "blockh ead," or will find himself unable to pronounce his own name—always in blind obedience to the post-hypnotic suggestion. Th ere is, of course, a wide difference in the extent to which differen t subjects can be thus influenced and in the punctuality of their response. Th u s, a very good subject, h avin g been commanded to put in an unnecessary telephone call exactly one hour after he wakes from his hypnotic sleep, will carry out the suggestion almost to the minute, wh ile another will miss it by as much as fifteen minutes. Some subjects, though easily hypnotized, have a very considerable resistance to these post-hypnotic suggestions. A typical and interesting case of a person wh o could not entirely overcome the suggestion but was able to evade the issue successfully is cited on pages 171- 172 of Albert Moll's Hypnotism (Lon don edition of 19 13) : A

3o

HYPNOTIC POETRY

woman was given the post-hypnotic suggestion that she would mispronounce the word "father" as "feether"; when she was awakened and asked about her parents, she persistently avoided the word "father," using instead the cumbersome phrase "the husband of my mother." Often, however, the response to post-hypnotic suggestion is very strong: one patient is cured of the fear of thunderstorms, and the cure still holds good after the lapse of twenty-five years. Others are helped to cure themselves of the drug habit or of alcoholism. Many fascinating cases are cited in standard works on the subject of psychotherapy. In tracing the parallel between post-hypnotic suggestion and the influence of spellweaving poems, we must bear in mind that the results of post-hypnotic suggestion on subsequent conduct may be obtained without the patient's knowing he has been hypnotized. OTHER TRANCES

Although the number of people who are willing to submit to hypnotism is doubtless very much smaller than the number of those who experience trances of other sorts, still the facts about these other trances are not often recorded satisfactorily. Such trances do not occur under laboratory conditions, the subject is often alone, and the facts cannot often be observed with scientific accuracy. Let me cite at intimate second hand a peculiarly dramatic case where the victim of a supposed trance could not possibly give testimony for the simple reason that he was dead. A

HYPNOTISM AN D OTHER TRAN CES

31

frien d of the writer once stood at the very bow of a steamer, wat ch in g the ceaseless rhythm ical procession of waves breakin g at the cutwater. Th e vessel was an oil tanker, on wh ich there were few regulations for passengers because passengers were seldom carried. As the ship surged on, minute after m inute, into the moderate head sea, my frien d began to feel certain strange symptoms that interested h im , as they were not in any way like those of sea-sickness. Just then the mate, standing on the bridge, raised his m egaphone and called h im back, explain in g later: "W e had a m an once on this line wh o did just what you were doin g, watch in g the waves like that at the bow, and after a wh ile he pitched forward , overboard, and was lost. Sort of hypnotized, people think. An yway, we don't allow it n ow." Th e particular form of trance with wh ich we are concerned in this study of poetry is one in which the emotional sensitiveness of the subject grows more and more intense, sometimes reaching the pitch of ecstasy, as his consciousness is concentrated on some one phase of life. Th is state is similar to, but not identical wit h , a state of hypnosis. Th e essential differen ce is that in hypnosis the subject is put into a hypnotic state by one specific person, the operator, and becomes en rapport with him , wh ile in emotional and ecstatic trances of this sort the stimuli do not come necessarily from one person ; the psychical stimuli may come from his own m in d, and the physical stimuli m ay be either of his own m akin g or m ay be due to an external but impersonal force. Th u s the H in d oo Yogi is in-

32

HYPNOTIC POETRY

structed that in order to experience the exaltation of religious vision or trance, he should sit motionless, squint at the end of his own nose, try to control his breathing, and contemplate the Deity. Here the usual stimuli of hypnotism are duplicated: fatigue from eye-strain, attention fixed on the rhythmically monotonous sound and feeling of his regular breathing, and concentration without great mental activity invited by "contemplating the Deity," but the phenomenon of rapport is lacking. In the supposed trance cited in the preceding paragraph the physical stimuli were probably the rhythmic monotony of the procession of waves and the visual fatigue of watching them in motion, as the subject's position at the very bow of the vessel would require a continual change of focus; the psychical stimuli are of course unknown. Many of the recent books on psychology contain analytical studies of the various moods of trance and ecstasy, and evidence has been gathered in sufficient quantity and with enough scientific exactness to allow certain general conclusions to be drawn. For instance, in Mr. James H. Leuba's Psychology of Religious Mysticism is to be found an extended study of numerous cases of trance, which, beginning from simple and comprehensible causes, develop into moods of religious fervor and spiritual exaltation. But because such evidence is now available in various psychological treatises and is obviously too long to include here, it may suffice to give a brief summary. In most particulars the general conditions for the production of emotional trance are similar to those for the

HYPNOTISM AND OTHER TRANCES

33

prod u ct ion of h ypn osis. Perh aps these th ree statements will sum u p the m ost im port an t fact s: ( 1) W h at ever stimu li tend to fix the atten tion an d at the sam e t im e retard m en t al act ivit y, are favorab le to p rod u cin g a condition of t ran ce in wh ich the subject's em ot ion al susceptibility is so in t en sified that he m ay experien ce a feelin g of exaltation an d ecstasy. ( 2) If in this state of em ot ion al responsiveness the m in d of the subject gets a sim ple idea (a sim ple idea rat h er th an a com p lex on e that m igh t cause intense m en t al activity an d break the sp ell), he accepts the idea an d clin gs to it m ore com plet ely an d wit h m ore em otional fervor than he wou ld in an ord in ary state of consciousness. ( 3) Sim ilarly, any im pu lse to act that is im plan ted d u r in g a state of em ot ion al in ten sity such as we are considerin g will becom e a d om in at in g m ot ive in the subject's fu t u re con duct, fa r surpassin g in its in fluen ce any ordin ary im pu lse not so im plan t ed or accom pan ied .

GRO UP H YPNO SIS It is not an u n com m on t h in g n owad ays fo r the instructor of a class in abn orm al p sych ology to put m ost, or all, of the m em bers of the class sim u lt an eou sly in t o a state of "wa k in g h ypn osis," an d later to h ypn ot ize m ore deeply those wh o prove to be the best subjects. Th e degree of success wit h wh ich this experim en t has been perform ed m ay be in ferred fr o m the fo llo win g statem ent of Mr . W esley W ells, wh ich I excerpt fr o m h is com preh en sive article on "W a k in g H yp n o sis" in The Journal of Abnor-

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m al Psychology and Social Psychology for 1924, pages 399-400: "W a k i n g h yp n osis m a y be u sed eit h er in gr o u p or in in d ivid u al exp er im en t s . . . I recen t ly ob t ain ed resu lt s wit h 100 p er cen t , of a gr o u p of 12, a n d a fe w m o n t h s a go I ob t ain ed resu lt s wit h 24 of a gr o u p of 28."

Th e usual practice in simultaneously h ypn otizin g several people follows closely the advanced practice used with individuals. Suggestion of a simple sort is made by means of a rhythm ic phrase, and the phrase is repeated with monotonous iteration until many of those wh o have volunteered as subjects finally succumb to the combined physical and psychical stimulus. (Onlookers report the process to be exceedingly tiresome.) Elaborate psychical preparation is m ade: each volunteer is required to sign a statement of his entire willingness to be hypnotized—ostensibly to give some sort of legal protection to the instructor, but really to put the subject into a mood of "consent." A fu ll explanation is made of the results to be expected, and every effort is m ade to inspire the subjects with confidence. Am on g the reiterated phrases are such simple rhythm ic suggestions as "Yo u ' are sleep'in g, sleep'in g, sleep'in g," and "Yo u ' are fall'in g for'ward , for 'war d ." Up to the present time, h owever, the most striking laboratory experiments in group hypnosis are as nothing compared to the trance phenomena exhibited in various religious revivals by a great num ber of people at the same time. In such a detailed study as Miss Catharin e Cleve-

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35

land's Great Revival in the W est / 797-/ 805 are recorded, wit h adequate documentary evidence, group experiences wit h trance phenomena of am azin g violence. As Miss Clevelan d points out (page 118 ) , hypnotic suggestion was oft en partly responsible for the abnorm al ecstasy and fren zy wh ich hundreds of people experienced simultaneously. As the topic is too extensive for the limits of this survey, I may refer the reader to another excellent book, Mr. Frederick Davenport's Prim itive Traits in Religious Revivals. Am p le evidence is available to prove that the stimuli needed to induce a state of ecstatic trance are often as effective on a large number of people, or the m ajority of them , as on an in dividual. A NO TE ON AUTOHYPNOSIS FROM SILENT READING Alt h ou gh I do not personally advocate the view that a hypnotic poem read silently can produce any recognizable state of trance in the reader, several of m y frien ds, wh o have discussed the matter wit h m e, insist that it can. Silent reading is of t wo distinct sorts, "strictly silent" and "silent but auditin g," as I show in detail on page 132; and it may be that by a "silent yet au d it in g" readin g of a spellweavin g poem one can sometimes produce a light state of trance. An y one interested in this possibility cannot do better than compare his own experiences with the gen erally established facts about self-induced states of trance as set fort h in Ch arles Baudouin's Suggestion and Autosuggestion, from wh ich I quote briefly on pages 10 0 -10 1.

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My own objections to the idea that a state of trance may be induced by the silent reading of a poem are both practical and theoretical. In practice I cannot say that I myself have felt from my silent reading anything like the "spell" which I have experienced when the same poem was read aloud. Perhaps I have done so, but I am not sure; nor do I know with how much scientific exactness my friends speak when they report such experiences. In theory there are certain obvious objections. First, I suspect that the sheer effort of consecutive reading is not conducive to a hypnotic state. Second, the auditory stimulus of monotonous rhythmic sound must be much weaker when the words of the poem are only "heard to oneself." Third, the briefest looking up from the page, no matter for what cause, automatically interrupts the stimulus, or some of the stimuli, supposed to be inducing a state of trance. The combined force of these objections is enough to make me skeptical. On the other hand, one of the friends who profess to have had trance effects from the silent reading of poetry admits his inability to read aloud to his own satisfaction, but insists that his "silent but auditing" reading gives him the full value of every syllable. There may, then, be a class of readers whose enjoyment of these poems, even when not read aloud, is heightened by a state of abnormal suggestibility and free play of emotion—readers whose aesthetic enjoyment is due to their being in an actual state of trance. My skepticism being what it is, I feel it unnecessary to extend this chapter by a statement of the generally accepted

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37

views of aut oh ypn osis. I sh all, h owever, revert to the topic in the ch apt er on Poetic In spiration . SUMMARY In the last an alysis hypn osis an d kin d red states of t ran ce can n ot be better d efin ed than as unusual states of consciousness in which the m ost striding characteristic is the subject's increased susceptibility to suggestion. St im u li wh ich prom ot e such states are various, but a peculiarly effect ive st im ulus consists of words which fix the subject's attention by their rhythm ic sound and m ake a sim ple suggestion on which the subject concentrates without any great m ental activity. Lat er the subject's m en t al activity m ay be considerable an d his em ot ion al reaction in certain trances m ay even reach actual ecstasy, but his consciousness is still surroun ded by a wall wh ich excludes fr o m his m in d all but the sin gle phase of existence on wh ich it has becom e fixed.

IV EVIDENCE

A

s soon as I began to study the matter carefully, I was struck by the n um ber of particulars in wh ich the reading aloud of a spellweaving poem puts into action various stim uli, both physical and psychical, parallel to those commonly used to induce a light state of hypnosis, a state called "h yp n oid al" by m any scientists and one of "wakin g h ypn osis" by others. An d the fascin atin g part of the study proved to be that the more I extended it, the m ore I was convinced that the parallelism is an actual identity. In this chapter, then, I shall try to show that certain poems have a peculiar trance-inducing technique; that they owe their mysterious "spell" to a m agic n o more incomprehensible than that of h ypn otism ; that by intensifyin g the listeners' suggestibility they permit experiences wh ere—for better or for worse—the poet holds sway over the listeners' conscious and subconscious m inds. I shall not try to show that the deligh t fu l ecstasy experienced is always profitable, nor that a poem of this sort involves a higher for m of art than does an intellectualist poem. I shall, however, try to m ake clear that there is a technique of poetry wh ich is literally hypnotic or trance-inducing, and that its recognition is essential both to those wh o love truth and to those wh o have any genuine interest in poetry. Th u s far I have u n iform ly spoken of these poems as spellweaving. In a loose, popular sense they m ay be called 38

EVIDENCE

39

hypnotic without any argument. By the end of this chapter I hope to have convinced the reader that they are actually and technically hypnotic.

Meanwhile I trust I shall

not be accused of begging the question if I avoid the constant use of the term spellweaving

in what must neces-

sarily be a long discussion and call them for convenience by the easy term hypnotic

poems.

