David St. John :: essays research papers fc

The Work of David St. illusion David St. John writes of love in a pessimistic way in his collection of poems, The Red Leaves of Night. His writings suggest love is unattainable and his relationships with people (especially with females) are portrayed as negative. St. John creates a fallen valet in his text, especially when his poems focus on his dilemmas with women. Psychoanalysis plays a large role in the writings of St. John being that he shows the effects of his drop and the negativity the downfall incorporates. Lacanian psychoanalysis suggests our language is structured like our subconscious and full of desires. Lacanian analysis also shows that the signs in language are split surrounded by the signifier and the signified and the barrier between the two lead to un takeed desires. St. Johns poetry is swarming with lines alluding to unfulfilled desires or a longing for things that manifestly cannot be obtained. St. John establishes the breaking of a psyche and through Lacani an analysis we can see that the desires expressed in his poetry will never be met. Through Lacanian analysis, we are able to see that St. John is seeking much, and wanting more substance out of relationships and his life that cannot be obtained. St. John is longing for a sense completeness yet his completion is something that can never happen. Lacan shows the human psyche in three checks, similar to that of Sigmund Freud. Lacan calls the three parts Orders and they consist of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real. The Imaginary is the part of the psyche that contains our wishes, fantasies, and, most importantly, images (Bressler 156). Lacans major focus is in his theory that our psyche is lack and fragmentation. We have longings for love, for physical pleasureKbut nothing can fulfill our desire to return to the Imaginary Order and be at one with our mother (Bressler 158). Many of the poems in The Red Leaves of Night withhold the sense that St. John is yearning for something an d is never complete. For example, in his poem The Unsayable, the Unknowable & You St. John presents a situation where he is completely captivated by a woman and lusts for more activity with her. My prize A night alone (again) with you,tracing/This brocade of sweat along your amber shoulder./Lets weave together the dawns superior light-/A script of bodies, inscribed by the summers night (St.