Hypnotic Poetry: A Study of Trance-inducing Technique in Certain Poems and Its Literary Significance

174 Pages·1930·16.469 MB·English

by  Edward Douglas Snyder

HYPNOTIC POETRY

H Y P N O T I C P O E T R Y
A Study of Trance-Inducing Technique
in Certain Poems and its
Literary Significance
By
EDWARD D. SNYDER
Associate Professor of English
Haverford College
With a Foreword by
JAMES H. LEUBA
Professor oj Psychology
Bryn Mawr College
1930
Philadelphia
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
COPYRIGHT I93O
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
London: Humphrey Milford
Oxford University Press
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE VAIL-BALLOU PRESS, INC., BINGHAHTON, N. Y.
To
E. R. S.

PREFACE
' I 'HE first four chapters of this volume propose and sup-
port a certain idea about poetry, while the remaining
chapters make practical applications of the idea to indi-
vidual poems and to topics of a more general nature. I
hope that people who read poetry for the sheer love of
il, as well as those who are tcachcrs and professional critics,
will welcome this study of the trance-inducing effect that
a few poems seem to exert on the reader, and will share
my interest in extending the study to poems that are less
obviously hypnotic.
Since Mr. Leuba has suggested in his Foreword both the
nature of this study and its possible significance, I need
not do so. Instead, I take this opportunity of thanking him
for his kindness in reading the manuscript and in making
many valuable suggestions. I should be ungenerous if I
did not warn readers that, should they rely on the fact that
so distinguished a psychologist as Mr. Leuba has, so to
speak, guaranteed the soundness of the principal psycho-
logical views here set forth, they must not hold him re-
sponsible for such errors as may have crept in despite his
warning. I must also thank all others whose interest in
hypnotic poetry, or whose friendship, has enabled me to
benefit by their helpful criticism—particularly Mr. Elias
vii
viii PREFACE
Lyman of Northwestern University, Mr. Christopher
Morley, Mr. L. Arnold Post of Haverford College, Mr.
Arthur B. Perry of Milton Academy, and my sister, Miss
Alice D. Snyder of Vassar College. Permission to quote
various passages of prose and verse has been given through
the courtesy of several publishers, to whom my indebted-
ness is acknowledged in notes to the passages quoted.
EDWARD D. SNYDER.
Haverford College,
September 22, 1930.
FOREWORD
"PO ETICAL criticism is in much need of an assistance
which the psychologist only can give. One must turn
to him to learn what is the effect of word-sounds, of refrain,
of length of line, of rime, of different rhythms, etc. One of
the merits of Mr. Snyder is to have isolated for treatment
what seems to me the most interesting and consequential
of the psychological problems confronting the student of
poetry.
The significance of states of partial trance in the life of
humanity, whether produced by drugs like alcohol and
hashish, or by psychical methods, such as those of the
Yogi, of certain extravagant Christian mystics, of revival-
ists, and even of grandiloquent orators, is slowly coming to
be realized. This short book is an important and timely
contribution to the understanding of the rôle played in
poetry by partial trance. The author shows that there are
two different kinds of poetry—passing gradually into each
other, of course. One he calls "hypnotic," the other "intel-
lectualist." His chief concern is to make clear that there
is a technique of poetry which is literally hypnotic or
trance-inducing, and that poetry is to be read and criticised
according to its kind.
To set forth the characteristics of the technique of these
LX
X FOREWORD
two types of poetry and their respective effects upon the
reader and upon the poet himself, required the union of
much poetical and psychological knowledge. Mr. Snyder
is known to be well equipped for one part of this task ; the
present book shows that he is well equipped for the other
part also. If he has not solved all the psychological prob-
lems in his way—who would ?—he has thrown light on sev-
eral, and has accomplished his self-appointed task : he has,
it seems to me, demonstrated the existence of a type of
poetry which owes its attraction to a method of composi-
tion, the effect of which is to limit the intellectual activity,
i. e., to induce a state of partial trance, and thereby to free
in some measure the emotional life from the trammel of
critical thinking. This achievement carries with it the ac-
ceptance of a corollary of much importance both to readers
and critics: Poems are to be read, studied, and criticised
"according to the technique which they employ." The
reader of poetry, enlightened by Mr. Snyder, will derive a
greater enjoyment, and the student a deeper understanding
and sounder principles of criticism.
I would like to be permitted to add that the attitude of
the author seems to me admirably objective and judicious.
He neither exalts trance-states nor decries intellectualism
in poetry, but analyzes in a scholarly manner the two
types of poetry and dispassionately appraises the merits
of each.
JAMES H. LEUBA