Such evidence as I have is strong enough, I hope, to establish the probable soundness of the theory I have advanced. Although the theory is such that it cannot be either proved, or disproved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, nevertheless I think evidence enough can be marshalled to make it seem both plausible and probable—in fact to put the burden of proof on any one w h o may not accept it as a working hypothesis for criticism. T h e evidence may be presented in three parts—that from a study of a group of hypnotic poems, that from a more intensive analysis of Gray's Elegy, and that from general considerations of repetition and refrain. HYPNOTIC POEMS IN GENERAL ι. O n examining a group of hypnotic poems such as those listed in the first chapter, w e find the most pronounced characteristic which they have in common is, as I have already suggested, an unusually perfect pattern of sound; and on further analysis we find that this pattern of sound tends to be soothing. Not all marvelous versification produces a soothing effect, but it will be hard to find a single hypnotic poem which is either rugged in

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P O ETRY

its versification or extrem ely spirited. Th e brillian t rhythm ic excellence of "I gallo pe d , D i rk gallo pe d , w e gallo p e d all t h re e "

is not characteristic of these poem s, but rather the m ore soothing effect of "Bre a k , bre ak, bre ak, O n th y co ld gre y sto ne s, O se a! An d I w o u l d that m y t o n gu e co u ld utte r Th e th o u gh ts that arise in m e . "

As one considers the rate of readin g poetry aloud (m y own rate is about t wen t y-five lines of iam bic pentam eter a minut e) and perform s a little sim ple arith m etic, it appears that the spacin g of the heavily accented syllables is so near to the half-second interval at wh ich the m etronom e is set by Dr . W illiam Brown to induce hypnosis (page 27) that the parallel is almost too exact to be a m ere coincidence. As a matter of fact the calculation based on my own readin g shows that in iam bic and trochaic rh yt h m s the time is just a shade un der half a second for the heavy syllabic beats, and in anapaestic an d dactylic rhythm s just a shade over (t welve t wen t y-fift h s of a second and fou r tenths of a second respectively). If n ow we com bine this half-second tim e interval wit h the regularit y of rh yt h m so obvious in the spellweavin g poems un der consideration —the open in g lines of Kubla Khan, for instance—we have the parallel almost perfect to the stim ulus of rh yt h m used by the hypnotist.

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41

In The Rationale of Verse Poe laid d own the principle that good poets only at rare intervals depart m uch from a standard pattern of rh yt h m , and m ake their departures chiefly "at such points of their subject as seem in accord with the startling character of the variat ion ." In general this is true of Poe's best work and of most of the hypnotic poems I have exam in ed, and as the early portions of such hypnotic poem s skillfu lly avoid wh at ever is "st art lin g," they preserve a m arked regularity of rh yt h m . But a point wh ich Poe did not m ake in his th eorizin g (t h ough he habitually exem plified it in his own h ypn otic poem s) is that the most effect ive way to fix the listener's attention on rh yt h m is by orn am en t in g and elaboratin g the pattern with rim e—two-syllable rim e if convenient,—with consonantal return, and wit h as regular a pattern of rising and fallin g pitch as the circum stances perm it. Th u s wh ere the hypnotist can say to his subject, "Yo u m ust concentrate your attention on the beats of this m et ron om e," the poet may produce a parallel effect by m akin g his sound pattern so elaborate in its regularity that a listener wit h a sense of rh yth m cannot avoid givin g it his fu ll attention. (Th ere is all the d ifferen ce in the world between a pattern of sound that is irregular an d one that is elaborate in its regularit y.) O n e cannot find a m uch m ore regular series of iambs than in the open in g lines of such a hypnotic poem as Kubla Khan; but as Stevenson pointed out in his Essays in The Art of W riting, these very lines are ornamented with consonantal harm on ies of a most pleasin g sort. Although the listener m ay h ave n o tim e to enumerate the

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details of the recurring pattern, all the details combine to m ake it com pelling. Hypnotic poem s in general give us heavy stresses falling regularly at half-second intervals, and so ornam ented that the rhythm ically inclined listener has his attention drawn to the sound rather than the sense. 2. An other point in wh ich practically all of these poems show an interesting parallel to hypnotism is their freedom from any abrupt changes wh ich would be likely to break the spell, and especially freedom from such ideas as compel mental alertness. Lookin g over the group of hypnotic poems, one notes the absence of cleverness such as one finds in Swift and Pope—I am th in kin g especially of Swift 's own verses On the Death of Doctor Swift and Pope's Rape of the hoc\ . One notes also the absence of paradox which is so stim ulating in poems like Brown in g's Glove and The Statue and the Bust. Th is freedom from abruptness and fr om everythin g that m ight cause intense mental alertness would naturally allow the listener, and indeed invite h im , to slip gradually into that attentive but listless mental state wh ich is likely to become hypnoidal. 3. An oth er characteristic of these poems, akin to the foregoin g, is a certain vagueness of im agery wh ich contrasts strongly with the h ard, clear im agery sought by the group of modern poets called "Im agist s." Th e pictures presented in these hypnotic poems have such soft, shadowy outlines that one m ay fill in the details to suit one's fan cy or let the picture remain h azy. Th ey foster an idle, dream y state of consciousness like the prelim inary stage of hypnosis. Th eir technique—whether we like it or not—is

EVI D EN CE

43

of the sort to produce a state of trance. To check the accuracy of this statement one cannot do better than contrast the im agery of a hypnotic poem like Annabel Lee with that of the realistic battle scenes in Mr. Stephen Vin cen t Benét's ]ohn Brown's Body. Poe's rem arks on vagueness, if we limit their application to hypnotic poetry on ly, are significant : "Th e re are passage s in his [Te n n ys o n 's ] w o rk s wh ich rive t a co n victio n I h ad l o n g e n te rtain e d, that the indefinit e is an e le m e nt in the true ποίησι·;. . . I fyiow that in de fin itive n e ss is an e le m e nt of the true m u s i c—I m e an the true m u sical e xpre ssio n. Gi v e to it an y u n d u e de cisio n —im bue it with an y de te rm in ate to n e —an d yo u de prive it, at o n ce , of its e the re al, its ide al, its intrinsic an d essential ch aracte r. Yo u dispe l its lu xu ry of dre am . Yo u disso lve the atm o sph e re of the m ys tic upo n wh ich it floats. Yo u e xhaust it of its bre ath of fae ry." ( Fro m Marginalia.)

4. Th e next point of similarity between these poems and that wh ich produces hypnosis may be nothing, or it m ay be something of considerable critical importance. I shall point it out in some detail and leave the reader to check its psychological soundness for h im self. As a state of hypnosis is more easily induced wh en the subject experiences fat igue fr om eye-strain, so I suggest that there is something in these poems corresponding to the rotating m irror, to the key held pain fu lly h igh above the eyes, wh ich we considered in Chapter III. Th ere are certain difficulties wh ich the ordinary listener cannot solve, wh ich he naturally tries a little to solve; then becom ing fat igued, he says to h im self, or rather, unconsciously adopts this atti-

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tude, "Well, I give up. The poet knows his business. I will take everything on his say-so." That is, these difficulties break down his resistance through fatigue. I refer not so much to structural difficulties in sentences that are long, complicated, or inverted, as to verbal difficulties—not necessarily difficulties that would bother the scholar or even the close reader—but those which the ordinary listener cannot solve in the brief fractions of a second which are at his disposal for their solution. In my analysis of Gray's Elegy, later, I shall point out several. Let us turn for a moment to one of the most hypnotic of all Kipling's poems, The Long Trail, and see a number of specific phrases which the ordinary listener not familiar with the technical language of the sea may find to cause him fatigue and to break down his resistance, allowing free play to the "suggested" mood of the poem. The specific phrases are these: "Ha' done with the Tents of Shem," "rime-ringed sun," "blind Horn's hate," "black Bilbao tramp," "load-line over her hatch," "heel of the North-East Trade," "Peter at the fore," "Hawsers warp her through," "Lower Hope," "Gunfleet Sands," "Mouse swings green on the old trail." After the listener's resistance has been broken down by the fatigue of his futile efforts to understand such phrases, Kipling gives us at last several great, memorable lines, which produce a very remarkable emotional response. Such lines of hypnotic suggestiveness are: " A n d the Southern Cross rides high! Yes, the old lost stars wheel back, dear lass, That blaze in the velvet blue.

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45

Th e y' r e all old fr ie n d s on t h e old t rail, o u r o wn t r ail, the ou t t rail, Th e y' r e Go d 's o wn gu id es on t h e Lo n g T r a i l . . . "An d it 's t wen t y t h ou san d m ile to ou r little lazy isle W h e r e t h e t ru m p et -orch id s b l o w !" 1

Th e poin t is an im port an t on e and in volves a n ice distin ction . Not that the eye-strain experien ced in the h ypn ot ic clin ic is iden t ical wit h the ear-strain of the listener wh o is baffled in his effor t to un derstan d the poet's exact phrase —an at t em pt to id en t ify them wou ld be fu t ile. Rat h er that the fatigue fr o m strain in the t wo cases m ay be so nearly iden t ical as to produce the sam e psych ological result, n am ely, to facilit at e in each case the process of fallin g in to a state of tran ce. Parad oxical t h ou gh it sounds, we m ay yet h ave to accept the view that in the early stages of a h ypn ot ic poem a for eign wor d , an obscure ph rase, or any sligh t d ifficu lt y that causes fat igu e fr o m strain on the part of the listener m ay act ually prom ote the ult im at e aesthetic effect at wh ich the artist aim s. Such a theory m igh t account fo r the pecu liar effect iven ess of Sh elley's phrase "Th e ch am pak odors fa il." It m igh t be one out of several reasons wh y En glish readers respon d most to the passages of Bu rn s wh ich are writ t en in Scottish, and vice versa. In an y case the parallel is there an d it m ay be sign ifican t . 5. Th e use of a refrain , or of frequ en t repetition , is characteristic of m an y h ypn ot ic p oem s; fo r exam ple, Annabel Lee, t h e Bugle Song fr o m The Princess, The Ancient 1

Ru d ya r d Kip lin g. Collected

Poem s.

N e w Yo r k : Do u b lcd a y, D o r a n it Co .

φ

H YPNO TIC PO ETRY

Mariner. Some repetition is mere physical stimulus, rhythm ic monotony likely to fix the listener's attention, somet h in g comparable to the meaningless sounds used by the earlier hypnotists (p. 25). O ft en , however, repetition takes the for m of a key phrase or refrain of special significance like the "Yo u ' are fall'in g back'ward, back'ward ," in wh ich the m odern hypnotist (p. 34) combines a psychical suggestion with rhythmical monotony. A striking exam ple is the tragic "Neverm ore" of The Raven, a poem wh ich is singularly hypnotic to those wh o have not heard it parodied. Refrain and kindred matters take us, however, back to the admittedly hypnotic incantation of savages. Hence I defer to the end of this chapter a more detailed treatment of a topic at once complicated and fascin atin g. 6. Fin ally these hypnotic poems show a general tendency to use suggestion on an entranced person. As hypnotic treatment differs from psychoanalytical treatment, so hypnotic poetry differs from intellectualist poet ry; one suggests to a person whose suggestibility has been abn orm ally intensified, wh ile the other calls the mental faculties into play in a more ordinary way. Th e com pelling artistry of such suggestions is one of the marvels of hypnotic poetry. Clearly it is not alone the art of versification wh ich the poet employs in this particular, though the perfect versification produces a physical stimulus wh ich makes the listener more susceptible em otionally. Th e wistfuln ess of the Hym n to Proserpine, the bleak loneliness of La Belle Dam e Sans Merci, the hushed reverence for

EVID EN CE

47

virgin beauty of The Eve of St. Agnes—all these are "su ggested" by subtleties of technique, especially by words of peculiar connotation wh ich brin g to the listener certain associated ideas appropriate to the mood desired. But the parallel must not be forced. Lam b and De Quincey h ave this power of suggestion in com m on wit h the writers of hypnotic poetry, as many a m an wh o is not a professional hypnotist has great personal m agnetism . Yet a comparative study of Poe's masterpieces in prose and in verse respectively shows that by a dozen lines of hypnotic verse he could effectively arouse an emotion almost equal to wh at he could arouse by a dozen pages of prose. An d this fact , wh ich any reader can test for h im self, leads back to the conclusion that the emotional mood induced by hearin g, say, Annabel Lee is due to a suggestion reinforced by a technique gen uin ely hypnotic. Som e hypnotic poems stop h ere: the listener is lulled by a perfect pattern of sound, his attention is fixed wit h out arousin g of his mental facu lt y, and he falls in to wh atever m ood the poet "suggests." It is interesting to see h ow m an y poets are thus content to stop without t akin g fu ll advantage of the grip they get on the listener's emotions. Such skillfu l artists as Poe, Swin burn e, the you t h fu l Ten n yson , and countless others persistently fail, or refuse, to galvan ize the sensitive reader into action, determination, or even th ough t. Nor can the lover of poetry find a more fascin at in g theme for speculation than whether certain lyrics would gain or lose in perfection if they contained som ething for the m in d to grasp. Other hypnotic

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poems carry the parallel to hypnotism still further by "suggesting" an impulse to action, making a parallel to the specific post-hypnotic suggestions of the hypnotist. Merlin and the Gleam (of which more in Chapter X) furnishes an excellent parallel to the post-hypnotic suggestion. Now it may be objected that such "suggestions" are also commonly found in non-hypnotic poems, and the objection, so stated, is valid. But there is discoverable a difference in the nature of the suggestion and often in the position of the suggestion, which makes only the hypnotic poems resemble the performance of the hypnotist. Specifically, in a hypnotic poem the key sentence "suggesting" an idea comes near the end, or at least only after there has been a long preliminary soothing of the listener's senses by monotonous rhythmic "passes." So in hypnosis. Also this key sentence "suggesting" an idea carries conviction without argumentative support, or with only the simplest of obvious arguments to support it. In the non-hypnotic poem these conditions do not obtain. For example, in Browning's hypnotic poem Love Among the Ruins, the idea "suggested" comes in the three last words, "Love is best," and if the reader accepts them as truth he does so because he has been prepared not intellectually but emotionally. By contrast, Clough's nonhypnotic poem Say not the Struggle Nought Availeth, begins with its key sentence, and supports it throughout the rest of the poem with elaborate arguments by analogy, first from the conduct of battle and then from the appear-

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ance of the rising tide. In the first poem there is no argument—only rhythm, pictures, hypnotic passes, emotions, and then a key statement; in the latter there is first the rousing command, and then an argument to show why Clough's specific command should be obeyed. These differences are characteristic of the two contrasting types, hypnotic and non-hypnotic. Further examples of the hypnotic and the non-hypnotic method may be illuminating. Tennyson's Crossing the Bar holds its key idea until the end, presenting it without convincing logical preparation; but the ordinary listener is so completely en rapport with the poet that he accepts it without resistance: "I hope to see my Pilot face to face W h e n I have crossed the bar."

