Psychoanalytic Poems

Bitch

by Carolyn Kizer

Now, when he and I meet, after all these years,

I say to the bitch inside me, don’t start growling.   (SUPEREGO)

He isn’t a trespasser anymore,

Just an old acquaintance tipping his hat.

My voice says, “Nice to see you,” (SUPEREGO)

As the bitch starts to bark hysterically. (ID)

He isn’t an enemy now,

Where are your manners, I say, as I say, (EGO)

“How are the children? They must be growing up.”   

At a kind word from him, a look like the old days,   (SUPEREGO)

The bitch changes her tone; she begins to whimper.   

She wants to snuggle up to him, to cringe.

Down, girl! Keep your distance

Or I’ll give you a taste of the choke-chain.

“Fine, I’m just fine,” I tell him.

She slobbers and grovels.

After all, I am her mistress. She is basically loyal.   

It’s just that she remembers how she came running   

Each evening, when she heard his step;

How she lay at his feet and looked up adoringly   

Though he was absorbed in his paper;

Or, bored with her devotion, ordered her to the kitchen   

Until he was ready to play.

But the small careless kindnesses

When he’d had a good day, or a couple of drinks,

Come back to her now, seem more important

Than the casual cruelties, the ultimate dismissal.

“It’s nice to know you are doing so well,” I say. (SUPEREGO)

He couldn’t have taken you with him;

You were too demonstrative, too clumsy,

Not like the well-groomed pets of his new friends.   

“Give my regards to your wife,” I say. You gag

As I drag you off by the scruff,

Saying, “Goodbye! Goodbye! Nice to have seen you again.”

The Id, Ego, and Superego are clear in this poem because she is at war with herself, but expresses both sides during this poem.  You can see how she has primal instincts when her guard is up and “As the bitch starts to bark hysterically” after she says something nice shows that the Id inside of her does not necessarily want to be friendly.  The Id is her natural instincts of that when a dog does not understand why you are there, it starts to bark, and that is what she wanted to do.  Her Ego is displayed when she says “Where are your manners, I say, as I say” because consciously she knows that she has to be nice, and balance her feelings.  “At a kind word from him, a look like the old days,/ The bitch changes her tone; she begins to whimper./ She wants to snuggle up to him, to cringe” is the superego because she wants so badly to do this, but she can’t.

The message that this poem sends is that there are different parts of yourself that need to be constantly put into check and that you need to be aware of.  It shows there is an inner battle in everyone and that there are different parts of your personality that need to constantly be addressed.

From a Correct Address in a Suburb of a Major City

By Helen Sorrels (1908)

She wears her middle age like a cowled  (SUPEREGO)

Gown, sleeved in it, folded high

At the breast

Charming, proper at cocktails  (EGO)

But the inner one raging  (ID/ EGO)

And how to hide her

How to keep her leashed, contain (EGO)

The heat of her, the soaring cry

Never yet loosed,

Demanding a chance before the years devour her,

Before the marrow of her fine long legs

Congeals and she

Settles forever for this street, this house,

Her face set to the world

Sweet, sweet

Above the shocked, astonished

hunger

Hate Poem


By Julie Sheehan

I hate you truly. Truly I do.


Everything about me hates everything about you.


The flick of my wrist hates you.


The way I hold my pencil hates you.


The sound made by my tiniest bones were they trapped in the
  

jaws of a moray eel hates you.


Each corpuscle singing in its capillary hates you.

Look out! Fore! I hate you.

The blue-green speck of sock lint I’m trying to dig from
  

  under my third toenail, left foot, hates you.


The history of this keychain hates you.


My sigh in the background as you pick out the cashews hates you.


The goldfish of my genius hates you.


My aorta hates you. Also, my ancestors.

A closed window is both a closed window and an obvious


symbol of how I hate you.

My voice curt as a hairshirt: Hate.


My hesitation when you invite me for a drive: Hate.


My pleasant “good morning”: Hate.
  (EGO)

You know how when I’m sleepy I nuzzle my head under your
 arm? Hate.


The whites of my target-eyes articulate hate.

My wit practices it.


My breasts relaxing in their holster from morning to night hate you.


Layers of hate, a parfait.


Hours after our latest row, brandishing the sharp glee of hate,


I dissect you cell by cell,

so that I might hate each one
   

individually and at leisure.


My lungs, duplicitous twins, expand with the utter validity of
 my hate,

which can never have enough of you,


Breathlessly, like two idealists in a broken submarine.

Almost the whole poem seems like an Id poem, she doesn’t seem to be holding anything back.

The Hero Journey Tale

The Hero Journey Tale and The Odyssey

          The Odyssey by Homer is a classic hero journey tale. It is laid out in a particular way that makes the theme easily identifiable. It also has different character archetypes and all of these pieces have transferred into our current popular culture. This story was important when it was written, but is still important today even though thousands of years have passed. There are many ways that this story is present in our popular culture and shapes the themes of today.  Why is the hero journey tale presented in The Odyssey still a major storytelling method and why it will continue to be?

            The hero journey tale is when the main character or hero goes through certain stages throughout the story. These stages are the call to action where the hero is in some way summoned to do this, refusal of the call where the hero goes through a period of self doubt and wants to give up, getting advice from someone else which can sometimes be a supernatural being, and success in his quest. Some things that happen in our everyday lives are when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, that's just like our call to action. These stages and plot make it easy to identify its main theme. Each stage plays an important part in helping the character develop and eventually succeed. They are usually trying to improve their reputation or help their community. In The Odyssey, the main character is going on a sea adventure to find his father and bring him home to rule the kingdom.  Family legacy was very important to them and he did not want his father's name disrespected.

