1. A good introduction to Mr. Aiken's verse is his own explanation of his
theory in _Poetry_, 14 ('19); 152ff. To readers to whom this is not
accessible, the following extracts may furnish some clue as to his aim
and method:
What I had from the outset been somewhat doubtfully hankering for
was some way of getting contrapuntal effects in poetry--the effects
of contrasting and conflicting tones and themes, a kind of
underlying simultaneity in dissimilarity. It seemed to me that by
using a large medium, dividing it into several main parts, and
subdividing these parts into short movements in various veins and
forms, this was rendered possible. I do not wish to press the
musical analogies too closely. I am aware that the word symphony, as
a musical term, has a very definite meaning, and I am aware that it
is only with considerable license that I use the term for such poems
as _Senlin_ or _Forslin_, which have three and five parts
respectively, and do not in any orthodox way develop their themes.
But the effect obtained is, very roughly speaking, that of the
symphony, or symphonic poem. Granted that one has chosen a theme--or
been chosen by a theme!--which will permit rapid changes of tone,
which will not insist on a tone too static, it will be seen that
there is no limit to the variety of effects obtainable: for not only
can one use all the simpler poetic tones...; but, since one is using
them as parts of a larger design, one can also obtain novel effects
by placing them in juxtaposition as consecutive movements....
All this, I must emphasize, is no less a matter of emotional tone
than of form; the two things cannot well be separated. For such
symphonic effects one employs what one might term emotion-mass with
just as deliberate a regard for its position in the total design as
one would employ a variation of form. One should regard this or that
emotional theme as a musical unit having such-and-such a tone
quality, and use it only when that particular tone-quality is
wanted. Here I flatly give myself away as being in reality in quest
of a sort of absolute poetry, a poetry in which the intention is not
so much to arouse an emotion merely, or to persuade of a reality, as
to employ such emotion or sense of reality (tangentially struck)
with the same cool detachment with which a composer employs notes or
chords. Not content to present emotions or things or sensations for
their own sakes--as is the case with most poetry--this method takes
only the most delicately evocative aspects of them, makes of them a
keyboard, and plays upon them a music of which the chief
characteristic is its elusiveness, its fleetingness, and its
richness in the shimmering overtones of hint and suggestion. Such a
poetry, in other words, will not so much present an idea as use its
resonance.
2. An interesting comparison may be made between the work of Mr. Aiken,
and that of Mr. T.S. Eliot (q.v.), of whom he is an admirer. See also
Sidney Lanier's latest poems.
3. Another interesting study is the influence of Freud upon the poetry of
Mr. Aiken.