Emergence of complexity in poetry: \u201cSoleils couchants\u201d by Verlaine

In-Ryeong Choi,J W Kim,M Y Choi

doi:10.1057/s41599-019-0291-0

Abstract

This work investigates emergence of complexity in poetry based on the analogy between the poetics of evocation and the physics of complex systems. For this purpose, we first discuss key concepts of the physics of complex systems, such as emergence, openness, and large variability. It is then suggested that a poem could be viewed as a representative complex system. Emergence of complexity in poetry is further probed in the context of poetics of evocation. As an example, we demonstrate how poetic complexity can indeed be realized, through the analysis of Verlaine’s poem, “Soleils couchants”. In this way, we propose a remarkable convergence of poetics and physics, yielding meaningful results for both fields. On the side of poetics of evocation, its essential characteristic, “relevant mysteries” that give rise to the great variability of interpretations, is verified; on the side of physics of complex systems, the concepts of complexity is validated to provide further understanding of literature as well as natural and social phenomena.

Highlights

Modern linguistics emerged in the early 20th century, as de Saussure declared “the scientific study of language”
At the early stage of this structuralist poetics, a poetic text was considered as an isolated system, which facilitated structuralist poetics to set up scientific methodology for the formal analysis of the texts
Considering poetry as a complex system representative of literature, we have investigated emergence of its complexity in the context of the poetics of evocation

Summary

Introduction

Modern linguistics emerged in the early 20th century, as de Saussure declared “the scientific study of language” (de Saussure, 1916, p. 20). We show in particular how the concepts of complexity, i.e., the emergence of large variability in an open system of interacting components, could provide a clue to the scientific foundations of the poetics of evocation. Theory of complex systems in physics is concerned with conventional matter and with the role of information for the interpretation of natural phenomena, including life as well as society.

Results

Conclusion