The Hourglass

Abstract

The Hourglass developed over six years in the study of poetry and the craft of writing. It bears the marks of a developing interest in tropes, and more specifically, the science of language. While the manuscript does not make direct use of this scientific discourse, the formation of the poems themselves runs in tandem with the discovery of how figures of speech and sound symbolism function in the brain and on the page. Therefore, this manuscript represents the trajectory of my development as a writer, which has largely been driven by a curiosity regarding the (in)sight of language—the artistry of saying and showing the most with the least, having the lightest of touches.

My fascination with the power of language over the human mind was largely cultivated by my academic pursuits. When I first began writing poetry I was attracted to it for the purpose it served as a vehicle for personal expression. However, having now studied, in small part, the nature of language and of writing, my interest in the craft has broadened immensely. I believe in poetry’s potential and responsibility for evocation, more in this political climate than ever before, but I also now have an understanding of it from a technical perspective, from behind the curtain, so to speak.

Over the course of my studies at the University of St Andrews I began to write much differently than I had written during my undergrad. The language became spare, the lines shorter, the imagery less fantastical. Yet, the music of the words was, for the first time, attended to. The lyric, thus, became a space in which I could work with the language and put my learning into practice. As a result, through research, discussion, and revision I acquired not only a better grasp of the tools of the craft, but also an understanding of the material with which I was working. And through this development, this encounter, I was presented with one of the most personal decisions a writer must face: what do I want my writing to do? A question that invariably rests on another: what is poetry?

In many important ways, to set out with the intention to write a thematically coherent and digestible collection of poetry is to radically misconstrue poetry’s project. It is often only in hindsight that the poetic shape of a collection reveals itself from its origins in the magma of the unconscious, through to its transformation into the light of the conscious, becoming the hard substance of poetic language in the process. It is in much the same way that I began my studies as an apprentice to the craft of poetry, and this collection of work is the product of my engagement with poetry’s only enduring theme: language. As I am explored by language, so too does the language explore the geography of spiritual and sexual desire. This collection is an archaeological dig into the mythologies of the natural world and of the human body; it expresses the intersection of the spiritual with the visceral, tempting language, both in its sound and content, to become as real and as immediate as my hand moving across the page, as my voice speaking across the spaces between me and the world I inhabit. The themes of legend and myth, sex and spirituality, death and impermanence, love and connection lightly thread the body of this work; they are the humble representations and responses to the life and the literature that surround me, and, I hope offer another way of perceiving—a door through the early dark.

Date of Award	20 Jun 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Don Paterson (Supervisor)