Many poets feel themselves engaged in a sort of pilgrimage or spiritual journey. In the poetry of certain contemporary women, the personal quest becomes more than the usual course of art; it becomes necessary for survival. This study observes four distinct forms of pilgrimage in the poetry of Denise Levertov, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and Adrienne Rich. Levertov's quest is designated a secular pilgrimage; Sexton's, a religious pilgrimage; Plath's, a lost pilgrimage, which ends in death; and Rich's, a pilgrimage toward rebirth. These designations indicate a contrastive pairing of Levertov and Sexton, who explore forms of worship, and of Plath and Rich, who seek forms of rebirth. These poets offer a full range of possibilities for the spiritual progress of life and art, and they exemplify varying responses to the difficulty of self-realization for women in patriarchal society. / The direction of each poet's art may be indicated in relation to two dimensions of pilgrimage: death and life (relevant to existence) and the ideal and the real (relevant to art). A creative affirmation of life dominates the poetry of Levertov and Rich, who develop in relationship to the outer worlds of nature and society. A destructive impulse due to emotional pain dominates the poetry of Plath and Sexton, who attempt to develop in isolation. The pilgrimage itself is not directed toward death; rather, death ensues when the poet regards her pilgrimage as a failure. Though any pilgrimage is a search for transcendence, only the aesthetics of Plath and Levertov are oriented toward the ideal. Plath strives for perfection in her craft, and she has a vision of perfection in death. Levertov as a poet searches for the music of life, and although she often deals directly with everyday reality, she seeks glimmers of "Paradise" or "the authentic" in the commonplace, and her conception of an absolute aesthetic form is Neoplatonic in nature. The aesthetics of Sexton and Rich are oriented toward the real: they embrace change and flux, reject any absolute truth or beauty, and stress activity of consciousness rather than poetic product. / Generally, the study discusses each poet's struggle for emergence and the goals, means, obstacles and tensions, and moving forces of her journey. Central concerns in each chapter are (1) the nature and development of the poet's pilgrimage, which usually contains several interrelated strands, (2) the writer's sense of her identity as woman/pilgrim/poet, (3) a central antithesis which contributes to the direction and pace of the poetry, and (4) the relationship between language and pilgrimage for the poet. / Such a comparative study makes possible an understanding which could not be arrived at through studying a poet in isolation. In addition to elucidating the art of each poet, this study attempts to (1) suggest generalizations about the new forms that pilgrimage takes in the poetry of contemporary women who are struggling to find themselves and are bringing the personal voice of that struggle into art, and (2) illustrate the different poetic planes on which similar enterprises can be carried out and thus show a range of options available to the contemporary poet. The study also attempts to demonstrate how women can exist creatively rather than destructively with their art. Though sexuality itself is not the issue, it may be that the problems of self-realization and survival are brought into sharper focus in the poetry of these four women than in that of their male contemporaries. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-01, Section: A, page: 0213. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74385 |
| Contributors | FESMIRE, BONNIE LYNN., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 511 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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