More on Secular Epiphanies, and the American Sublime

A short while back. I wrote a post about encountering a poet sitting at his typewriter at a local farmers market who would write a poem, on the spot, on any topic one might propose. I proposed "epiphany, in the non-religious sense," made a modest contribution to his well being and was asked to return in 15 minutes. You can see the result and read more about that here.

When I subsequently searched for his website, I discovered that poetry-on-demand is readily available and apparently has been for some time.

One particular writer, Jacqueline Suskin, caught my eye and I asked her for a poem on the same topic to see how her notion of the concept might differ from that of the first poet, William Curtis. To be fair, she had more time to think it over and received a somewhat larger contribution to her well being, but an affordable one nonetheless.


Here is what she produced:

Ms Suskin, perhaps having consulted the following dictionary definition of a non-religious epiphany -- to wit,  "a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience" -- uses fire as a metaphor for the initiating force. It fits the bill as being commonplace, yet transformative.

"So let it strike, fire of insight ..."

"Better to say yes, feel the fullness of the burn ..." 

" ... when the muse does light the wick, ..."

Suskin's poem is as coherent as it is evocative, and I like it.  But like that of Curtis, it does not get at the Joycean notion of epiphany, which is something viewed as essential, or of the essence of a particular time and place, but which a writer constructs slowly and carefully with great attention to detail.

This topic also brings to mind Harold Bloom's recent book entitled The Daemon Knows, which he identifies as being "about the dozen creators of the American Sublime."

What is the sublime?

"Simplistically," Bloom says, "the sublime in literature has been associated with peak experiences that render a secular version of a theophany: a sense of something interfused that transforms a natural moment, landscape, action, or countenance."  Or as Suskin put it in her poem: " ... vision of all revealed."

A theophany is defined as "a manifestation of a deity to man in a form that, though visible, is not necessarily material," which is why Bloom, for his purposes, refers to "a secular version" of that phenomenon.

Theophany and epiphany are related in that they share "manifestation" as a synonym. A secular theophany or epiphany is, in its essence, a religious-like experience for non-believers. To put that another way, Bloom claims that 1l of the 12 poets and writers he discusses in The Daemon Knows "represent our incessant effort to transcend the human without forsaking humanism."  The exception is T.S. Eliot, who, at least in his later work, strongly believes in God.

Somehow, there must be more to all of this, we say, looking around and thinking about our circumstances.