Reveries of the Past and the Unattainable Moments
Fragments of Forgotten Shadows in Selected Poems of Charles Wright
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31973/ejh42a03Keywords:
Charles Wright, the past, screen memories, unseen realm, ambiguityAbstract
Charles Wright (1935- ) is a postmodern poet who embarks on his spiritual pilgrimage toward the unseen through his poetry. He begins this pilgrimage by visiting his past to reflect on the nature of his memories. The present research examines selected poems by Wright to trace his spiritual pilgrimage into the past depending on Sigmund Freud’s concept of screen memories. His pilgrimage through his poetry shows his nostalgic feelings toward the past and how nostalgia changes the accurate picture of his memories. Moreover, Wright explores the true essence of memory and its ambiguous nature with the help of the natural world and his poetic writings, his poems examine how this ambiguity of memory changes the poet’s perspective toward his own memories. However, the study shows how the past is a part of the unseen world, indicating the impossibility of having a full reach toward it, and how memory, in the end, is deceitful by its own nature.
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