Journey To The Twofold Worlds In Robert Bly's Poetry

Bly thus defines the goal of poetry: "all poems are journeys. They go from somewhere to somewhere else." He stresses feelings and emotion, trusts the unconscious and unknown but does not exclude the intellect. His deep image poetry is philosophically indebted to Boehme's notion of the two worlds, which also inspires the author in writing the thesis. From the perspective of Jungian psychology, this project intends to illuminate the inward road to Bly's poetry and to unveil the poetic landscape there.Chapter 1 aims at explaining Jung's theory and Bly's poetry and the correspondence between them. Jung engages himself in search of soul all his life to uncover the mystery of human psychic world; his theory is noted for its decisive journeys inward and for the great explorations of the inner world. He dedicated to draw up a map of the human soul that describes the psyche in all of its dimensions, and tries to explain its internal dynamics. Bly, the poet wanders as a lonely cloud to keep on his endless poetic journey. His journey inward is also a journey beyond the self and toward connection, a descent into both the body and the natural world. Bly's inward road has taken him along the process that Jung described as individuation and integration. Chapter 2 discusses the inner psychic world in Bly's poetry including the visible psyche and the invisible psyche. The two levels of psyche correspond respectively to the existence of the conscious and unconscious part of it. Persona and ego are examined referring to the conscious part, the visible psyche; shadow and Self are discussed referring to the unconscious part, the invisible psyche. Connecting and reuniting the two-fold consciousness is the effort to overcome separation and fragmentation, and is the longing to achieve harmony and integration. It is the road to health and wholeness. As Jung advocated, a person can be whole only through integration of both levels of consciousness, through joint of what is invisible with what is visible.Chapter 3 addresses the issue of the outer world and the final integration of the two worlds. In the outer world, two aspects referring to the relation between human and nature will be examined. The first aspect refers to poetry locked in the human ego, and the second deals with poetry revealing the interdependence of all things alive. Bly respects the act of perception as a journey to the discovery of truth in both the outer and inner worlds. His poetry is engaged in an unceasing effort to build harmony between the conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche, between the inner and outer world, to achieve not only "psychic wholeness" in the inner world but also complete integration of the two worlds. Seas may go dry one day, and rocks may melt with the sun. However, the poetry of earth is never ceasing and Bly's poetic journey keeps on progressing.