Browning's Cristina, on the other hand, opens with its startling key idea, and offers logical support and explanation in the succeeding lines. T h e abrupt beginning is utterly unlike the manner of the hypnotic poems: "She should never have looked at m e If she meant I should not love her!"

Again, in The Isles of Greece Byron begins, like the hypnotist, with "passes" of rhythmic harmony, suggests vaguely that we should deplore the waning greatness of Greek glory, gets the reader completely under the spell of his magic, and ends with the post-hypnotic suggestion "Dash down yon cup of Samian wine!"

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Between the exquisite begin n in g, "Th e isles of Gre e ce , the isles o f Gre e ce ! Wh e re b u rn i n g Sap p h o lo ve d an d s u n g , "

and this con cludin g com m an d, there is only the merest suggestion of argum en t—a little group of taun ting rhetorical questions. If the conclusion proves effective, it does so in accordance wit h the same psychological principle that m akes a post-hypnotic suggestion effect ive. Pope, on the other h an d, in his most brilliant failu re, the Essay on Man, argues throughout Epistle I in support of a thesis, losin g most readers entirely in the intricacies of the argum en ts (wh ich he derived fr om his frien d Bolin gbroke), an d finally states the thesis he has tried to establish: "W h at ever is, is righ t ." Alt h ou gh the final position of this key sentence is in accord with the hypnotic tendency, Pope's poem in most respects is of the other type. In so fa r as it fails, the difficulty is probably due (as I show in m ore detail on page 149) to the psychological discord between the soothin g monotony of the "rocking-horse couplet" and the intense m ental activity dem anded of the listener. H avin g n ow seen that the poems called "h ypn ot ic" offer in general strikin g parallels to the laboratory m ethods of in ducin g an d ut ilizin g a state of hypnosis, let us m ake a m ore intensive study of a single poem . An d in m akin g such a study of Gray's Elegy—spoken of as perhaps the most popular poem in the En glish lan guage—let us avoid distorting the facts to support a theory. Let us rather focus

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51

our attention on the elements which bear on the theory, whether to support it or not. G R A Y'S

ELEGY

An analysis of the pattern of sound in the first quatrain of Gray's Elegy shows it to be one of the most harmonious stanzas—perhaps the most harmonious stanza—in En glish poetry. The metre is iambic with only two such slight departures from regularity as serve to keep it from being painfully mechanical. That is to say, the word "win d " in the second line suggests a spondee rather than an iamb, a n d t h e f o u rt h fo o t o f t h e f o u rt h l i n e is p e rh a p s a p y rrh i c .

The rhythm of these four regular lines is felt very strongly because it happens that the accented syllables are also the syllables of long duration. Thus, whether one be a "tim er" or a "stresser," one's ear is sure to respond to the soothing regularity. Again, as each line is rimed and end-stopt, one easily feels the rhythm of the line unit. Th e vowel effects are singularly interesting; but as the present state of knowledge on the psychological effectiveness of "dark" and "ligh t " vowels is rather dubious, I will not risk giving evidence on this point, however tantalizing the temptation may be. But the consonantal effects— to consider only the most obvious ones—are, I think, unique. Even Poe with his adroit choice of the name "Len ore" and his rather artificial coinage of the name "Ulalum e," never quite equaled the skill with which liquids and nasals are repeated in the Elegy. As the eye may well be employed to supplement the ear in an analysis

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HYPNOTIC POETRY

of this sort, the following arrangement may aid to m a k e the matter clear. Thus, a careful inspection shows that in these four lines every accented syllable save one—and it is the accented syllables that really count—either ends in a vowel sound or involves a liquid or a nasal ! T h e only exception is "plods," which is so effective for other reasons as to be inevitable. Liquids and nasals are capitalized. the cuRfew toLLs the kNeLL of paRtiNG day, the LowiNG heRd wiNd sLowLy o'eR the Lea, the pLowMaN hoMewaRd pLods his weaRy way, aNd Leaves the woRLd to daRkNess aNd to Me. T h e second and third stanzas, like the first, continue, so far as versification is concerned, to employ the very highest artistry to satisfy and soothe the ear; and, with only slight modification, the same thing may be said of the whole poem. T h e skillful return to the liquids and nasals in the second and third stanzas is so perfect as to defy comment but to invite a brief continuation of the visual device that has already been used. Now fades the gLiMMeRiNG laNdscape o N the sight, aNd aLL the aiR a soLeMn stiLLNess hoLds, save wheRe the beetLe wheeLs his droNiNG fLight, aNd dRowsy tiNkLiNGs LuLL the distaNt foLds: save that fRoM yoNdeR ivy-MaNtLed tow'R the MopiNG owL does to the MooN coMpLaiN of such as, waNd'RiNG NeaR heR secRet bow'R, MoLest heR aNcieNt soLitaRy ReigN.

EVIDENCE

53

Th e En glish language has not gone further—perhaps cannot go further—than in these twelve lines to parallel the methods of the hypnotist in fixing the subject's attention on those rhythmic stimuli so productive of a state of trance. My analysis of the pattern of sound has been far from complete, but in a case where virtually every reader knows the lines by heart he can complete it in all that is essential (so far as the mere sound is concerned) by repeating the lines aloud. An d since this is the case, I hurry on to consider the poem from another standpoint. These first three stanzas have for their dominant tone peaceful solem nity. Th e suggestive power of the words even in the first line is perfect—from the quaintness of curfew on through the solemnity of tolls and knell to the twilight of parting day. An d so on through the first twelve lines. One would have to quote every phrase to do justice to Gray's artistic suggestiveness—even the "tin klin gs" arr "d rowsy" enough to "lu ll" the "distant folds." By the smoothest of all possible transitions stanza four continues the serene description and focuses attention on the "rude forefath ers" "Each in his narrow cell forever laid." Here is death indeed, but calm death, softened into "sleep." Th e transition is so easy that one is reminded of the method of the hypnotist wh o would begin by muttering "sleep— sleep—sleep" and then without altering the cadence of his voice would continue his experiment. Th is smoothness of

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thought—or, to put it n egatively, this avoidance of anyth in g likely to cause a m ental jar—is one of the features in wh ich the Elegy, in com m on wit h other poems already considered, seems to be specifically followin g the method of the hypnotist and avoidin g the dram atic abruptness wh ich is often effective in intellectualist poetry. Stan za fou r thus serves the double purpose of con tin uin g the lullin g pattern of sound and in troducin g the topic of death in such fash ion that the listener is not m en tally aroused. It combines the physical an d psychical stim uli to perfection . Th ere follow next three stanzas (the fifth, sixth and seven th ), still principally descriptive, suggestin g the hom ely rural life in days gon e by. Th e listener's attention is h eld amid hazy suggestions by such occasional concrete details as "t h e echoing h orn " and "t h e blazin g h earth ," but the picture is still in soft outlines, the sound pattern is still soothing, and the emotional m ood is one of sym pathy and regret. Mean wh ile there are t wo verbal difficulties of the sort that m ay cause the listener to "give up and give in " a little m ore easily. O n e is m erely the quaint phrase, "O r busy housewife ply her evening care." Th e other, wh ich is bound to puzzle even the scholar for a m om en t , is a line of wh ich the obscurity seems to be almost studied: "Th eir furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke."

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55

Only aft er subjecting the listener for twenty-eight lines to this superlatively skillful combination of soothing sounds, soothing suggestions, shadowy pictures, and slightly fat igu in g language, does the Elegy offer its first hypnotic suggestion or command. An d this com m an d, containing the idea of the poem, is given in lan guage so abstract as to be universal yet so simple as to be unforgetable. Th e listener accepts emotionally and holds forever the idea, perhaps the exact words, of "Le t n ot Am b it io n m ock t h eir u sefu l t oil, Th e ir h om ely joys, an d d est in y ob scu r e; N o r Gr a n d e u r h ear wit h a d isd a in fu l sm ile T h e sh ort an d sim p le an n als of the p o o r ."

Here the poem m ight well close and still be a very effective piece of poetic hypnotism. But the poet, havin g the reader under the spell of his artistry, will not let h im go. He immediately adds three fran kly obvious lines of wh ich the general purport is clear, but in wh ich the inversion of word order is so overwh elm ing that four people out of five mistake subject and object, and a distinguished editor like the late Mr. Duncan Tovey must devote half a page to explaining the sentence structure. No ordinary listener will untangle the lines successfully, and if the attempt does not cause fatigue, it will be because he misses the singular number of the verb awaits, with its subject hour: "T h e boast of h er ald r y, t h e p o m p of p o w'r , An d all t h at b eau t y, all t h at wealt h e'er ga ve Aw a i t s a lik e t h ' in evit ab le h o u r ."

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But no matter. The listener's ear carries the easy rime of gave, and his whole emotional susceptibility finds satisfaction in another immortal line: "The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

Now come fourteen consecutive stanzas in which the poem almost follows a set formula, and the formula is this: four hazy and lazy; one vivid; four hazy and lazy; one vivid ; four hazy and lazy. That is to say, we have four stanzas of calm platitudinous moralizing and solemn reflection, of little intellectual power but of great harmony in both sound pattern and emotional mood. The description and the ideas are both diluted with more words than are strictly necessary. Where a modern realist would say: "If no friends erect monuments in a cathedral" or "If no friends erect monuments in Westminster Abbey," Gray keeps the imagery less definite, the appeal to the mind less incisive, but at the same time gives the ear the onomatopoetic organ tones of "Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault The pealing anthem swells the note of praise."

Then we have a never-to-be-forgotten stanza, which I have indicated in the formula as "vivid" (the famous one beginning "Full may a gem of purest ray serene"). Then we have four more stanzas similar in tone to the preceding group of four, but harder to follow; then another immortal one ("Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife"), and afterwards we have again four of description

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an d m oralizin g, wh ich end wit h en ough perfection of "wh at oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed" to win the unstinted praise of Dr . John son . H ere, aft er the ninety-second line, the poem distinctly breaks in structure; also, if m y analysis is correct, in psychological effectiveness. W it h the abrupt "Fo r th ee" of lin e ninety-three, we are introduced to three separate people : "t h ee," "som e kin dred spirit," and "som e hoary-headed swain ," the last of wh om takes the stage an d speaks on until the Epitaph . These con cludin g stanzas of the body of the poem are arresting in their personal directness, but by no means easy to follow. An d psychologically it is too late for fu rt h er fat igu e to have any valu e; the listeners are quite fat igu ed enough already—so one wou ld suppose, and so my own readings have shown. But wit h the Epit aph the poem regains all, or nearly all, of its form er effectiveness. Once m ore the poet him self seems to be givin g a hypnotic suggestion, an d—wh oever the "yout h to fortun e and to fam e u n kn own " m ay be—the lan guage grows sim pler, and the idea grows em otionally m ore com pellin g that even the victim of the most obscure poverty m ay find repose in "Th e bosom of his Father and his Go d ." REPETITIO N AN D REFRAIN

"Fo r repetition as the m ain elem ent in savage poetry it is useless to spread out eviden ce; n o one denies the fact , an d ethnology is fu ll of it ." Th u s the late Mr . Fran cis B.

