Myth and the Poetry of A. D. Hope

Abstract

THE poetry of A. D. Hope centres around a powerful sense of chaos and alienation which, for him, is inherent in the condition of modern man. His satires, his poems about love and the relationship between individuals, his poetic presentation of the issues involved in artistic creation, his use of myth in his poetry and his definition of the poet's role in terms of myth-making and re-making—all represent various facets of a reaction to existence moving from negation and despair through hope and affirmation in manifold kinds and degrees to a final mythic reconciliation. My intention in this consideration of his poetry is to suggest that for Hope, myth — defined as 'a story or complex of story elements taken as expressing, and therefore as implicitly symbolizing, certain deep-lying aspects of human and transhuman existence'—provides the most satisfactory answer, both philosophically and artistically, to the problems he encounters as man and poet.