            The different character archetypes also play a major role in helping the main character to succeed.  These archetypes also come into play at certain stages in the plot, and they all affect one another.  These characters resemble people that we can encounter in our everyday lives.  Some are good and helpful, and some try to steer you away from the right path to follow.  We want to be able to identify ourselves with the hero, and pick out the other people in our lives that resemble the different archetypes.  Some archetypes are Odysseus who is the trickster, Telemakhos who is the hero, Calypso who is the temptress, and Athena who is the supernatural help.  Telemakhos finally gets his call to action from Athena when she says, ”…here’s a course for you, if you agree: get a sound craft afloat with twenty oars and go abroad for news of your lost father –- (429).  This is when he realizes that he has to take matters into his own hands in order to rid his mother of her suitors and bring his father home.  Athena helps him to see his true potential. These archetypes are very important pieces in the different stages that the hero must go through to reach the end of his journey.  Without these characters, the story would not flow the same.

            The theme of a hero's journey tale is also present in some of our current popular culture. Even though The Odyssey was written thousands of years ago, the theme and the character archetypes still play a major role in today's society. The Disney movie Finding Nemo is a perfect example. In this movie, the hero, Marlin, is on a quest to find his son and bring him home. Along the way he meets some characters that try to help him along the way, and push him a few steps backwards. He is faced with different challenges and goes through the same stages that Telemakhos goes through in The Odyssey. All of these pieces make up this hero's journey to find his son.

            This theme is still used today not just because it makes for a good story, but because they are stories we can relate to. Everyone likes to see the good guy win especially if they do not look like they are heading in that direction. Even though The Odyssey was written thousands of years ago, the types of struggles that the hero goes through make him relatable.  We want to be able to identify our lives with the way that the hero handles his hardships and is able to overcome them. The hero often stands out because we do not immediately like them, or as a type of role model because of his distinct personality traits. People like to see the transformation from bad to good and the changes that they make. Sometimes their negative traits can push them forward because they want to move past that and prove themselves worthy. Even though the heroes may present themselves in an ordinary way, they are not.  They are a form of who we want to be. They rise above their own issues and self-doubt and that is one of the reasons they are so desirable.  Everyone wants to overcome all the things that life throws at them. Sometimes some of the obstacles the hero must overcome are even more relatable to a particular point in a person’s life. For example, if the hero has to get physically fit for a quest, which could be like the marathon, you are trying to build up to. If they can do it when it doesn't look like they can, then you can do it too.  People want to relate to other people and they want to succeed. We admire their ability to overcome all of this. We also want to be reassured in our own lives that everything we go through will be worth it in the end and these stories prove that to be true. The characters also make for an interesting story. We all like the twists and turns and to think of the different ways this story could go. For example, if the hero meets this temptress, could he be swayed to go with her? Or maybe he could stick to what he is supposed to do? Everyone always has different ideas and endings as the stories progress. Sometimes the story that you are watching in the movie theaters is a hero journey tale, and you don't even know it. 

Midterm Blog Rough Draft

The Odyssey
          The Odyssey by Homer is a classic hero journey tale. It is laid out in a particular way that makes the theme easily identifiable. It also has different character archetypes and all of these pieces have transferred into our current popular culture. This story was important when it was written, but is still important today even though thousands of years have passed. There are many ways that this story is present in our popular culture and shapes the themes of today.  Why is the hero journey tale presented in The Odyssey still a major storytelling method and why it will continue to be?

            The hero journey tale is when the main character or hero goes through certain stages throughout the story. These stages are the call to action, refusal of the call, getting advice, and success.  These stages and plot make it easy to identify its main theme. Each stage plays an important part in helping the character develop and eventually succeed. They are usually trying to improve their reputation or help their community. In The Odyssey, the main character is going on a sea adventure to find his father and bring him home to rule the kingdom.  Family legacy was very important to them and he did not want his father's name disrespected.

            The different character archetypes also play a major role in helping the main character to succeed.  These archetypes also come into play at certain stages in the plot, and they all affect one another.  These characters resemble people that we can encounter in our everyday lives.  Some are good and helpful, and some try to steer you away from the right path to follow.  We want to be able to identify ourselves with the hero, and pick out the other people in our lives that resemble the different archetypes.  Some archetypes are Odysseus who is the trickster, Telemakhos who is the hero, Calypso who is the temptress, and Athena who is the supernatural help.  Telemakhos finally gets his call to action from Athena when she says, ”…here’s a course for you, if you agree: get a sound craft afloat with twenty oars and go abroad for news of your lost father –- (429).  This is when he realizes that he has to take matters into his own hands in order to rid his mother of her suitors and bring his father home.  Athena helps him to see his true potential. These archetypes are very important pieces in the different stages that the hero must go through to reach the end of his journey.  Without these characters, the story would not flow the same.

            This theme of a hero's journey is still present in some of our current popular culture. An example of this is the Disney movie The Lion King. In this movie, the main character, Simba, has to return home to save his kingdom. He is faced with all kinds of challenges and then receives a message from his father in the sky. Without experiencing these different stages and having the different interactions with the characters, Simba's decision or success could have drastically changed.

            This theme is still used today not just because it makes for a good story, but because they are stories we can relate to. Everyone likes to see the good guy win especially if they do not look like they are heading in that direction. Even though The Odyssey was written thousands of years ago, the types of struggles that the hero goes through make him relatable.  We want to be able to identify our lives with the way that the hero handles his hardships. The hero often stands out as a type of role model because of his distinct personality traits and even though they present themselves in an ordinary way, they are not. They rise above their own issues and self-doubt and that is one of the reasons they are so desirable.  Everyone wants to overcome all the things that life throws at them. People want to relate to that. We admire their ability to overcome all of this. We also want to be reassured in our own lives that everything we go through will be worth it in the end and these stories prove that to be true.