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Seculum, an Epic Trilogy in Verse by Peter Dale Scott: “The Poem As Structure for a New Dawn”

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Seculum, an Epic Trilogy in Verse by Peter Dale Scott: “The Poem As Structure for a New Dawn” Seculum, An Epic Trilogy in Verse by Peter Dale Scott: “The Poem as Structure for a New Dawn” by Rebecca Kylie Law M.A. Creative Writing, University of Melbourne, 2011 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of 8053 – DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY – Humanities and Communications in the Writing and Society Research Centre, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University 1 Statement of Authentication The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my Knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged In the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted This material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this Or any other institution. 2 Seculum, An Epic Trilogy in Verse by Peter Dale Scott: “The Poem as Structure for a New Dawn”. ©Rebecca Kylie Law, 2019 Western Sydney University All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. Supervisory Committee Dr. Kate Fagan (Writing and Society Research Centre) Primary Supervisor Associate Professor Diego Bubbio (Philosophy Research Initiative) Secondary Supervisor Professor Anthony Uhlmann (Writing and Society Research Centre) Interim Supervisor 3 Abstract This dissertation reads the three books of Canadian-American poet and scholar Peter Dale Scott’s epic poem Seculum. Scott identifies as a practising Buddhist with a strong interest in Catholic theology and his poetry explores key ideas associated with both systems of belief. I argue that Scott formally employs the number three in diverse ways within the trilogy and that this formula (as in the poetic tercet form) constructs a poesis that is structured on the ruins of a type of Dantean Hell. Similarly, that this repetition gradually replaces the characteristics of Hell – such as darkness and feelings of despair and faithlessness – with a Purgatorian stillness and quietude, and then, a Paradisiacal mood of acceptance, harmony and clear thinking. In its gradual ‘presencing’ of hope, redemption and peace, Seculum’s poetic structure is acoustically tuned to its past (by way of quotation, evocation and influence) and religiously engaged with the present. In its complex evolution out of a psychological darkness to a spiritual lightness it excavates, empties out and builds an artifice from which the poet and reader can participate in the genesis of a new dawn. I maintain that Seculum is an epic poem in keeping with examples of quest poetry from Homer through to the twenty- first century. As a formula for completing the mission – to re-imagine the world as a better place – Seculum explores dichotomous relationships between religious and secular ideas related to selfhood and progressive ecology. In Seculum Scott’s poetic consciousness matures in its understanding of a balance between individual desires and communal responsibilities and his theological position, as explored in the trilogy, can best be understood – after Thomas Merton and in the context of recent eco- critical thinking by Jonathan Bate, Stuart Cooke and Kate Rigby – as a kind of “sacramental ecology”. Seculum moves beyond the horror of terror, as epitomised in the first volume, Coming to Jakarta, to a place of dwelling on earth that in the third volume recognises the sacredness of earth and the value of eco-critical living. The success of the narrative arc in Seculum relies heavily upon the employment of poetic and philosophic guides who include Wordsworth, Eliot and Pound and, to varying degrees, Heidegger and Hölderlin. The sense of an eco-critical livelihood in Seculum becomes, then, a prototype of an idyll, giving contemporary presence to the past with a view to discovering future providence. In Seculum this is developed by a coalescing of poetic and cultural memory from different literary epochs, beginning with classical antiquity. In the manner Book 3 of the trilogy achieves a synthetic resolution of the thesis posed in Book 1 and the anti-thesis that follows in Book 2, Seculum emerges as a built “structure” in which can be housed a new dawn of possibility. 4 Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7 List of Key Figures…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8 Introduction..............................................................................................................................9 i. Groundworks…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9 ii. Buildings..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….25 Chapter 1: Coming to Jakarta, A Poem About Terror…………………………………………………………..37 1.