Is poetry a denial or sublimation of reality?

Is a poet sublimating or denying reality when he describes things in a poem? How can he
see a wonderful river of beauty when at the same time we don't?
First, for a good understanding of the question we have to see what denial and sublimation
are from a psychological point of view.
According to Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Anna Freud (1895-1982), there are several
forms of denial. In this essay we will understand denial as a psychological defence mechanism in
which a person has to deal with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead,
insisting that it is not true despite any evidences of its reality.
Sublimation, which is quite different, will be here seen as a transformation of negative
emotions or instincts into positive actions, behaviours or emotions.

Poetry deals with a lot of themes like love, nature, death, life, loneliness, happiness etc..
It is a form of literature that uses aesthetic by several aspects mostly thanks to the poems forms,
rhythmic and genre, for example : a sonnet, an elegy, an ode...
There are several kinds of poetry such as epic, dramatic, satirical, lyrical..
The use of figures of speech such as comparisons and metaphors and some stylistic elements
reinforces the aesthetic impact of poetry. So how could this art which most of the time expresses
feelings be a denial or a sublimation of reality? How could poets transmit their emotions or vision
of life through literature?

In this essay, we'll try to demonstrate that denial and sublimation can be associated with
poetry but that denial isn't really part of it, then to argue that poetry is more a sublimation of reality
and finally how the poet's condition is favourable to this sublimation.

I. How Sublimation and Denial are present in Poetry?

A) Sublimation vs Denial

Poetry has changed through time, with the different artistic and literary movements.
We can start at the Elizabethan period, with for example a pioneer of poetry : William Shakespeare
(1564-1616). Well-known for his plays but also his numerous sonnets, a lot of them talking about
love, passion or beauty.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day (Sonnet 18) is a lyrical poem (semantic field of beauty,
nature and time), with crossed rhymes. He uses comparisons, directly in the title: “Shall I compare
thee to a summer's day” and also metaphors, such as: “the eye of heaven shines”.
Here the poet sublimates his environment, his purpose is to give his subject beauty characteristics,
and so he chooses to compare it with summer which has a whole signification to him.
This sonnet shows the inspiration poets find in the beauty of nature to express themselves, declare
to their beloved, or talk about the cycle of life.
Let's see another poem from the same epoch: Sonnet I by Sir John Suckling (1609-1642). While
called a 'sonnet' this poem does not follow the traditional sonnet form of 14 lines. It also deals with
beauty and time, the poet sublimates beauty itself : “beauty's empire”

In the poem Denial written by Helen Rosengren, a contemporary poet, she expresses her feeling,
she admits she's denying. She uses metaphors to talk about it: “Denial is a river that flows through
my veins”. There is a personalisation of denial: “Denial is a fence surrounding my soul” She admits
her dependence to it : “It is my only defence”
She stated in her poem: “It just didn't happen” “It can't be true”. Even if Rosengren talks about
denial she isn't really denying reality since she admits it, she is conscious of what she does.

Why can we tell that this poem deals with denial but isn't really a denial of reality?

B) Denial is unconscious

Denial can be pathological, it is a subconscious pressure. Anna Freud classified it as a

“mechanism of immature mind because it conflicts with the ability to learn from and cope with
reality” whereas in Poetry poets are aware of reality, they would rather change it but they don't deny
it.

In the poem On Denial's Cloud by Eileen Manassian Ghali (contemporary poet), the poet talks
about blind love.
She clearly admits that she prefers staying in denial to facing reality, still she sees what happens: “I
choose not to discern what's in your eyes”. This condition releases her of her pain: “My heart floats
on a denial's cloud of peace”

In The reality of Denial by Erin Soares-Anselmi (contemporary poet) the author talks about how the
mechanism can be dangerous, and how the line between denying and admitting reality is thin.
But some people wallow in denial: “Denial is powerful”

How can we say that poets aren't really denying reality but more sublimating it?

II. Sublimation seems to be the poet's illness

A) How sublimation dominates in Poetry

One of the richest literary movement in terms of Poetry is certainly Romanticism. The
Romantics felt that the relationship we build with nature and people defines our lives. Poets were
expressing their deepest feelings, it is a subjective poetry. Most of the time lyrical. The pioneers in
this genre were William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834), they are
considered as the first generation of Romantic poets.
But even before them other poets did the same thing . For example the said “Graveyard poets” were
a number of 18th century pre-Romantic English poets characterised by their gloomy meditations on
mortality.