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Gu m m ere on page 252 of The Beginnings of Poetry. W e need not go beyond the limits of the same volume for convincing evidence that repetition is likewise the main element in poetry of the folf{ when they are considerably advanced beyond the savage state. Probably the strongest single argument for the tranceproducing effect of certain modern poems would result fr om showin g the lin ks or successive stages connecting the admittedly hypnotic incantations of savage tribes with the polished spellweavin g poems of civilization. Alt h ough the extensive gath erin g and weigh in g of evidence necessary for such an argum ent exceeds the scope of this study, I can suggest some of the links from which such a chain of evidence could be forged. Verbal incantations which promote hypnotic "m agic" am ong savages involve monotonous rhythm s often produced by repeating the same word or phrase again and again. (Th is m ay, or may not, be supplemented by dancin g and the beating of tom-toms.) N o one wh o has read anythin g about prim itive peoples, in scientific treatises or in popular narratives like Mr. W . B. Seabrook's Magic Island, is likely to deny that a state of trance is often produced largely by the fam iliar verbal stimuli of monotonous repetition. Next we find this element of tiring, yet effective, repetition in folk songs in general, and especially in popular ballads. Here, of course, are weak lin ks, or at least elements of con fusion. Folk songs introduce the added factor of music, and I am reluctant to complicate the argument to

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t h e exten t of t r yin g to separate the m u sical elem en t s fr o m t h e specifically poetic ones. Ballad s, wh e n recit ed, wit h out m usic, oft en con t ain too m u ch in t erest —com pel t oo great m en t al alertn ess—to be t ypically h yp n ot ic. Ye t despite these elem en ts of con fu sion I feel t h at fo lk poet ry retain s the r efr ain largely fo r a t ran ce-prom ot in g effect iveness doubtless little un derst ood but oft en experien ced . T h e process of oral t radit ion , we are t old, wo r e away, or allowed to d rop out, all but the essentials of a fo lk p oem . W h er ein is the m on ot on ous repet it ion essen tial except fo r its pecu liar psych ological effect ? W h y, ot h erwise, d id it su rvive? Gran t ed the obvious m n em on ic appeal t o t h e gr ou p , th ere is probably a m ore subtle appeal in the p o we r of the refrain to in duce a ligh t state of au t oh ypn osis. A later su rvival of the h ypn ot ic m agic of repet it ion m ay perh aps be fo u n d in p op u lar h ym n s. H e r e again w e en coun t er the con fu sin g ad m ixt u re of m u sic, but t h e eviden ce is too in t erest in g t o be om it t ed . Go t o an y great revival m eet in g an d study the cyn ical, cu riou s faces of t h e late-com ers at the back of t h e au d it oriu m ; t h en wat ch t h e progressive steps of interest, fascin at ion , an d ecstasy, as they grad u ally com e u n d er the spell of t h e r h yt h m ic repet ition o f: "Th e re is p o we r, p o we r, p o we r, a w o n d e r-w o rk i n g p o we r, In the b 1 o o d of the L a m b , "

or, "Th r o w o ut the life lin e , t h ro w o ut th e life lin e , So m e o n e is d ri ft i n g a w a y ;

6o

HYPNOTIC POETRY Throw out the lifeline, throw out the lifeline, Some one is sinking today."

The success of the exhortation that follows may be due in no small measure to the effect of the songs in putting the members of the congregation into a state of abnormal emotional sensitiveness—increased suggestibility,—and the leader of the meeting is a poor psychologist if he does not soon have many of them quite at his mercy. Such being the fairly obvious links in the chain of evidence, I suspect that wherever repetition or refrain is used freely in a hypnotic or "somewhat hypnotic" poem, it is a survival of the old savage rite of hypnotic incantation. Take away the refrain from Mr. Alfred Noyes's "somewhat hypnotic" ballad of The Highwayman, and note the diminution of the spellweaving effect. Take the most hypnotic of Poe's lyrics, and note their dependence on the art of repetition. Elaborate the test by applying it to all the poems which any one reader finds most hypnotic, and draw the logical conclusion. DISCUSSION OF EVIDENCE

What does all this analysis prove? Not that the poems discussed are the most hypnotic ones theoretically conceivable. Not that they are necessarily the greatest short poems in the language. Simply that in their method and order of procedure they subject the listener to a series of combined physical and psychical stimuli so similar to those used in the typical hypnotic clinic that the parallel is not likely to

EVIDENCE

6ι

be a mere coincidence. We have similar causes producing in the one case a state of trance where the subject's resistance is definitely broken down till he is en rapport with the hypnotist, in the other case a state of emotional responsiveness where the subject's resistance is broken down till he is spellbound. Is not the presumption all in favor of the hypothesis suggested—that certain poems do put the listener into a light state of trance? We may call the listener's condition "a hypnoidal state," or, if that introduces a difficulty as to whether he is en rapport with the poet or with the reader, we may call it simply "a light state of ecstatic trance" ; but whatever we call it, we must recognize that the listener has undergone a peculiar psychological experience. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the key phrases of hypnotic poems have become embedded in his subconscious mind through a process that is not wholly intellectual. He is more fixed in his hope that he may see his "Pilot face to face" than if he had been listening to an argument on immortality, more determined to "Follow the Gleam" than if he had been reading an essay on idealism. Above all, he has had an aesthetic experience made possible only by hypnotic art. A distinguished psychologist, who agrees with the main thesis that I have advanced in this chapter, asks me whether I regard it as moral for the poet to drive home his ideas by a process that is largely non-rational. And my answer is that, whether moral or not, it is a method often used to achieve an end in the art of poetry and that as such it should be understood by critics. Granted that the technique

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of the hypnotic poem might be used to disseminate ideas not sound, the abuse of the art is not inevitable or even frequent. W e have outgrown the stage where the fact that paintings of the nude may be undesirably sensual is urged as a reason for compelling all painters to drape the human figure.

Frankly I incline to agree that some poets have

abused their hypnotic power, but, as I show in Chapter VIII, not many. Some one is sure to ask whether it is as high art to convey an idea by this hypnotic process as to accomplish the same result by means of an intellectualist poem. T h e question is apt, but to my mind one that may be waived. My chief concern is that these hypnotic poems shall be experienced, enjoyed, and criticised according to the technique w h i c h they employ, and that intellectualist poems shall be read, studied, enjoyed, and criticised on a very different basis. If this point has been made, I am content to leave to others the question of artistic superiority.

ν SEMIHYPNOTIC POEMS

I

N the four preceding chapters I have aimed to explain and make at least plausible the theory that certain

poems gain their power by applying the laws and principles of hypnotism, regardless of whether the poet has a theoretical k n o w l e d g e of such laws. In this chapter and those that follow I shall assume that the theory is true, at least to the extent of using it as a w o r k i n g hypothesis for criticism. Hypnotic technique in poetry provides a short cut or special route to the mood of ecstasy in w h i ch the listener often experiences the m a x i m u m enjoyment of a w o r k of art. In The Literature

of Ecstasy Mr. Albert Mordell has

shown with able argument and profuse illustration the importance of this single element, w h i c h he has stressed in the title of his book, as an essential of great literature. A n d although w e may disagree with Mr. Mordell's peculiar use of the word poetry and with many of his subordinate statements, I think we must pay a merited tribute to his success in emphasizing ecstasy as the criterion by which a great aesthetic experience is distinguished f r o m a small one. If we turn from Mr. Mordell's book to the study of the trance of ecstasy in Mr. James Leuba's Psychology Religious Mysticism,

of

w e may be able to synthesize certain 63

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ideas—not explicitly stated, but suggested—into a few statements about hypnotic poetry : ι. The production of ecstasy in the reader is one of the characteristics of great poetry. 2. Ecstasy is one of the recognized phenomena in a certain state of trance. 3. Poetic ecstasy is sometimes (not often) produced by a peculiar hypnotic technique which psychology enables us to isolate. 4. Hypnotic technique in poetry is, then, the use of physical and psychical stimuli which tend to induce a light state of ecstatic trance in which emotional play is intensified. 5. This hypnotic technique has often been used by poets who had no knowledge of the facts about hypnosis familiar to modern science. When I speak of a "semihypnotic" poem, I mean to imply either or both of two things: (1) That it contains one or more passages employing marked hypnotic technique, along with other passages of patently intellectualist technique. (2) That despite some quality—narrative interest, for instance—which keeps it from being completely hypnotic in effect, it does usually tend to be spellweaving and sometimes is peculiarly so. The terms sometimes hypnotic and somewhat hypnotic would often be more exact, but refinements in phraseology involve us in such nice distinctions and complicated explanations that I shall simplify matters by using the single term semihypnotic. Semihypnotic poems are so numerous in English that I

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shall lim it m yself in this chapter to consideration of a very few wh ich , wh ile fam iliar, invite criticism fr o m a special psych ological standpoint. I shall not, of course, attem pt in any case a complete criticism (wh at ever that phrase m ay im p ly), but shall m ake various ran dom rem arks relatin g prin cipally to hypnotic technique as prom otin g that "transcendental feelin g" wh ich , as Mr. J. A. Stewart has rem arked in his brillian t Introduction to The Myths of Plato, "is the essential ch arm of all poet ry." I shall also com m ent a little on three poets whose work has but a m odicum of hypnotic art —Brown in g, W h it m an , and W ord swort h . Sem ih ypn ot ic poems usually contain a good deal of food for thought. Th eir im agery is oft en clear, their contrasts m ay be st rikin g, and at times they compel mental alertness and dem an d study. To that extent they are typically intellectualist. But here and there are passages wh ich invite an easy, dream y enjoym ent and wh ich if read aloud tend to prom ote a m om entary slipping off into a light state of trance. Th e listener at such times feels a delicious sense of ecstasy an d, regardless of the exact m ean in g of the words bein g spoken, d rift s alon g on the stream of harm onious sounds and h azy impressions.

BRO WNING

Brown in g's technique is seldom hypnotic. Love Am ong the Ruins is, in fact , his only fam iliar poem of any len gth wh ich I have heard mentioned as likely to lull the listeners

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into harmonious agreement with its thesis by a non-rational process. If we may speak of the "characteristic manner" of a poet so versatile, Browning's characteristic manner is the reverse of hypnotic in nearly every particular: his rhythms are not conspicuously regular; his versification is seldom intricately ornate enough to fix the attention on sound rather than sense; he habitually uses dramatic contrasts and grotesque effects which startle us into intense mental activity; he makes little use of repetition; and he argues far more than he suggests. But, as Browning knew full well, intellectualist poetry may move readers of a certain type to a pitch of high ecstasy. His best poems illustrate (and prove, if proof were necessary) how absurdly we should err if we assumed that hypnotic technique was the only sure means of attaining the distinction of great poetry. Certain lovers of Browning, readers not too lazy to crack the hard shell and find the kernel, encounter in his works more passages where they enjoy the ecstatic thrill of approaching the sublime than in those of any other English poet since Milton. Such passages are almost uniformly intellectualist and should be criticised on that basis. There are, nevertheless, several noteworthy instances of hypnotic, or semihypnotic technique. The conclusion of the first section of The Ring and the Boo\ (the twenty-six lines beginning, " O lyric Love,") is universally admitted to approach the sublime, and on analysis proves to be pure hypnotism—a series of phrases suggesting with inimitable art the rare mood of adoration. W e enjoy them

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not in an intellectual way, nor in a pictorial way, but in a way which psychology is enabling us to understand. Th e exact m eaning is so perplexing that even after devoting a special appendix to it in his exhaustive Com m entary on The Ring and the Boo\ Mr. A. K. Cook leaves it still dubious. Th e matchless phrases, made effective by an unusual harmony of m ellifluous sounds, blend the suggestion of chivalrous adoration wit h that of religious fervor—a th in g extremely difficult to accomplish—so successfully that the passage, read aloud without comment, produces an effect seldom equaled. A few other passages where Brown in g uses a semihypnotic technique are: the Lover's last long speech of In a Gondola, the climactic stanzas of Rabbi Ben Ezra (wh ich for the most part is typically intellectualist) and A W om an's Last W ord. KIPLING Mandalay Probably the best kn own of Kiplin g's semihypnotic poems is Mandalay. It contrasts strongly with such an intellectualist achievement as An Im perial Rescript, wh ere vivid characterization and humor combine to m ake compellin g the stimulating idea that "We will work for ourself and a woman, for ever and ever, amen." Th ou gh a strictly silent reading of An Im perial Rescript brings out virtually every excellence the poem has to offer,

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such is far from being the case with Mandalay. Intermixed with the three brilliant stanzas devoted to the "Burma girl" in her Oriental surroundings and the two stanzas presenting the contrasting "fifty 'ousemaids" of London, there is a lilting, alluring melody towards the end of each stanza leading always into the same refrain— "On the road to Mandalay" etc.

If we succeed in disassociating the poem from its two familiar tunes (of which one is somewhat namby-pamby and the other stirring and martial) and submit it to the test of reading aloud, we find it rich with brief touches of hypnotic art. People virtually cannot, and certainly do not, visualize clearly "Where the old Flotilla l a y Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay?"

