This examination of Ralph Vaughan Williams' song cycle to poetry of Alfred Edward Housman, "On Wenlock Edge," will follow primarily two avenues of approach. First, following a brief biographical sketch of Vaughan Williams' career prior to the composition of "On Wenlock Edge," will be a discussion of Vaughan Williams' and Housman's respective aesthetic philosophies. In order to lay the background for certain salient characteristics of this cycle, parallels as well as differences in their artistic thinking will be explained. Secondly, a poetic analysis will precede the musical analysis of each song in order to differentiate between the original intent of the poet and the interpretation of the poetry by Vaughan Williams.

[pt] Observar o desenvolvimento de projetos de alunos em Design é um ótimo exercício na busca afinarmos as diretrizes de uma instituição de ensino com o real processo percorrido pelos alunos. A presente pesquisa é um estudo de caso realizado com alunos da disciplina Planejamento, Projeto e Desenvolvimento - Comuicação Visual Conclusão (PPD-CV Conclusão), última disciplina de projeto do curso de Design da PUC-Rio, habilitação Comunicação Visual, pertencente ao currículo em vigor para alunos que ingressaram por vestibular até 2007. Durante o segundo semestre de 2007 e o primeiro semestre de 2008, o desenvolvimento dos projetos dos alunos da turma da professora tutora Izabel de Oliveira foi observado com o objetivo de identificar nas etapas percorridas pelos alunos, lacunas que pudessem ser trabalhadas. No processo destacamos 4 projetos que são apresentados à luz de fundamentação teórica, trazendo um olhar crítico sobre os processos percorridos pelos alunos. / [en] The development of projects by Design students is an excellent exercise when it comes to searching for the gaps to be covered in an attempt to finetune the guidelines of a teaching institution based on the real progress made by its students. This research involves a case study conducted with students of the PPD-CV Conclusion Course, the last subject in the Design course at PUC-Rio, Visual Communications Major, belonging to the curriculum prior to 2007. During the second semester of 2007 and the first semester of 2008, the researchers observed the development of the projects by students from the class of Tutor Professor Izabel de Oliveira with the objective of identifying the stages completed by the same as they develop their projects, gaps that could be worked. In order to ensure a critical perspective on the completed processes, the researchers highlight four projects that are presented based on a theoretical foundation.

Part I of this thesis has been written with a view to exploring the relevance a text over 2500 years old has for contemporary ars poetica. From a detailed study of ‘The Book of Job’ I highlight three main tropes, ‘cognitive dissonance’, ‘tĕšuvah’, and ‘dark saying’, and demonstrate how these might inform the working methods of the contemporary poet. In the introduction I define these tropes in their theological and historical context. Chapter one provides a detailed examination of ‘Job’, its antecedents and its influence on literature. In chapters two and three I examine in detail techniques of Classical Hebrew poetry employed in ‘Job’ and argue for a confluence between literary technique and Jobian cosmology. Stylistically, the rest of the thesis is a critical meditation on how the main tropes of ‘Job’ can be mapped onto contemporary ars poetica. In chapter four I initiate an exploration into varying responses to cognitive dissonance, suggesting how the false comforters and Job represent different approaches to, and stages of, poetic composition. A critique of an essay by David Daiches is followed by a detailed study of Seamus Heaney. In chapter five I map the trope of tĕšuvah onto contemporary ars poetica with reference to the poetry of Pilinszky, Popa, and to the poems and critical work of Ted Hughes. The chapter concludes with a brief exploration into the common ground shared between the terms tĕšuvah and versus as a means of highlighting the importance of proper maturation of the work. Chapter six consists of a discussion of how the kind of ‘dark saying’ found in ‘Job’ 38-41 impacts on an understanding of poetic language and its capacity to accelerate our comprehension of reality. I support this notion with excerpts from Joseph Brodsky and a close reading of Montale’s ‘L’anguilla’. Chapter seven further develops the notion of poetry as a means of propulsion beyond the familiar, the predictable or the clichéd, by examining the function of metaphor and what I term ‘quick thinking’, and by referring to two recently published poems by John Burnside and Don Paterson. In chapter eight I draw out the overall motif implied by a close reading of ‘Job’, that of the weathering of an ordeal, and map this onto ars poetica, looking at two aspects of labour, which I identify as ‘endurance’ and ‘letting go’, crucial for the proper maturation of a poem or body of poems. The concluding chapter develops the theme of the temple first discussed in chapter one. I argue for a connection between Job as a temple initiate, who has the capacity to atone for the false comforters, and poetry as a form of ‘at-one-ment’. This notion is supported by reference to Geoffrey Hill and Rilke. Part II of the thesis consists of a selection of my own poems, titled ‘Bedrock’.

[pt] O objetivo desta tese é mostrar como uma situação emocional depressiva / melancólica (o mundo interior em ruínas), bem como o mundo interior, emocional, não organizado ou não pensado se transforma em canção: que fatores emocionais da personalidade do poeta são articulados em um dado momento e num determinado contexto, levando-o ou compelindo-o ao processo de criação poética. Usaremos, como ponto de partida, o que os poetas, como Manuel Bandeira, Dante Milano, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Poe, Gilberto Mendonça Teles, Jorge Luiz Borges e T. S. Eliot escreveram ou disseram em entrevistas sobre a criação ou construção do poema ou da obra de arte literária. No estudo que estou apresentando, a arte é entendida da maneira como Susanne Langer a formulou em Sentimento e forma: Arte é a criação de formas simbólicas do sentimento humano. O processo criador da arte pode ser visto, também, como uma forma simbólica pela qual a consciência organiza e expressa a experiência emocional. A arte emerge de um desejo intrinsicamente humano - a necessidade de forma. O foco da tese incide no processo criativo, na tensão entre a ruína emocional ou o caos interior e os recursos lingüísticos empregados pelo poeta na sua ordenação. Subjacente à desintegração ou não- integração psíquica existe um nível profundo que busca a ordem e que dá forma ao caos emocional. O artista deve operar sobre sua experiência, senti-la intensamente, mas simultaneamente separar-se reflexivamente dela; separar o sujeito que sofre a experiência da mente que pensa e cria a obra de arte. Tendo isto em pauta, a tese apresenta um viés psicológico. / [en] This dissertation aims to show how an emotional situation of the depressivemelancholic type (the inner world in ruins) is transformed into poetry; how emotional factors of a poet`s personality are organized in a given moment and in a given context leading or compelling him to the process of poetic creation. Poets like Manuel Bandeira, Dante Milano, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Poe, Gilberto Mendonça Teles, T. S. Eliot and Jorge Luis Borges are taken as starting points.In this study, art is understood as Susanne Langer proposed in Feeling and form: Art is the creation of symbolic forms of human feeling. Art`s creative process can also be seen as a symbolic form whereby conscience organizes and expresses the emotional experience. The focus of this thesis converges on the creative process, in the tension between the emotional ruin and the linguistic resources employed by the poet in organizing his interior chaos. Underlying the psychological desintegration or non-integration, there is a deep layer that demands order and shapes the emotional chaos. The poet must act on the basis of his experience, feel it intensely but, at the same time move away from it in a reflexive way; he must separate the subject who suffers the experience from the mind who thinks and creates the poem. Bearing this in mind, the study displays a strongly psychological colour.