In his poem The Complaint: or Night Thoughts Edward Young (1681-1765) argues in favour of
experiencing everything life has to offer.
This poem is a denunciation of what men do with their life, of time that goes too fast, and that the
decisions we make are due to our notion of death.
We know human being is not eternal, so we all deal with our time in a different manner.
There are some mythological or historical references: “The Fatal Sisters” “Philander” “Lorenzo”...
Young says : “Procrastination is a thief of time” he gives his analysis of the meaning of life, the
time we spend on earth as significant. He's not denying reality, he has conscience of it. Even if he's
not sublimating it explicitly, implicitly we understand that he considers life and death as sublime.

In the second generation of Romantic poets:

John Clare (1793-1864) is one of the important poet of his generation, seen as the “Peasant Poet”,
nature was his source of inspiration.
In his poem Emmonsail's Heath in Winter, beginning with “I love” the poet clearly expresses his
feelings. We can say he praises the landscape described, the semantic fields of nature and birds are
present (heath, wither, ash-tree, trunk, crow, woodcock, fieldfares..) it conveys a really bucolic
atmosphere: “the heron...flaps its melancholy wings” it is a lyrical poem. It is again a sublimation of
nature and reality.

John Keats (1795-1821) is also a major Romantic poet. Bright Star is one of his most famous
poems.
This poem is addressed to a star, there's a personification. There are also some figures of speech
such as an oxymoron “sweet unrest”. Here Keats is sublimating life, “Like nature's patient,
sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task of pure ablution round earth's human
shores”
The author has his own vision of life, we can say this lyrical poem has a tragic dimension, he
desires to live in another world where he could live for ever with his beloved “And so live ever--or
else swoon to death.”

With these three examples we can see poets are sublimating reality, they see life, nature and death
as a source of inspiration and transform their subjective vision into something positive for their
writing. Death which is a fate becomes something that pushes them to write. To leave something
behind them, a desire of eternity.

B) How the poet's condition is favourable to this sublimation

Sigmund Freud believed that sublimation was a sign of maturity. He defined it as a process
being “an especially conspicuous feature of cultural development, it is what makes it possible for
higher psychical activities, scientific artistic or ideological, to play an important part in civilised
life”

After Romanticism the first wave of damned poets appeared, didn't bother about anything, the
social status of the artist changed drastically, artist as a rebel. Poets were a distinct category of
society, sometimes even more a part than writers. The desire to leave a trace of their passage on
earth, which is part of the artist, is also a cause for their writing. As a unique form of art, poetry has
always been the least lucrative form of literature.
We can say this condition of the poet through time justifies this sublimation of reality.

Edward James (1907-1984) is a poet part of the surrealist movement. The aim was to "resolve the
previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality." He was represented by René Magritte in
La reproduction interdite and Le principe du plaisir. I think these two paintings show well the
paradox a poet can have in his mind between reality and what he will write (which can lead to
madness)
In Medicate Me there are personalisations such as : “Winter is climbing quickly and laughing in my
face again” “Love brightens the darkened shadows in your garden”. Alternated negative/positive
semantic fields. Antithesis such as compassion/sin, day/night.
It seems like a nostalgic and tragic poem but at the end it is quite optimistic, he writes: “as long as I
give these demons a good fight...Happiness has taken over my body”. By this contrast he transforms
negative emotions into something positive.

Sublimation can be applied in poetry but also in everyday life, if you accept reality and see
everything as positive it is a more powerful and mature mind than denying what upsets you.
Admitting reality is a first step to deal with life as it really exists.

The poet was and is an enigmatic person, the feelings conveyed in their poem are still a
mystery, that’s why academics spend years analysing poets and the meaning of their work.While
poets can create great works, none can create true reality as that already exists. A poet can create
an illusion of reality in a poem. We can ask ourselves if this sublimation really enabled poets to
escape their own reality? Was sublimation the only way to express themselves? Poetry is still one of
the most interesting subject of study in literature thanks to its innumerable implicit messages.

Sources: www.poetryfoundation.org, www.poemhunter.com