Whether the paddles "chunk" as the Flotilla steams from Rangoon to Mandalay, or whether the "chunkin' " is heard from one place to the other, seems of no importance, nor does the exact appearance of a "road" with "flyin'-fishes." ("Road," one may remark, sometimes means "harbor"— but apparently it does not here!) N o matter: it is all exotic and alluring. The hypnotic passes, however, are not sustained; the dreamy mood is persistently interrupted by striking, colorful pictures, some of them even grotesque, and the full trance of hypnotic poetry is not induced. Yet the refrain

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takes on some little touch of m agic art, and by repetition becomes a sort of incantation to brin g the listener into fu ller emotional sympathy wit h the poet's mood. Whatever one may have thought before, one comes to feel that this m an Kip lin g must be right—he kn ows—an d in that fram e of mind one fairly revels in the vigorous final stanza: "Ship me somewheres east of Suez. . . ." POE The Raven and

Vlalum e

Whether we should call The Raven hypnotic or not depends on whether it weaves a certain spell wh en read aloud under favorable conditions. For myself I cannot remember ever reading it under favorable conditions; I was only a boy wh en I heard parodies of it and parodied it m yself, nor do I suppose I have ever read it to people of any maturity whose reaction was not conditioned in this way. Th ere are, however, accounts of the tremendous and lasting effect the poem created wh en it was first read, especially wh en it was read by Poe h im self. So far as I can analyze the technique of The Raven, it is not hypnotic in every respect. Its narrative interest compels a degree of mental alertness h ardly consistent with any one's fallin g into a state of trance, n or of givin g even momentary belief to the incidents. Th e story or plot of the poem is im probable; it stretches one's credulity to the breakin g point. Quite apart fr om the unlikelihood of the Raven 's entering and behavin g as reported, it is improbable

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in a m ore fun dam en t al way that a despondent lover wou ld torm ent himself by m akin g a raven con firm his fear that his "lost Len ore" is indeed lost forever. Ta k in g the wh ole poem on a h igh er plane, we may regard it as symbolic of the inevitability of grief, of tragedy in life and love; but still there are difficulties. Th at these difficulties are largely overcom e shows the poem to be in other respects a tour de force of hypnotic artistry. Th e sound pattern completely fixes the attention by its elaborate ornamentation of internal rim e and end-rime of one and two syllables, and by other devices of a more subtle nature. It is extremely regular in its procession of trochees; it involves much repetition an d, of course, a refrain . Few poems, if any, in the En glish lan guage tend so strongly to fix the listener's attention on the physical element of sound. In my own readin g, I always feel im pelled to m ake a definite crescendo as the poem advances, a crescendo inherent in the poem itself, not art ificially added, and I find a clim ax of volum e in next to the last stanza coincident wit h the clim ax of emotion. Con curren t wit h this hypnotic pattern of sound is a brillian t use of psychical suggestion. Th e m in or key of m elancholy is used early in the poem an d is continued wit h in creasin g effectiveness until the clim ax. W e h ear a singularly rich h arm on y of suggestive word s—"m id n igh t d reary," "weak and weary," "quain t and curious volum e of forgot t en lore," "bleak Decem ber," "d yin g em ber," "gh ost " —an d then the clear, simple tones of "sorrow, sorrow for the lost Len ore." By the most gradual transitions we are

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led on in the succeedin g stanzas fr o m suggested m elan ch oly to gr ief, fr o m grief to t raged y, and fr o m t ragedy to a m ood of wh at Poe called, in another connection , "d eep an d irredeem able glo o m ." Poe's Ulalum e is a rath er h ypn otic poem in its effect on som e people, not on others. Th ose wh o find it so, see n o allegory in it, get no very defin it e post-hypnotic suggestion fr o m it, yet are so lulled into a sym path etic m ood by its artistry as to accept the con clu d in g t ragic m elan ch oly wit h peculiarly st ron g em otion . O t h er listeners, also failin g to see the allegory, are so an n oyed by wh at they consider its m ean in gless verbiage that they dislike it st ron gly, regard in g it fr an kly as Poe's worst poem —perh aps an attem pt to test the gu llibilit y of the public. A third grou p of readers, h avin g fat h om ed the allegory to th eir own satisfact ion , like the poem im m en sely but find it far too stim ulat in g m en t ally to be h ypn otic. Th e question just h ow fa r the allegory is an autobiograph y so fascin ates such readers that they n ever sin k in to the state of com plete em ot ion al responsiveness. In view of this situation it m ay be well to in clude here a key to the allegory, wh ich was suggested to me some years ago by a frien d an d wh ich has since, I believe, appeared occasionally in p rin t : Th e speaker ( "I ") is fallin g in love (n ot for the first t im e) and is com m u n in g wit h his soul (Psych e) t ryin g to still the soul's in stin ctive objections to the n ew rom an ce. Ast art e, his n ew beloved, comes to h im —in spite of the Lion (an oth er su it o r ?) — and the speaker accepts h er, calm in g the stron g but vagu e

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objections of his soul. Sudden ly some coincidence of date and place m akes it overwh elm in gly evident that the speaker has already had the one great rom ance of his life, and that the m em ory of his lost Ulalum e will forever bar Astarte fr om his heart. If the poem is autobiographical, the speaker is Poe, Ulalu m e is his wife, and the puzzle is to iden t ify Ast art e. Such a puzzle n aturally destroys the subtle h ypn otic effect , but gives the poem a tan talizin g interest. SH AKESP EARE

To Be or Not to Be Shakespeare's To Be or Not to Be is not strictly a hypnotic poem because it is not, properly speakin g, a poem at all, but a blan k verse speech in a play. It contributes its m agn ificen t quota to the scene at a point wh ere a great emotional clim ax is not needed for dram atic purposes. Nevertheless, I h ave mentioned it early in Ch apter I because it proceeds in a som ewhat hypnotic m an n er. As for H am let 's specific thought on suicide, not all—not nearly all—wh o adm ire the passage and h ave been m oved by it, can tell on wh at groun d Ham let comes to his conclusion, and a few cannot even tell to wh at conclusion he com es! Th is fact —wh ich the reader can easily verify for himself by question in g a dozen friends—disposes at once of the view that the idea or intellectual depth of the passage is a prim ary element of its effectiveness. It would be possible to con firm this by argum en t : n o very great m in d js needed t o say, "Life is so burdensome that I should kill

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myself if I were not afraid of the h ereaft er"! But argum ent is superfluous where the fact has been established by sim pler means. Yet the great soliloquy is as rich in suggestive metaphors and m ovin g images as it is poor in th ough t . It is a harm ony of phrases all calculated to arouse the listener's emotion. Fr om "t h e slings and arrows of outrageous fort u n e," on through a dozen others too well kn own to need repetition here, it moves m agn ificen t ly on to the matchless phrase for death— "T h e u n disco ve re d co u n try fro m wh o s e bo u rn N o trave lle r re tu rn s ."

It is this phrase wh ich contains the lasting post-hypnotic suggestion. My own interest in this soliloquy lies in the perfection wit h wh ich it shows how certain things and certain individuals fall into a circle of ever-increasing potency. A great hypnotist is kn own to h ave vast powers of in ducin g h ypn osis; his new patients are so well aware of his reputation that a "suggest ion " of bein g easily h ypn otized is implanted in them even before they see h im . H is ability leads to a reputation wh ich , in turn , increases his ability until he can hypn otize almost with out effort . Likewise a great speech such as To Be or Not to Be is kn own to have m oved vast audiences so deeply that a "su ggest ion " of yieldin g to its spell is given us as we sit in the theatre and hear the first six words. Expect in g to be m oved, we are m oved more deeply, or m ore easily, than wou ld oth erwise be possible.

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The Lady of Shalott, Lockjley Hall, Ulysses, and Crossing the Bar Looking at the printed page, one sees that The Lady of Shalott consists of nineteen apparently identical stanzas of this pattern: a a a a First Refrain of "Camelot" b b b Second Refrain of "Shalott"

Although the word "Lancelot" is substituted once for the usual first refrain, and once for the second, in other respects the nineteen stanzas appear identical. But on closer analysis we find the pattern of rhythms is repeatedly changed—not varied with irregularities, but changed. The first stanza is iambic with the usual onesyllable rimes; the second is trochaic with two-syllable rimes; the third is trochaic catalectic with one-syllable rimes, and then iambic; the fourth is trochaic, like the second, and so on. The eleventh stanza begins with four lines of iambs but an extra syllable allows the two-syllable 1

Fo r discussion s of In Memoriam 85 an d 15 2 respect ively.

an d Merlin

and the

Gleam

see pages

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rimes of weather, leather, feather, an d together. O n com plet in g the an alysis of the versificat ion , I find it leads nowh ere. Th e rh yt h m s ch an ge wit h ou t systematic relation fr o m stanza to stanza in each of the fou r Parts in to wh ich the poem is for m ally divided. Ta k in g a fresh start and con siderin g the effect of the poem as a wh ole, we note several feat u res: the gorgeou s descriptions of the landscape and of Lan celot 's t rappin gs, the n arrative interest, the m ystery of the spell or "cu rse," the solem n t raged y, and the peaceful (an t iclim act ic ?) benediction wit h wh ich the poem closes. In a still larger way we feel a suggestion of sym bolism —a suspicion that the Lad y's fat e is sym bolic of that of others wh o are sheltered and then sudden ly brough t into contact wit h the fu ll force of a life that is too strong for t h em . Th e poem wh en read aloud does not produce a un ifor m ly h ypn otic effect . Th is fact is probably due first to the frequ en t abrupt ch an ges in rh yt h m , an d second to the occasional touches of intense n arrat ive interest. Nevert h eless, there are several sustained passages so dream ily harm on ious in soun d, so elaborately in terlocked by rh yt h m , rim e, an d refrain , that the listener feels h im self quite helpless to resist the suggestion of the supern atural. In deed it is not un t il the t h irt y-fift h lin e, wh en the h ypn ot ic spell is woven , that we are asked to accept the supern atural—th at we find we h ave a "fa ir y" lady. Most people wh o h ave read Loc^ sley Hall on ly once or t wice ad m ire it wit h ou t kn o win g wh at it is all about.

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Later, o n closer study, they find it seems to represent a series of unrelated a n d sometimes contradictory attitudes t o w a r d life not very clearly separated f r o m each other. O n e tha t is very often q u o t e d ( " I will take some savage w o m a n " ) proves to be utterly repudiated a f e w lines later by the speaker, w h o says in c o n d e m n a t i o n : "Fool, again the dream, the fancy! But I \now my words are wild." F u r t h e r study, however, shows that each of these m o m e n t a r y outbursts or t e m p o r a r y attitudes towards life, is quite a p p r o p r i a te w h e n spoken by the disillusioned lover. Part of the keen e n j o y m e n t of the p o e m ultimately comes f r o m sorting the speaker's outbursts i n t o t w o groups— the t e m p o r a r y a n d the abiding. A n d a m o n g the latter is, of course, the m a g n i f i c e n t "vision of t h e w o r l d a n d all the w o n d e r that w o u l d be," w i t h its prophecy of air transport a n d w o r ld peace. T h e heigh t to w h i c h the m i n d m a y soar on t h e sheer intellectual inspiration of such a passage is virtually u n l i m i t e d , a n d t h e ecstasy aroused is largely an intellectual thrill. Yet I c a n n o t but t h i n k this m a g n i f i c e n t effect is sometimes p r o m o t e d , a n d as o f t e n retarded, by various touches of hypnoti c stimulus. Is it not significant that the false metaphor

of

the

world

spinning

t r a i n — " d o w n the r i n g i n g grooves corrected ?

Tennyson

wrote

wheels of a train r a n in grooves,

forever—a

railway

of c h a n g e " was never

the

line

supposing

the

a n d w h e n he discovered

SEMIH YPNO TIC PO EMS

77

his error, he preferred to keep the figure vague. If the poem be broken up into its proper sections, we find it to consist of a series of short passages—several of them considerable enough to m ake complete independent poem s. Now intellectually these various units do not support each other in producin g a cum ulative force or climactic effect , but as psychological stim uli they do. Th e lon g end-stopt lines rim in g in couplets compel a monotonous risin g and fallin g pitch pattern wh ich eventually becomes hypnotic. Th is dulls the listener's mental alertness and doubtless causes h im to miss some of the nice points of the speaker's reasoning, but it also tends to break down possible resistance and put the listener into a receptive mood. If the metre were as monotonous as the pitch patterns, the poem would perhaps become an intellectual slumbersong—an inartistic h ybrid. An d it does lean in that direction. But fortun ately the metre is trickily varied ; alth ough we seem to have standard lines of trochaic octameter catalectic, there are m an y wit h only fou r prim ary stresses; for exam ple, "I n the Par liam en t of m an , t h e Fed er at ion of the wo r ld ."

Alm ost every youn g man at some time in his life finds Ulysses the most inspiring short poem in the En glish langu age. Th is statement, made by a distinguished En glish critic, is probably not an exaggerat ion ; in any case, the poem is a masterpiece, and any new ligh t on the reasons for its effectiveness should be welcom e.

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That the blank verse is perfect and that the theme is inspiring are commonly accepted as sufficient reasons for the satisfaction the poem gives. And certainly it was a stroke of genius when Tennyson took f r o m Dante the post-Homeric Ulysses and by a few deft changes made him representative of the seeker for truth of any sort in any age—one whose spirit yearns "To follow knowledge like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought."

