The Higher Self in Christopher Brennan's Poems

Esotericism, Romanticism, Symbolism
Erscheinungsjahr 2006
ISBN: 978-90-04-15221-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 2, 324 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 243 mm, Gewicht: 735 g

Reihe: Aries Book Series

In 1914 a remarkable poetic work appeared in Sydney, Australia, written in the form of a Symbolist livre composé by one of Stephane Mallarmé’s earliest admirers, Christopher Brennan.

The book, simply titled Poems, shows that Brennan was exploring pressing religious issues of his time. He melded Western esoteric currents such as alchemy and Rosicrucianism with Romantic literature and philosophy and French Symbolist theory.

This book argues that the focus of Poems is the notion of a higher self. It is the first major study of Brennan’s work in this broad religious, philosophical and literary context. Its argument is supported by evidence from Brennan's own library and the holdings of the Sydney library in which he worked.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Barnes, Katherine

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Eklektizismus, Esoterik, Anthroposophie, Theosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter One: Divinity and the Self
Introduction
Looking for a Human Divinity
“Twilights of the gods and the folk”
Esoteric Wisdom
“My hidden country”
Chapter Two: Mirror and Abyss
Brennan, Yeats and Boehme
The Argument to the Lilith Sequence
“The watch at midnight”
“The plumes of night, unfurl’d” and the Inner “Abyss”
Chapter Three: Art and Silence
The Romantic View of Imagination
Five Short Pieces: From “The trees that thro’ the tuneful morn had made”
“O thou that achest, pulse o’ the unwed vast”
“Thick sleep, with error of the tangled wood”
“Terrible, if he will not have me else”
“She is the night: all horror is of her”
Chapter Four: Brennan’s Theory of ‘Moods’
Stimmung and Gemüth in German Pre-Romanticism and Romanticism
Concept of Moods in Early Yeats
Les Dieux Antiques
‘Moods’ in Brennan’s Early Prose
Chapter Five: “Red autumn in Valvins”
Introduction
The ‘Passion’ of the Poet
Transposition
‘Musicality’ in the Elegy
“Was Mallarmé a Great Poet?”
Chapter Six: Two Preludes and a Liminary
Introduction
“MDCCCXCIII: a prelude”
The Liminary
“O yon, when Holda leaves her hill”
Chapter Seven: The Assimilation of our Inmost Passion to the Tetralogy of the Year
A Secular Liturgy
“Towards the Source”
“Secreta Silvarum”
Interludes
“Autumn: the year breathes dully” and “The grand cortège of glory”
The symbol of the rose
“1908”
Conclusion
Appendix One: Table of Contents for Poems
Appendix Two: Sources of Brennan’s Lilith: T.K. Cheyne and Isaiah
Appendix Three: Relevant Works from Brennan’s Library
Appendix Four: Relevant Works Held by the Public Library of NSW 1895–1909
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Katherine Barnes, Ph.D. (2003) in English, Australian National University, is a lecturer in English at the Australian Defence Force Academy campus of the University of NSW. She is the author of several articles on Brennan and co-editor of Words for Their Own Sake: The Pursuit of Literature in an Economic Rationalist World (2004).