‘I Grow More & More Poetic’: Virginia Woolf and Prose Poetry

Abstract

This essay begins by considering how we might claim Woolf as a poet in prose and a writer of prose poetry, rather than a poetic novelist. It closes with the findings of research by creative practice, a poem sourced in the systematic harvesting of her journal and diary entries on poets, poetry, and poetics. Observed are attempts, such as that of Jackson Mac Low, to transform Woolf’s writing into poems. Woolf’s ‘BLUE & GREEN’ is analysed as a prose poem, drawing on her readings in French symbolism, and her key essays examining the inter-related work of poetry and prose are also considered. Systematic creative research into her recorded utterances on poetry and poetics evidences that Woolf did ‘grow more & more poetic’ while pioneering a new literary form.