But the art of the poem lies not only in these brilliant strokes which are recognized by conventional criticism. It lies quite as much in masterly touches of the hypnotic technique which make perfection more perfect. T h e verse is not monotonously regular enough to produce the completely soothing effect of Gray's Elegy; the numerous run-on lines prevent the regular rising and falling pitch pattern. But the proportion of regular iambs is very great when compared with the proportion in, say, Paradise Lost, and as the poem draws to its impressive conclusion the stresses fall with an unusual degree of regularity. If the pitch pattern is not hypnotic, the rhythm is. The ideas (in which this poem is far richer than a typical hypnotic poem) scrupulously avoid anything startling, and allow the listeners an easy progress f r o m one to the next. T h u s if the listeners never slip off into an actual state of trance, they are never very far f r o m it. N o w from the psychological standpoint these ideas con-

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P O EM S

79

sist of fo u r p r elim in ary stages an d t h en a post -h ypn ot ic su ggest ion : ( i ) Lin es 1- 17 tell wh a t t h is Ten n yso n ian Ulysses h as d on e in the wo r ld of affair s, n ot ably "Fa r o n the ri n g i n g plain s o f w i n d y Tr o y . "

( 2) Lin es 18 - 32 progress n at u rally t o Ulysses' in sat iable thirst fo r kn o wled ge, wh ich h as led h im in t o this act ive life an d wh ich still lures h im on despit e h is age. ( 3) Lin es 33-4 3 digress on Telem ach u s, an d cert ain ly lessen the for ce of the h yp n ot ic spell by t h eir lacon ic con clu sion , "H e w o rk s his w o rk , I m i n e . "

( 4 ) Lin es 44-53, sp ecifically ad d ressed t o "M y Mar in er s," con t ain a su ggest ion of the great discoveries yet t o be m ad e, an d en d wit h the lin es, "So m e wo rk o f n o ble n o te m a y ye t be do n e N o t u n b e co m i n g m e n th at stro ve wi t h g o d s . "

T h e last seven teen lin es, con t ain in g wh a t I h ave called the post -h ypn ot ic su ggest ion , b egin wit h t h e d escript ion of the h arbor at t wiligh t , "Th e ligh ts be gin to t w i n k l e f ro m th e ro ck s ,"

an d t h en con t in u e wit h a specific exh ort at ion wh ich subtly but irresist ibly becom es t h e poet 's exh ort at ion t o h is listeners qu it e as m u ch as Ulysses' t o h is m arin ers. At t h e wor d s, "Co m e , m y frie n d s , 'Ti s no t to o late to seek a n e w e r w o rl d , "

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HYPNOTIC POETRY

the listeners find that the words addressed to the mariners apply to themselves and realize that the search for knowledge and experience should be their own. Prior to this point, they have merely admired Ulysses' attitude and hoped the mariners would support him. Now they find the quest is one in which they too may join. Thus the monologue, which has begun in a mood of meditative reminiscence, ends with the inspiring neverto-be-forgotten command, which has the psychological effect of a post-hypnotic suggestion— "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

I may note here a personal reaction to Crossing the Bar because it illustrates how a certain analytical tendency may break the spell of hypnotic art. Until a few years ago I had found Crossing the Bar typically hypnotic in its effect on others and on myself. T o be sure, I usually heard it read at funerals, where I was already subject to influences likely to render me susceptible to such a poem, but even after making allowances I felt that the poem had a real "spell" for me. Subsequently I became interested in the notion that man's existence might be both prenatal and post-mortem as suggested in Wordsworth's great Ode, and found the idea perhaps implied in Tennyson's two lines— "When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home."

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8i

Questions as to whether Tennyson meant to convey this specific idea of pre-natal existence, and of his relation to Wordsworth, have subsequently associated themselves in my mind with the second stanza of Crossing

the

Bar,

and the spell, so far as I am concerned, is no longer cast. That is to say, I cannot experience the poem as an artistic unit nearly so well as before.

WHITMAN Whitman's best poems, despite their general neglect of some obvious hypnotic stimuli, contain, nevertheless, passages of peculiar interest to this study. Leaving out of consideration O Captain!

My Captainl

which is in a class by

itself, we find that many of his representative pieces—Out

of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking and When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard

Bloom'd,

to take the most familiar ones—

sometimes put certain people under a spell of peculiar magic. Whether they do so depends partly on the sensitiveness of the listener and partly on the manner of reading. There is only one best way to read Whitman aloud, a way which resembles the usual solemn, almost intoned, manner of reading the Psalms. If such a reading does not make Whitman effective for the listener, nothing further can be done about it. T h e lack of rimes and regular metre causes such annoyance, at what is felt to be a literary hybrid, that some people cannot, even by the most patient effort, acquire a taste for Whitman.

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Peop le of a d iffer en t aesth etic respon siven ess find th at t h e soun d of W h it m a n 's ver se—wh en read their way—in volves th ree elem en t s com b in ed in t o a som ewh at h ypn ot ic st im u lu s. Fir st , t wo-syllable an d t h ree-syllable r h yt h m s m or e r egu lar t h an those of st an d ard En glish prose, but less r egu lar t h an those of strict m et re, at t ract t h em as a h ap p y m ed iu m b et ween d isord er on t h e on e h an d an d m ech an ical st an d ard izat ion on the ot h er, even as the varied beat in g of waves on the sh ore is r h yt h m ically m ore p leasin g to som e t h an t h e r egu lar swin gin g of a pen d u lu m . An d as r h yt h m in the last an alysis is largely a subject ive experien ce, we can n ot say m ore, or less, th an that som e people d o react t h u s to W h it m a n . Secon d , his in divid u al lin es, alm ost in variab ly en d-st opt, allow (an d virt u ally co m p el) repet it ion of a risin g an d fa llin g pit ch pat t ern wh ich m akes the t un e of on e lin e m u ch like that of the oth ers. If th is on e-lin e pit ch pat t ern is brou gh t out by m od u lat ion of the voice, an d the lin e-un it is em p h asized by a sligh t pau se, t h ere is creat ed a lin e-by-lin e r h yt h m on wh ich som e listen ers can n ot but fix t h eir att en t ion . Th ir d , W h it m a n 's represen t at ive poem s m ake such fr ee use of repet it ion as to su ggest the h ypn ot ic in can t at ion s of old en d ays. As t h e act ual qu an t it y of repetition is great er t h an wo u ld be supposed possible in the wo r k of a wr it er wh o st udiously avoid s such con ven t ion al devices as m et re an d r im e, I m u st r efer t h e reader t o t h e excellen t recen t st u dy by Miss Au t r e y W iley in Am erican Literature fo r Ma y, 1929. In d eed , W h it m a n 's artistry in t h e effect ive use of p arallelism , r efr ain , an d various oth er

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sorts of reiteration makes h im a master of this single phase of hypnotic art. Th e psychical stimuli needed to complete the process of putting the listener into even the lightest state of trance are not often to be foun d. His most characteristic m anner is about as unhypnotic as that of any writer of his century. If he compels mental alertness by his abruptness, his incisiveness, and his colloquial vigor, he goes still more directly against the principles of hypnotism by focusin g our attention not on one simple phase of life, but on a series of varied pictures painted with the bold strokes of an avowed realist. In his most lyrical passages, however, such as the best parts of Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking and W hen Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom 'd, Wh itm an soothes us—or some of us—into a mood of considerable suggestibility, and then gives us telling post-hypnotic suggestions. His range is so considerable, his m anner varies so m uch from one poem to another, that the student of W h it m an will find the search for semihypnotic passages am ply repaid. Am on g fascin atin g topics is the doubtful relation of his own mystical trances to the lon g "in ven tories" by which he may have been t ryin g to give his readers an opportunity to enjoy sim ilar transcendent experiences. WO RD SWO RTH

Alt h ough Wordsworth 's poetry is unlike Brown in g's in most respects, it has in com m on wit h it the fact of being almost never strictly hypnotic. Sustained passages of

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verbal hypnotism such as we frequently find in Poe, Tennyson, and Swinburne, are utterly inconsistent with the Wordsworthian manner. This does not, however, mean that there are to be found in Wordsworth no hypnotic touches whatever. If I were asked to indicate offhand the two brief passages most certain to have what I call a spellweaving effect on an audience, I should of course choose a particular passage from Tintern Abbey and stanza V of the great Ode. In these two poems Wordsworth surpassed his usual style in many felicitous ways; hence it is not safe to infer that their success is due to his use of hypnotic technique, or that the poems should be read and criticised on that basis. We may, however, note as a matter of scientific interest a few points. The sound pattern of Tintern Abbey is smooth and regular enough to be somewhat soothing; the mood of solemn meditation (almost the "churchyard mood") is suggested and maintained with little interruption to startle one into mental alertness; a few crucial lines linger in the memory, possibly because they have been embedded there with the force of an actual hypnotic suggestion— "The still, sad music of humanity." "A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts." If the reader retains a lasting sense of this "presence," it is not because its existence has been proved to him by the poet, but because he has attained the light state of trance

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in which he accepts the poet's dictum unreservedly by a non-rational process. Whether this process is sub-rational or super-rational is perhaps vital—but not to a study of poetic art. Th e memorable lines in stanza V of the great Ode exert on the listener a spell so much more powerful than what precedes or wh at follows that they challenge criticism to account for it. Here is a suggestive experim en t: neglect the m eaning of the poem as a wh ole and read only stanzas II, III, IV, and V. Make the readin g of stanzas II, III, and IV too rapid to allow the listeners to make m uch sense out of wh at they hear, and m od ify the spirited sound pattern into wh at can only be called a rapid intonation or chant. Th en , more slowly and more solemnly, read stanza V as if it were all that really counts, as if the preceding lines had been only necessary hypnotic passes. Does the poem lose an yth in g by this treatment? It loses t wo fine passages of consolation at the ends of stanza IX and stanza XI. To m y m in d the experiment merely confirms the opinion that in the great Ode Wordsworth was using to advantage every sort of poetic art—even hypnotic. LONG POEMS In Mem oriam an d

Evangeline

I have put these t wo poems side by side in the hope of startling the reader into focusin g his attention on the hypnotic quality in its essence. In Mem oriam , philosophic, argum entative, an d reflective, differs in almost every

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POETRY

particular from Evangeline, narrative, simple, even naïve. Yet the two poems have in common the psychological effect of promoting trance. If one reads aloud a hundred lines chosen from almost any part of In Memoriam, there is produced a cumulative soothing effect which gives to certain sections a distinctly hypnotic force. Similarly a hundred lines chosen—perhaps with more care—from Evangeline build up gradually an entrancing power wellnigh irresistible. Neither of the two selections quoted below is quite hypnotic in itself—that is, if read with no preparation. But if the reader will try the experiment of reading, say, the eighty lines preceding either of these selections and thus leading into it, he may share my experience of finding it typically hypnotic. " W h e n on m y bed the moonlight falls, I k n o w that in thy place of rest, By that broad water of the west, T h e r e comes a glory on the walls : T h y marble bright in dark appears, A s slowly steals a silver flame A l o n g the letters of thy name, A n d o'er the number of thy years. T h e mystic glory swims a w a y ; F r o m off m y bed the moonlight dies; A n d , closing eaves of wearied eyes, I sleep till dusk is dipt in g r a y : A n d then I k n o w the mist is d r a w n A lucid veil f r o m coast to coast,

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87

A n d in the dark church, like a ghost, Thy tablet glimmers in the dawn."

"Still stands the forest primeval; but far away from its shadow, Side by side, in their nameless graves, the lovers are sleeping. Under the humble walls of the little Catholic churchyard, In the heart of the city, they lie, u n k n o w n and unnoticed. Daily the tides of life g o ebbing and flowing beside them, Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at rest and forever, Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer are busy, Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased from their labors, Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed their journey!"

When Poe wrote that "the phrase, 'a long poem,' is simply a flat contradiction in terms," he confused the issues sadly. And though he supported the statement by clever argument in The Philosophy of Composition and again in The Poetic Principle, neither argument is convincing. A more exact statement of the matter is this: A long poem often divides itself naturally into passages each of which is a unit, much as each stanza in Mr. William Ellery Leonard's Two Lives is a sonnet in itself. Some of these passages may be hypnotic, in which case they will not greatly exceed a hundred lines apiece in length and may be much shorter. Most of the passages, especially if the poem be principally narrative, will be of the intellectualist type. In any case the individual units can be fairly treated as short poems, for despite all I have

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said about the necessity of reading a hypnotic poem in full, it is not necessary to read all of Evangeline or of Mr. Stephen Vincent Benét's John Brown's Body to get the trance effect! Evangeline in particular offers a field for more astute criticism than has yet been made of it. At its worst (when the hexameters are too halting to satisfy one's rhythmic sense and the action is too slow to hold one's interest) it sinks to a very low ebb. But at its best it has long passages so soothingly hypnotic that the listener cannot help responding to the deep chords of tragedy which the poet occasionally strikes. The conflict of gushing admiration and violent condemnation over Evangeline is one of the outstanding evidences of the confusion in criticism. The fact is that in Evangeline Longfellow applied the hypnotic method to a long narrative poem, with rather better results, artistically, than might be expected. VERY SHORT POEMS

Such poems as are found to be hypnotic only after introductory remarks by the reader remind us of those hypnotic clinics where the operator, before beginning to hypnotize, exerts his utmost skill to make a strong personal impression on the subject, inspiring him with confidence. It is an interesting experiment with a poem which has all the hypnotic characteristics except the length necessary to allow for the slow process of inducing the trance, to precede it by remarks calculated to promote its effectiveness. Something may occasionally be ac-

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89

complished. But far more effective is the experiment of reading it, without com m ent, just after a longer hypnotic poem by the same poet. Both Stevenson's Requiem and Poe's To Helen seem to me to suffer—as hypnotic poems —from this undue brevity. But the sixteen short lines of Tennyson's Brea\ , BrealBrea\ seem in my own experiments to weave a spell without support. CONCLUSION It would appear unnecessary to include in this study other semihypnotic poems wh ich lend themselves to the process of analysis fr om this standpoint. If the reader finds any merit in the procedure, if he finds the essential value of certain poems more readily by scrutinizing them fr om this particular psychological point of view in addition to others that are more usual, he can easily apply the method to such poems as suggest themselves. Accordin g to my own judgm en t there are dozens of poems—to consider only the more fam iliar ones—which take advantage of the hypnotic principle to some extent. Th ey are not completely hypn otic; they do not, even under the most favorable conditions, produce a state of trance. But each has one or more passages tending in that direction. An d in attem pting an appreciative criticism of such a poem it is unwise to assume that every part must be rich with some golden thought or else with some gem of description. Mr. E. A. Green in g Lam born was on very safe groun d wh en he said in his Rudim ents of Criticism , "Repeated experiments have shown that children not only

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enjoy listening to the music of poetry in an unknown tongue, but that they are keenly responsive to its emotional appeal." I think we may go a good deal further, and say that even for the most mature adults a quatrain may serve a very useful artistic purpose, without either conveying a specific idea or presenting a vivid image, provided its sound pattern is fascinating enough to fix the attention. I do not say, however, that such quatrains are utilized with equal success by different poets, or by the same poet in different compositions. Herein, of course, lies the opportunity for discriminating criticism.

