Date of Award
Spring 1976
Document Type
Thesis - Restricted
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Falco, Joseph
Second Advisor
Boyle, Robert
Third Advisor
Daeger, Gil
Abstract
Richard Wilbur believes that the poet's job is to find order in the chaotic world. The poet's very act of writing in a poetic form is a step toward such an ordering. In his poetry, Wilbur's use of forms which are potentially dialectical and themes which are dialectical reveal that the diversity and contradictions inherent in the world create confusion and that an acceptance, a reconsideration of the validity of the opposites, becomes in itself an ordering. A consideration of the narrative structure of particular poems which exhibit a dialectical tension suggests not only that the dialectic-isms exist but also that by nature they are irresolvable. Wilbur's frequent use of irony and paradox demonstrates further that the synthesis is in itself dialectical. Wilbur's use of the incarnation both as a metaphor for the poetic process and as a paradigm for a synthesis in which the two antinomies are ultimately sustained serves as the model for an ideal transcendence of the dialectic-isms of reality.
Recommended Citation
Kriegisch, Lou Ann, "The Dialecticism of Transcendence and Immanence in the Poetry of Richard Wilbur" (1976). Master's Theses (1922-2009) Access restricted to Marquette Campus. 1481.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/theses/1481