Sounding The Deeps of Nature

Abstract

The concept of oppression, just like the concept of freedom, has a narrative character: there is a narrative that accompanies every transaction of meaning taking place between all of society and the larger forces of the world. The poem and its readers partake in this narrative as well: one that is initiated by the poem, and developed by each of its readers. This chapter addresses the interface between poetry and politics in language, using the reality of oppression in order to probe deeper into the fundamental concept of freedom. The notion of freedom is discussed in the specific context of Cold War oppression and the poetry of resistance, in order to see how that notion has evolved over time. Poetry is understood as a thinking and a feeling ground on which the language of oppression (suppressive) and lyric language (expressive) come into contact, giving a deeper sense of the human condition.