VI POETIC INSPIRATION—

S

o m u ch has been writ t en , ever sin ce t h e t im e of Plat o, about "poet ic in sp irat ion " that we all kn o w well en ou gh wh at the vagu e ph rase m ean s, wit h ou t h avin g a clear con cept ion of h ow the p h en om en on is prod u ced . Th e poetic "fr e n z y," "fu r y," "ecst asy," or "in sp ir at ion " is a rare con dit ion in wh ich the poet is carried "ou t of h im se lf," as we say, in to a m ood of su b lim e elevat ion ; an d in that m ood , h ap p ily fo r us, he is art icu lat e. Th e quest ion of su prem e interest is, wh at lift s h im ? W h a t forces com bin e t o turn the m ere m an in to the "in sp ir e d " poet fo r a fe w m in ut es or a fe w h ours, aft er wh ich h e drops back in t o everyd ay life ? It wo u ld be both presu m pt u ou s an d fu t ile fo r an in d ivid u al to at t em pt an ew, wh ere so m an y keen m in d s h ave failed , an an alysis of all the circu m st an ces wh ich com bin e to prod u ce the well-kn own effect . Ye t I can n ot but t h in k that we sh all com e a little n earer to an u n d erst an d in g of t h e p h en om en on if we stress m ore t h an is gen erally don e the psych ological effect of r h yt h m in lead in g to a state of tran ce an d in in t en sifyin g em ot ion al suscept ibilit y. H er e again I m ust d isclaim an y great origin alit y. Alt h o u gh the views set fo r t h in 19 10 by M r . Ge o r ge W ood b erry in The Inspiration of Poetry are n ot 91

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H YPNO TIC PO ETRY

in the main acceptable to some of us, nevertheless on pages 207-209 he gives hints wh ich may easily be interpreted as anticipating some of the points which I m ake in the followin g pages. Let me say that the effect of a rhythm ic pattern of sound on the poet may be t wofold. Th e poet may realize that his readers will be put into a mood of emotional responsiveness by the harmony of his rhythm s. H e m ay also, without kn owin g it, be able to get himself into an intensely emotional state, not unlike that of the religious mystic in a state of trance. If neither of these suggestions alone goes very far towards explainin g "poetic inspiration ," we may yet find on analysis that these two psychological factors together often do explain it. I. Few writers of prose are so free from self-consciousness as to be able to voice their highest ideals and their most intense feelings through letters to the public press. N o matter what pure gold a m an may think to h im self, he is apt to m ix it with the alloy of materialism before writ in g to the Tim es, and the same thing is true, with certain m odifications, of writin g prose of any sort. Quite naturally! Not h in g hurts a writer more keenly than the cynical sneer of the unsympathetic reader. W e instinctively guard ourselves against the pain of h avin g our most sacred ideas distorted and laughed at even behind our backs; "N o indecent exposure of soul," we say, drawin g the pen ruthlessly through a half-finished sentence. Inevitably this "d ign ified reserve," as we like to call it, becomes the inhibition of self-consciousness. But with the poets it is

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d iffer en t , as all t h e wo r ld kn ows. T h e greatest of t h em , at least in t h eir m ost "in sp ir ed " m om en t s, speak out fr o m the h eart wit h an am azin g directn ess. Beaut y shin es for t h as n aked beau t y, truth as sim ple t ru t h , an d good n ess as com p ellin g goodn ess fr ee fr o m the can t of wo r ld ly wisd om . T o accoun t fo r the poet's relat ive fr eed o m fr o m rest rain in g in h ibit ion s, we n eed not assum e h im t o be fam iliar wit h the det ailed t h eory wh ich exp lain s h o w r h yt h m tends t o put the listener in t o a respon sive em otional m ood . It is sufficien t th at the poet k n o ws t h e fact alon e, wit h ou t eit h er the how or the why. An d it is n ot likely th at a m an could devote h im self to the art of poet ry fo r an y len gt h of t im e wit h ou t h avin g an in klin g of t h e fact . H e has h im self com e u n d er the spell of ot h er p oet s; h e h as respon d ed em ot ion ally to the m agic of t h eir r h yt h m an d su ggest ion ; an d h e k n o ws that ot h er listen ers are likely t o respon d as sym pat h et ically to h im , can h e but weave a sim ilar spell of wor d s. Th is con dit ion alon e wo u ld accoun t fo r m u ch of the poet's so-called in spirat ion . H e h as a con fid en ce in the p ower of h is o wn verse to carry h is m essage in t o the reader's h eart . W e need not suppose the poet, even the great poet, to be able to tap som e d ivin e source of ideas not open to ot h er m ort als. Th e writ er of prose m ay t h in k as deeply an d respon d to beauty as read ily, but he can n ot escape en t irely fr o m h is in h ibit ion s. Man y of us prose writ ers m ay h ave flashes of in sigh t in t o life wh e n ou r wisd om approach es the wisd om of the proph et s—bu t ,

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alas, we proph esy not ! W e h ave n ot the use of a r h yt h m ic m ed iu m to break d o wn the reader's possible resistan ce, an d k n o win g t h at fact we dare not speak out. II. Th e second or un con scious feat u re in p rod u cin g a state of poet ic in spirat ion is m ore easily u n derst ood. In d eed an y on e wh o h as read the m ore exh au st ive treatises on t ran ce, ecstasy, an d aut osuggest ion can read ily see th at a poet m ay oft en be in a state of au t oh ypn osis. Let us put it this w a y: If a poet has com posed the op en in g lines of a p oem an d keeps repeat in g t h em to h im self, h e m ay unwit t in gly get in t o such a h ypersen sit ive state that he con tin ues the process of com posit ion in a m ood of ecstasy. I h ave n eit h er the space n or the tech n ical kn o wled ge to go t h r ou gh all the in tricacies of the argu m en t fo r such a t h eory, but its m ain con ten tion is plain an d , I believe, sou n d. Th e "d r o n in g m on ot on y" (as M. Em ile Cou é calls it ) of a repeated ph rase, or the soot h in g of r h yt h m , is as valu ab le a p relim in ary to aut oh ypn osis as to h ypn osis, an d au t oh ypn osis fr eq u en t ly leads t o ecstasy. Su ch a state of ecstasy n at u rally in creases the poet's fer vo r fo r wh at ever is u pperm ost in his consciousness an d allows h im —p erh ap s com pels h im —t o look past the diver t in g doors op en in g to righ t an d to left , an d to fix his rapt eyes on the vision at the en d of the vist a. "F o r I d ip t in t o t h e fu t u r e , fa r as h u m a n eye cou ld see, Sa w t h e Visio n of t h e wor ld an d all t h e wo n d e r t h at wo u ld b e ."

An d fr o m th at t im e on un t il h is vision fad es a wa y, h e will con cen t rat e wit h an alm ost su p erh u m an in ten sit y on

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the single theme that he is developing. At subsequent times he may, in the most prosaically analytical mood, modify and correct certain phrases, but the bulk of his best work is hammered out while the theme glows in the white-heat of the ecstatic trance. T h e abnormal emotional state may not always be the result of autohypnosis stimulated by a rhythmic pattern of sound; in the case of Coleridge's Kubla Khan and some of his other poems there is good reason to believe the special stimulus was an opiate; but it is highly significant that other poets without the stimulus of a drug have been able to get into virtually the same state of trance. It is also significant that it now appears Poe wrote much less often than has been supposed under the influence of an opiate—almost always preferring the ordinary beverage coffee, which will not in itself produce anything remotely approaching the poetic fervor! Perhaps, then, it was under the spell of trances induced by the harmony of his own rhythms that Poe caught occasional glimpses of that "supernal beauty" of which he wrote so feelingly that he seems to have made the word "supernal" his own : "The struggle to apprehend the supernal Loveliness—this struggle, on the part of souls fittingly constituted—has given to the world all that which it (the world) has ever been enabled to understand and to feel as poetic. . . . It is in Music, perhaps, that the soul most nearly attains the great end for which, w h e n inspired by the Poetic Sentiment, it struggles—the creation of supernal Beauty. It may be, indeed, that here this sublime end is, n o w and then, attained in fact. W e are often made to feel,

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with a shivering delight, that from an earthly harp are stricken notes which cannot have been unfamiliar to the angels. . . . It has been my purpose to suggest that while this (Poetic) Principle is, strictly and simply, the Human Aspiration for Supernal Beauty, the manifestation of the Principle is always found in an elevating excitement of the Soul. . . ." ( F r o m The Poetic Principle.)

Perhaps, likewise, it was under the spell of a trance induced by the harmonious rhythms of Dante that Longfellow at last rose to the heights which he had never scaled before. In any event, he was deep in his translating of Dante when he wrote the six sonnets entitled Divina Commedia, which are generally considered to be his best work, and it may be that the ecstasy which failed to come to him from repeating his own verses did come to him when he repeated those of the master. Now there happens to be a very keen controversy at present among theologians and psychologists as to whether the trance of the religious mystic is merely autohypnosis, as one side contends, or autohypnosis plus an added element of direct communion with the Deity. Difficult though it may be to avoid taking sides on such a point, we ought to be able to avoid the controversial part of the discussion and fix our attention on the patent fact that ecstatic trance often begins with autohypnosis, or something akin to it, and develops into a mood of intense concentration in which the subject of the trance is freed from certain restraining inhibitions. After what has been said in preceding chapters about the effect of a hypnotic poem in throwing the listeners into a state of trance, it seems reasonable

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that the sam e effect m ay be prod u ced in the poet h im self as soon as h e h as com plet ed a stan za or t wo an d begin s rep eat in g t h em over to h im self. A m ost st r ikin g illu st rat ion of this secon d poin t , of ecstasy resu lt in g fr o m t h e effect on h im self of t h e poet's o wn word s, is t o be fo u n d in Br o wn in g's Saul. As origin ally writ t en , Saul was an accoun t of h o w the first Ki n g of Israel was gr ad u ally b rou gh t out of a state of com a t h rou gh the p sych ological in flu en ce of David 's sin gin g to the h arp . Lat er , h owever , Br o wn in g d ou bled the len gt h of the p oem , an d wit h ou t ch an gin g the title m ad e D a vid the prin cipal figure. As the poem n ow stands in its ent iret y, ou r in terest attaches ch iefly to the ad d ed st an zas, wh ich reveal t h e gr ad u al steps by wh ich Da vid wo r k e d h im self u p in t o a state of religiou s an d poetic ecstasy. Th r o u gh o u t t h e earlier stan zas Da vid tells h o w h e san g a sh eph erd son g, a reap in g son g, a m ar r iage son g, an d so on u n t il at the en d of stan za seven , he says: "H e r e in the d arkn ess Sau l gr o an ed ." Th e n , finding Sau l p art ly con scious, he san g on , as recoun t ed in the n ext eigh t stan zas of the p oem , of the joy of livin g an d of the great ness of the Ki n g h im self, u n t il at len gt h the Ki n g wa s brou gh t wh olly back to a n orm al state. An d h ere Sau l virt u ally fad es out of the poem as Da vid h as a su d d en flash of in sigh t in t o the great n ess of God 's love fo r m an . So o ve r wh e lm in g is the ecstasy that the sixteen th st an za consists of a sin gle vivid lin e: "Th en the truth came upon me. No harp more—no song m ore! outbroke—"

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And there follows in Browning's most masterly manner a prophetic religious poem that verges on the sublime. In studying the complete Saul to illustrate a poet's gradually getting into the inspired mood, the identifying of David with Browning himself is inevitable. What Browning is giving us is an example of how he or any other great poet experiences the full force of the "poetic madness." Of special interest is the fact that in his ecstasy David is fully master of his intellectual faculties, reasoning with such acuteness that he cuts to the heart of the matter in the flash of an eye. He sees almost as a mathematical formula this truth: If what I do for Saul is the product of my great love mutiplied by my limited power, then what God will do for man will be the product of his greater love multiplied by his infinite power; and so he rushes on to prophesy the coming of the Messiah. The successive steps in the composition of an "inspired" poem may, then, be something like this: first the poet composes several lines of verse leading towards a theme in which he is interested. (If he composes in the manner of Burns, he fits these lines to a tune that is running in his head, but such a supposition is not at all necessary.) Then, testing these original lines and finding them adequate to put readers into a sympathetic mood, he proceeds with added confidence. As he repeats over and over to himself what he has already composed and dwells with increasing concentration on a single phase of life, he gradually experiences the trance in which for the time being nothing else is of any importance or indeed enters