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….37 1.2 Background to the Circles……………………………………………………………………………………………..47 1.2 (i) Circle One: Coming to Jakarta and Dante Alighieri’s Commedia……………………………….47 1.2 (ii) Circle One: Coming to Jakarta and Ezra Pound’s Cantos………………………………………….57 1.2 (iii) Circle One: Coming to Jakarta and T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land……………………………..63 1.2 (iv) Circle One: Coming to Jakarta and Wordsworth’s The Prelude.………………………………71 1.3 Circle Two: Coming to Jakarta and the Influence of Hegel, Heaney………………………………78 1.4 Circle Three: Coming to Jakarta and God, Krishna………………………………………………………..82 1.4 (i) Circle Three: Coming to Jakarta and the New Jerusalem Bible………………………………….83 1.4 (ii) Circle Three: Coming to Jakarta, Krishna and The Bhaghavad Gita………………………….85 1.5 Conclusion to the Circles………………………………………………………………………………………………87 Chapter 2: Coming to Jakarta, A Poem About Terror………………………………………………………….90 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………90 2.2 Phase One – The Horizon: Ancient Ideas……………………………………………………………………..95 2.3 Phase Two – The Boundary: Reimagining. ……................................................................113 2.4 Phase Three – The Margin: The Future, Outlook or Prophecy……………………………………..122 2.5 Conclusion to the Phases – Jakarta’s Horizon, Boundary and Margin………………………….130 Chapter 3: Listening to the Candle, A Poem on Impulse…………………………………………………….132 3.1 Preface to the Tree……………………………………………………………………………………………………..132 3.2 The Youthful Tree: Candle and Ideas of Abstraction……………………………………………………136 5 3.3 The Elder Tree: Candle and Ideas of Eternity………………………………………………………………148 3.4 Conclusion to the Tree……………………………………………………………………………………………….167 Chapter 4: Minding the Darkness, A Poem for the Year 2000……………………………………………169 4.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….169 4.2 Darkness and Hun Luan………………………………………………………………………………………………175 4.3 Fragment I.i and Hun Luan……..…………………………………………………………………………………..180 4.4 Fragment I.iii and Hun Luan………………………………………………………………………………………..199 Chapter 5: Minding the Darkness, A Poem for the Year 2000……………………………………………210 5.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….210 5.2 Yang and Signposting of Er Yi – The Ways of Heaven and Earth………………………………….218 5.3 Potential of Yang in the Social.……………………………………………………………………………………221 5.4 Potential of Yin in Seeking Self………………………………..………………………………………………….229 5.5 The Yin and Yang of Living and Dying and the Signposting of Tai Ji –The Great Origin..235 Conclusion: Seculum Trilogy by Peter Dale Scott………………………………………………………………251 i. Hell, Purgatory and Paradise………………………………………………………………………………………….251 ii. Paradise Found……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..253 iii. Er Yi and Economics as Temple…………………………………………………………………………………….254 iv. Tai Ji and The New Dawn……………………………………………………………………………………………..257 Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….259 Bibliography..........................................................................................................................261 6 Acknowledgements In the writing of this thesis, I acknowledge the engagement of my Principal Supervisor, Dr. Kate Fagan, who offered encouragement, sound advice and professional assistance throughout. An engagement that at times demanded unparalleled patience, persistence and extended reading time, it is an undertaking I will appreciate forever. To Associate Professor Diego Bubbio, my Secondary Supervisor, I say thankyou for believing in me, for relaying your extensive knowledge on areas otherwise a little gray, and for offering your time when you most often had so little. To Professor Anthony Uhlmann, thankyou for stepping in when my supervisors were otherwise engaged and for scheduling weekly meetings for our discussion. For reading the work and appraising it keenly, critically and honestly. For finding that gentle balance of commentary so as to mention the bad and the good. For Peter Dale Scott, for writing poetry and living consubstantially. For sharing your wisdom. For my family and loved ones, who know what it means to remember my paternal father in the honoring and cherishing of my most precious gifts: poetry and Catholicism. To the world, hello! It’s been a long period of absence and I’ve missed you. 7 List of Key Figures: Frank Reginald Scott: The father of Peter Dale Scott. 1899–1985. m.Marian Dale Scott, 1928. Marian Dale Scott: The mother of Peter Dale Scott. 1906–1993. m.Frank R. Scott, 1928. Ronna Kabatznick: The second wife of Peter Dale Scott, m. Peter Dale Scott, July 14, 1993. Maylie Scott (Mary Elizabeth Marshall): The first wife (deceased) of Peter Dale Scott, March 29, 1935–May 10, 2001, m. Peter Dale Scott, June 16, 1953, d. 1993. James Schamus: Teaching colleague of Peter Dale Scott. Elizabeth: Childhood playmate (relation not known) of Scott. Susan Burgess Shenstone: Travel companion of Scott. Maria: Three year companion of Peter Dale
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