The subject of this thesis is the haiku poem, which is now established as a viable form in English. The possibilities of the form - and its kindred forms of tanka, renga and haibun - are exemplified by my own creative writing, presented in Chapter Seven. This presentation is supported by nine further chapters dealing successively with haiku history, theory, practice and context. The chapters on haiku history offer an outline of the development of the form in Japan, together with discussion of its initial adaptation to the English-language context in North America. Chapter Four, on haiku theory, brings together a series of diverse essays which combine into a detailed analysis of the key requirements of haiku, both in terms of form and content. The chapters on haiku practice focus attention on the poets and publications that have pioneered the development of haiku in Britain during the decade of the 1990s. The three concluding chapters analyse haiku in the context of renga (linked verse), haibun (haiku prose), and in relation to other forms of artistic presentation, not least other forms of poetry. The entire thesis is intended to constitute a thorough grounding in the specific demands and values of haiku in English.

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The aim of this work is to challenge the traditionally held view of the image of the lady in medieval courtly lyric as either the summit of perfection or the source of all evil. Feminine images in courtly lyric have tended to be analysed in terms of a bipolar pattern represented by the wholly positive model of the bona domna in opposition to the entirely negative figure of the mala domna. It is argued in this thesis that praise and blame are not opposite trends in this kind of poetry, but different representations of the feminine arising from the interaction between the misogynist background of cultural tradition and the civilizing trends characteristic of courtly literature. As a result of the different degrees to which this interaction takes place, we find a variety of feminine images that makes redundant the conventional classification of women into the good and the bad. The scope of this work is Provençal troubadour lyric of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as well as love lyric written in Provençal and Catalan in the kingdom of Aragon over the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The five chapters trace the evolution of the conventional topics of this lyric in relation to the changing social and economical conditions of the period. The concept of symbolic inversion of gender roles is applied to representations of the lady and the courtly lover, in order to identify the simultaneous presence of positive and negative elements in every text. The thesis aims to demonstrate that the multi-faceted, versatile image of the lady in this body of love lyric is to serve as a pretext for the production of courtly discourse, a source of social and intellectual prestige for poets. Detailed study of a representative selection of texts shows how deference for the lady, originally one of the signs of distinction defining courtly love lyric, is progressively displaced by other features of courtly discourse that grant distinction.

Poetry may be transmitted through public readings, stage plays, radio dramas or drama-documentaries, as well as through books. It can be delivered by persons differently linked to the text: by the poet-writer, by other poets, by actors, or, indeed, by the reader who reads silently to him or herself. This thesis is interested in the way that a poem communicates not only through the page but without the mediation of an obvious physical text. I am interested in 'out loud' versions of poetry, vocal and visual presentations, which bring an emphasis upon the audiences' experiences, usually gained through the ear and the eye. My introduction considers where the radio or stage writing poet comes from, in order to give context to four research questions. Verse drama is explored and the role of the poet within twentieth and twenty-first century theatre is considered. The first chapter asks what radio offers the poet which the page does not. The second chapter asks what performance offers the poet which the page does not (as solo reading and as revue, or as dramatised performance). The third chapter considers how poetry may be adapted to suit these spaces through case studies that compare the same work re-made for different media. The fourth chapter discusses my own writing and how it has crossed differing circumstances and media; and how this process is a negotiation with opportunities and constraints, rather than an entirely prescriptive or proscriptive process. The PhD comprises a 50-50 split between Creative and Critical investigations and should be read alongside the Creative portfolio States a/Grace if the predominantly self-reflective fourth chapter of this thesis is of interest.

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This thesis investigates the representation of social reality that can be reflected by folk belief and the supernatural within mythic worlds created in epic poetry. Although the society, itself, can be regarded as the creator of its own myth, it may still be subjected to the impact of the synthesized mythic world, and this study seeks to address the roles of the society in the shaping of such mythic worlds. The research is inspired by an innovative approach, using James Macpherson’s Ossian (1760-63) and Elias Lönnrot’s Kalevala (1835-49) as epic models that benefit from mythical traditions. Through the examination and the comparison of these two epic collections, both of which seem to have a close association with social reformation and restructuring, the study explores the universality of human nature. It also reveals the extent mythic worlds may exhibit the ‘realities’ of their source-societies and how mythical tradition may become a reflection of a society’s transforming past modes of thinking. Moreover, the study devotes special attention to the influence of mythic heritage on national awakening and the construction of national identities. The research treats Macpherson as the re-inventor of Gaelic oral tradition with his Ossian, where he portrays a Romanticized image of a gallant past according to the norms of the eighteenth century. Therefore, the mythic world of the epic can be seen as a combination of an ancient heroic past and the aesthetic refinement of a polished age. In this framework, as the product of a society going through a transition period from traditional to modern, Ossian seems to reflect the society’s changing world-view, both celebrating, and mourning for a culture on the verge of extinction. Focusing on the Kalevala, the study analyzes its portrayal of Finnish folk belief. The Kalevala, like Ossian, is an attempt to recover ancient tradition, which seems to revolve around supernatural and divine elements, with hopes to establish a common social reality. It is an expression of Finnish language, belief and culture, whose production was prompted by the looming Finnish nationalism. Therefore, the evolving mode of thought represented in the mythic world of Kalevalaic poems, is expected and favoured by the society, enabling the epic to encourage a social reformation.