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into his consciousness. Th is phase of his experience is accompanied by the intense emotional susceptibility common in ecstatic trance, and by a heighten in g of the poetic faculty at least proportional to the completeness with which it is focused on one topic. Un der such conditions the poem is completed, and either then or subsequently it is committed to paper. Some years ago I myself wrote a poem wh ich was composed, I now realize, under just these conditions, and by just these stages. I do not append it here, for its technical flaws would divert the reader's attention from the topic —in fact I cannot, for I tore up the manuscript the next day. Nevertheless, I still rem em ber the stages of trial, initial success (so I t h ou gh t ), repetition of the opening lines again and again , and subsequently of fervid and ecstatic concentration and enthusiasm. So far as I can make out, m y psychological state at the height of my fren zy was exactly like that of a real poet in a mood of real inspiration. But, someone objects, I am citing m y own unverifiable experience to prove my own un verified theory. Very well. Th en turn to any reliable account of the fren zy of the world's great poets as they have been recorded. Read, for instance, pages 263 fi. in Mr. Frederick Clark Prescott's volume, The Poetic Mind, and apply these tests: Are not the two factors I have suggested at least am ong the most probable contributory causes of the kn own effect ? Can any other combination of factors, without these, account adequately for the fact of "poetic fr e n z y"? Rem ove the

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poet's inhibition of self-conscious reserve, then let him use the most likely stimuli to produce an autohypnotic trance, and whatever inherent power he has is completely liberated for the time being. That autohypnosis may be produced after some practice by such means as I have described is not, I believe, disputed. Turning to a standard psychological treatise on such matters I find the statements I have made confirmed point by point by a scientist whose interests are non-literary and who, in fact, devotes but one sentence in his whole volume to the topic of poetry. The following sentences from the more pertinent paragraphs of the chapter on Autohypnosis in Charles Baudouin's Suggestion and Autosuggestion 1 will serve to give the gist of the chapter to those who may not have the treatise at hand. The chapter does not take up the disputed matter of the therapeutic value of autosuggestion, but deals explicitly with the easiest means of producing a state of autohypnosis. "Outcropping, somnolence, even sleep, can be brought about by a means which we have not hitherto described, namely, by immobilization of the attention . . . "In summary classification it may be said that there are two main kinds of immobilization of the attention : ι. Fixation; 2. Seesaw . . . " A s to immobilization by seesaw, we have examples of this in the noise of the waves beating on the shore, where t w o splashing sounds of different pitch answer one another in an 1

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alternating song; in the tick-tack of a pendulum, where the alternation is between sound and silence; in lullabies; and in any kind of regular rhythm. . . . "Obviously, when autosuggestion is our aim, the hypnosis must not be pushed to the stage of profound sleep, in which we shall no longer be able to control the direction of our thoughts. But a moderate degree of hypnosis is to be recommended for this purpose. The presence of a watch or clock not far from the ear has a lulling influence. . . . "Furthermore, physical procedures are not the only methods for the production of autohypnosis. The attention may be immobilized in other ways than by an outward sensation. Immobilization can be brought about by a mental image, by an idea. . . . "Let us return to autohypnosis, as described earlier in our own text. Since it can be induced by immobilizing the attention on a mental state, why should we not choose, for this mental state (in preference to the bead-telling or the counting), the very idea which is to be the object of the suggestion?" Au t oh yp n osis, t h en , is prod u ced by sim u lt an eou sly fixin g the atten tion on som e regu lar r h yt h m ic soun d an d m en t ally con cen t rat in g on a sin gle idea or im age—precisely t h e process em p loyed u n con sciou sly by the poet wh e n he repeats to h im self the op en in g lin es of a p oem alread y com p osed ! An d in this ligh t state of t ran ce or ecstasy h is fu ll artistic p owers are lib erat ed ; fo r , as M. Bau d ou in rem arks (on page 158 of the 19 21 tran slat ion ) : "Emotion is likewise an instigator of images, a condition in which the inhibitive faculties appear to be thrown out of gear. This is especially noticeable in the poet, for the images flow

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from his pen more spontaneously, more vigorously, and more rapidly, in proportion as his emotion is more intense."

That the ideas and images expressed by the poet in his "inspired" mood should reach such a very high plane, is the natural result of inherent ability stimulated by a trance of intense concentration. Perhaps an analogy from another kind of concentration may clarify the matter. Chess players know that the rapidity and almost flawless accuracy with which a master player can foretell the result, some three moves later, of a play which he contemplates, is not a miracle but merely a case of concentration on essentials. It is true that there may be to his contemplated move some twenty possible replies by his opponent, each of which would allow of twenty subsequent plays by himself, and that to each of these there may be some twenty rejoinders by his opponent. T o analyze all possible variations for these three moves would then require consideration of perhaps eight thousand plays, which would fill one of the folio volumes of the Chess Digest. Now the plodding analyst cannot pass adequate judgment on the one move under consideration until he has performed some such Herculean task; even then, however, the plodding analyst will fail, for his mind cannot possibly grasp and compare the relative merits of some eight thousand potential positions. The secret of the master's success lies in the fact that he knows at a glance, and even without a glance, that perhaps eighteen of the twenty moves in each case are so weak as to be absurd; neither he nor a worthy opponent would risk them. In

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su ch a case h e can , in each of t h e t h r ee su ccessive st eps, a n a lyz e o n ly t h e t w o st r on gest m o ves, a n d b y c o m p a r in g t h e a d va n t a ge s of eigh t r e su lt in g p osit ion s h e h as d on e all t h at is m ost essen t ial in t h e p r o b le m of an alysis. H is efficien t speed in select in g t h e m o ve w h ic h will b r in g h im t h e best p ossib le p osit ion t h r ee m o ve s lat er is t h u s r at h er m o r e t h an a t h o u san d t im es t h at of t h e m e ch a n ica l an alyst . Ju st as t h e success of t h e ch ess p la ye r is p r o p o r t io n a l to h is p o w e r of co n ce n t r a t in g h is at t en t ion o n t h e f e w lin es of p la y t h at m a y be vit al, so p er h ap s t h e h e igh t e n e d fe r vo r of t h e "in s p ir e d " poet is p r o p o r t io n a l t o t h e e ffe ct of h is t rn n ce in e xclu d in g fr o m h is con sciou sn ess all bu t on e p h ase of life . If h e is d e a lin g w it h b eau t y, h e "wo r s h ip s t h e p r in cip le of b e a u t y" lik e Ke a t s ; if h e is co m p o sin g a religiou s p o e m , h e b eco m e s fo r t h e t im e b e in g alm o st a fa n a t ic. F r o m a n y t r u n k of t h o u gh t t h er e ar e as m a n y possible d igr essive r a m ifica t io n s as t h ere ar e t wigs on a gian t sp r u ce, b u t t h e en t r an ced b a r d sees o n ly t h e m a in t r u n k an d fo llo w s it u p h igh e r a n d h igh e r t o t h e ver y t op . It is a wise sa yin g t h at t h er e is n o a cco u n t in g fo r gen iu s. Bu t as t o t h e fact o r s w h ic h con t r ib u t e t o t h e m o o d of creat ive ecst asy, "p o et ic fr e n z y, " w e can m a k e som e ve r y d efin it e con ject u r es.

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OT lon g ago I su ggest ed to a fr ien d t h at an interestin g lecture m igh t be given on "T h e Rise an d Fa ll of Fr ee Verse in Am e r ica ," a con sid erat ion of wh y the fo r m h ad been so p op u lar bet ween 19 10 an d 1920, an d wh y it is n o w dead . I was p rom p t ly b r ou gh t to book, h owever , by a citation of statistics about t h e cu rren t vogu e of Miss Am y Lo well's wo r k . Sin ce h er wo r k still sells well—n ot on ly n ew (p ost h u m ou s) volu m es but re-issues of the old ones —it follows t h at fr ee verse is n ot d ead . Th e pu blic still likes it an d p ays fo r it. Nevert h eless, an im p art ial su rvey of the poetic tren d of the first t h ree decades of this cen t ury sh ows that in Am er ica, an d to som e ext en t in En gla n d , these were a fe w brief years wh e n free verse ran riot . Magazin es were fu ll of it, volu m es of fr ee verse wer e pu blish ed by h un dreds, an d an t h ologies of fr ee verse by d ozen s. It provided m at erial fo r in n u m erab le crit ical essays gen eral an d p art icu lar, p ro an d co n ; it pen et rat ed the d r a win g room , the d in in g r oom , an d the class-room ; even the staid literary reviews ben t t o welcom e it. Bu t n o m ore. As a lit erary "m o ve m e n t " it is as d ead as the Got h ic Ro m an ce. Th e in quest wh ich I propose t o h old in th is ch apt er will be brief an d will t ouch on t h ree t opics: t h e reason s wh y 10 4

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t h e m ovem en t cam e in t o b ein g wh en it d id , t h e reason s fo r t h e shortness of its life, an d t h e in h eren t m erit s an d dem erit s of free verse as a lit erary fo r m . Su ch post -m ort em exam in at ion s h ave been h eld b efore, an d this on e offer s on ly such n ew eviden ce as com es fr o m vie win g fr ee verse in con trast to h yp n ot ic verse. N o w t h e t erm free verse, like ch arit y, covers a m u lt it u de of sins. T h e ph rase h as been p op u lar ly used in such a variet y of m ean in gs th at we can accom p lish n ot h in g by d iscu ssin g it un less w e d efin e wh a t t ypes of com posit ion m ay reason ably be m ean t by free verse, an d say wit h wh ich of these wc arc ch icfly con ccrn ed . Su ch a car efu l an alysis as th at in Mr . Bliss Perry's Study of Poetry 1 is valu ab le: "Re a d e rs w h o are f a m i l i a r w i t h th e e x p e ri m e n t s o f c o n t e m p o ra ry po e t s w i l l e as ily re c o g n i z e fo u r p re va l e n t t yp e s o f 'fre e ve rs e ' : ( a ) So m e t i m e s w h a t is p ri n t e d as 'fre e ve rs e ' is n o t h i n g b u t p ro s e d i s g u i s e d b y t h e art o f t y p o g ra p h y , i. e . ju d g e d b y t h e e ar, it is m a d e u p w h o l l y o f t h e rh y t h m s o f p ro s e . ( b ) So m e t i m e s t h e p ro s e rh y t h m s p re d o m i n a t e , w i t h o u t e xc l u d i n g a m i x t u re o f t h e re c o g n i z e d rh y t h m s o f ve rs e . ( c ) So m e t i m e s ve rs e rh y t h m s p re d o m i n a t e , a n d e ve n

fixed

m e t ri c al fe e t are a l l o w e d to a p p e a r h e re a n d t h e re . (d)

So m e t i m e s ve rs e rh y t h m s a n d m e t re s are u s e d e x c l u -

s i ve l y, a l t h o u g h in n e w c o m b i n a t i o n s w h i c h d i s g u i s e o r b re ak u p t h e m e t ri cal p a t t e rn . "

In this ch apt er m y in terest is wit h fr e e verse of types b an d c, an d to sim p lify m at t ers I sh all speak of these types join t ly as "fr e e verse." Typ e a is elim in at ed au t om at ically 1

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by bein g m erely prose in disguise, wh ile type d is oft en too close to conventional verse to be distinguished fr om it with out hair-splitting. Ever since the Ossianic poems of Jam es Macpherson becam e popular in the late eighteenth cen tury, the opportunity to develop a technique of "spaced " or "m easu red " prose has been eviden t. In m y book on The Celtic Revival IJ6O-I8OO I have shown that to some of Macpherson's contem poraries the "O ssian ic m an n er" seemed wort h y of im it at ion ; m ore than a century later, occasional uses of this peculiar prose style are still to be encountered. Th u s Mr. George Herbert Palm er described the style of his En glish prose translation of the Odyssey ( 18 9 1) as usin g "a sim ple rh yt h m , a rh yt h m so unobtrusive and so free from systematic arran gem en t that n o one need turn fr om the m atter to m ark the m ovem en t ." Let there be no misu n d erst an d in g: this style is not content wit h the rh yth m s inherent in good literary prose; it has a fa r closer sim ilarity to form al m et re; it is, in fact , exactly the same "m easu red " prose em ployed by Macpherson . Except in its t ypograph ical arran gem en t it does not d iffer greatly fr o m free verse of types b and c. But the m ajor poets of the nineteenth cen tury, except for W h it m an , wh o is a un ique force, m an ifested little interest in sem im etrical form s. All of them had acquired the kn ack of writ in g excellent m etrical verse, and m an y of them h ad mastered the greater difficulties of a technique that is h ypn otic. Such experim en ts in the direction of free verse as they did m ake, they do not seem to h ave taken

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ver y seriously. Bu t about t h e t u rn of t h e cen t u ry t h ree circu m st an ces com b in ed to in vit e a rad ical ch an ge in t h e t yp e of poetry t o be p rod u ced , especially in Am er ica. Th e death of five or six lead in g poets on each side of t h e At lan t ic—poet s wh ose wo r k t h eir respect ive cou n t rym en cou ld h ard ly h ope to su rpass—was sign ifican t in prep ar in g fo r a ch an ge in the st yle, ton e, or n at u re of t h e verse to be writ t en by the on com in g poets of an ot h er gen erat ion . Th e dates of deat h are t h ese: La n ie r 18 8 1, Rossetti 1882, Fit zger ald an d Lo n gfe llo w 1883, Ar n o ld 1888, Br o wn in g 1889, Lo we ll 189Γ, Te n n yso n an d W h it t ier 1892, H olm es 1894. ^ n o w w e a