The hidden miraculous : an esoteric reading of yeats', Rilke's and Gore-booth's poetry

• Main Author: Chen, Zoea Tania Jinyan
• Other Authors: Neil Murphy
• Format: Thesis-Master by Research
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::Literature
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/144177
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

According to many thinkers, modernity has ushered a severe fragmentation in the realm of consciousness. This fragmentation has cut us off of an important connection to an “other” realm where spirits and divine truths reside. Esoteric philosophy is the spiritual and intellectual venture to redress this issue. The proliferation of this philosophy is rooted on a profound belief in the potentialities of the human mind and the hidden truths from a beyond that harkens back to primordial times. Such concerns and aspirations were shared by poets who saw an invisible world looming behind the veil of reality, and through their bodies of poems wanted to release and illuminate. Such was the disposition of many prolific early twentieth century European poets whose reputations were characterized by an incomplete understanding of their initial impulses. This paper thus, seeks to delineate an esoteric, poetic tradition percolating in the early twentieth century European literary landscape. Paying attention to the works of Rainer Maria Rilke, Eva Gore-Booth and William Butler Yeats, this exploration aims to trace an intellectual and spiritual line that illustrates an affinity with the esoteric. Although the esoteric tradition is not exclusively reflected in their oeuvres, the richness and poignancy of Yeats’, Rilke’s and Gore-Booth’s poems in particular, seemed to create an important echo in the poetic world that was to follow. Such manifestations indicate a continuity of the esoteric tradition and will be exemplified by brief examinations of the works by Arsenii Tarkovsky and Dylan Thomas. The analyses within this paper are framed and informed by thinkers such as P.D Ouspensky, George Gurdjieff, Rudolf Steiner and Madame Blavatsky whose ideas of esotericism and hermeticism proved to be a great source of inspiration to the poets we will discuss. In exploring the various affinities between the poetic form and esoteric philosophies, this research hopes to articulate and shed light on a tradition’s presence that has been eclipsed for far too long.