{"id":72,"date":"2016-04-13T12:16:26","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T20:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.annhuang.com\/blog\/?p=72"},"modified":"2017-12-11T12:28:49","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T20:28:49","slug":"5-things-to-know-about-surrealist-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/13\/5-things-to-know-about-surrealist-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things to Know about Surrealist Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"surrealism\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Breton\u2019s Le Manifeste du Surr\u00e9alism (Manifesto of Surrealism) in 1924 sparked a cultural movement that unlocked limits. Surrealist artistic philosophy follows the premise that Breton set forth\u2014that \u201comnipotence of dreams\u201d and \u201cdisinterested play of thought\u201d take precedence over logic and reason. The forefathers of the movement felt inspired by ideas surrounding the power of unconscious thought, and used writing and art to reconcile the unconscious mind with rational life.<\/p>\n

A Guide to Surrealist Poetry<\/h3>\n

1. Beginnings in Dadaism and Freudian inspiration:<\/strong> The Surrealist movement grew out of Dadaism, which broke codes regarding society\u2019s accepted values and conventions. Surrealism aimed to be an instrument of knowledge, as those who followed the movement believed that the subconscious contained true reality. Poets who followed the surrealist movement agreed with Freud\u2019s theory that the unconscious mind is deeper than the conscious mind.<\/p>\n

2. A higher reality and point sublime:<\/strong> Surrealism involves the concept of a reality that is higher than the reality that individuals experience in everyday life. Poets who followed the movement focused on the reality created by the waking consciousness, which unites imagination and the real world, subjectivity and objectivity, and dream states and wakefulness. Breton stated in The Communication Vessels that the real and dream worlds are the same; the mind in each state of being communicates like two connected vessels. This principle is also known as point sublime, which is the realization of surreal unity\u2014the point at which contrasts merge, such as life and death, beauty and ugliness, the past and future.<\/p>\n

3. The marvelous and objective chances:<\/strong> The concept of the marvelous, or aggravated beauty, had a large role in Surrealist poems. Marvelous concepts depicted in these poems portray the ongoing anxiety that underlies the human experience. The involuntary shudder that marvelous images cause is the result of objective chances\u2014the juxtaposition of two terms that seemed to conflict with each other, but are secretly related.<\/p>\n

4. Delirious love:<\/strong> Following Breton\u2019s lead in the Second Manifesto, Surrealists celebrate love as the only idea that unites every individual to the idea of life, even if for a brief moment. Therefore, passionate commitment is a liberating force.<\/p>\n

5. Automatic writing:<\/strong> Some surrealist writers used automatism. This means that as a poet writes, there is no conscious control over thoughts. She or he writes whatever comes to mind. According to Breton, a Surrealist poet should not filter, select or shape his or her writing. The words should be raw and vivid.<\/p>\n

Examples of Classic Surrealist Poetry<\/h3>\n

Choose Life (excerpt)<\/strong>
\nChoose life instead of those prisms with no depth even if their colors are purer
\nInstead of this hour always hidden instead of these terrible vehicles of cold flame
\nInstead of these overripe stones
\nChoose this heart with its safety catch\u2026
\n-Andr\u00e9 Breton<\/em><\/p>\n

Arp<\/strong>
\nTurns without reflections to the curves without smiles of shadows with mustaches, registers the murmurs of speed, the miniscule terror, searches under some cold cinders for the smallest birds, those which never close their wings, resist the wind.
\n-Paul \u00c9luard<\/em><\/p>\n

Series<\/strong>
\nFor the splendour of the day of happinesses in the air
\nTo live the taste of colours easily
\nTo enjoy loves so as to laugh
\nTo open eyes at the final moment
\nShe has every willingness.
\n– Paul \u00c9luard<\/em><\/p>\n

Enigmas (excerpt)<\/strong>
\nYou’ve asked me what the lobster is weaving there with
\nhis golden feet?
\nI reply, the ocean knows this.
\nYou say, what is the ascidia waiting for in its transparent
\nbell? What is it waiting for?
\nI tell you it is waiting for time, like you\u2026
\n-Pablo Neruda<\/em><\/p>\n

Mobius Strip<\/strong>
\nThe track I’m running on
\nWon’t be the same when I turn back
\nIt’s useless to follow it straight
\nI’ll return to another place
\nI circle around but the sky changes
\nYesterday I was a child
\nI’m a man now
\nThe world’s a strange thing
\nAnd the rose among the roses
\nDoesn’t resemble another rose.
\n-Robert Desnos<\/em><\/p>\n

[Photo from Ian Palmer<\/a> via CC License 2.0<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andr\u00e9 Breton\u2019s Le Manifeste du Surr\u00e9alism (Manifesto of Surrealism) in 1924 sparked a cultural movement that unlocked limits. Surrealist artistic philosophy follows the premise that Breton set forth\u2014that \u201comnipotence of dreams\u201d and \u201cdisinterested play of thought\u201d take precedence over logic and reason. The forefathers of the movement felt inspired by ideas surrounding the power of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,12],"tags":[31,16,15,5,17,13,14,19],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-language","category-surrealist-poetry","tag-ann-huang","tag-pablo-neruda","tag-paul-eluard","tag-poetry-form","tag-robert-desnos","tag-surrealism","tag-surrealist-poetry","tag-transcendentalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annhuangpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}