The Hermeneutics of Poetry: A Phenomenological Approach

	A Phenomenological Approach In The Investigation Of The Essential Nature Of The Poetical Experience As A Provisional Foundation And Framework For The Hermeneutical Examination and Evaluation of Individual Poetic Texts In General.

I.	Introduction

	In this paper I hope to unravel some of the distinctive features that I believe characterize a poetic text. The underlying approach behind this task will be phenomenological in an informal fashion as our investigations will search for the distinctive essentials behind this type of consciously experienced phenomenon. A number of assumptions will be made, namely, e.g., that such a phenomenon does exist. We have some reason to entertain this suspicion as a provisional fact attested to by the presence of such an inter-translatable concept being found in a large variety of natural languages. However, as phenomenologists interested in this apparent phenomenon and as hermeneuticists that might be interested in the interpretation of particular poetic texts this suspicion that there is such a phenomenon as the poetical experience will be subjected to a transcendental suspension. The transcendental nature of our critical phenomenological-type of investigations demands that we psychically bracket, suspend, paralyze or make inoperative our beliefs in the existence or non-existence of that apparent phenomenon, the subject matter of our investigations, and let the potential integrity of that type of phenomenal presentation metaphorically speak for itself. I see this research consisting of two other types of simultaneous procedures in the pursuit of our transcendental reflections, namely, transcendental reduction and transcendental re-constitution. The type of reductive analysis and its accompanying re-constitutional synthesis being left to the skillfulness of the phenomenologist, however, the transcendental nature of their research is already established once a thorough transcendental suspension is put in place. Under the reductive method chosen the phenomenologist seeks to discern aspects fundamental or essential to that type of phenomenal presentation. In the accompanying process of re-constitution this analysis is integrated in order to  recover through a process of simulation (or re-simulation) the overall structure or constitution of that phenomenon as that-already-constituted-for-us. Continuing this process in the re-integration of the phenomenal simulation into its associated perspective(s), as its context of introduction or horizon, allows one to recover or re-instate the meaning and meaningfulness of that phenomenon for the person or persons conducting this transcendental investigation. In experiencing the apparent function of that re-constituted phenomenon in situ we should come to a better understanding of the essential structures and overall structure of that type of phenomenal presentation allowing us to make a judgment as to whether we are indeed dealing with a distinctive type of phenomenon - a judgment, however, that is dictated by the distinctive presence, or otherwise, of that phenomenon.
	At some point in time the formal or informal phenomenologist is going to record their essential descriptions and their associated functions in the form of a text as an interpretation of that provisionally treated phenomenon. A hermeneutical investigation, in the  philosophical formulation of its interpretation, can adopt a phenomenological approach through its treatment of texts, in their apparent integrity, as a type of distinctive phenomenon in their own right. Then in the construction and use of an appropriate perspective processes of reduction and synthesis or re-constitution can be carried out in an attempt, through an effective simulation, to come to some degree of comprehension as to the nature of the constitution or pre-constitution of the original phenomenon under investigation. 
	Two other assumptions will be made in our phenomenological treatment, and subjected to an implicit transcendental suspension, namely, that one can under reasonable circumstances, without too much difficulty, differentiate a poetic text from a non-poetic text, and, in regards to such a differentiation one can also differentiate the potential merit or value of a poetic text recognized to be a poetic text. That to all purposes we have not only the potential ability to recognize a poetic text but also the potential ability to differentiate a poetic text from one that is merely inclined in that direction and through the form of some relative measure evaluate its intrinsic worth or value.
	To help sketch out this ambitious task, and to add to its intellectual interest, I shall adopt the introduction, exposition and tentative resolution of a number of philosophical puzzles. Once the puzzle has been posed a first order solution will be proffered completing a process which has for its primary intention the desire to cast some light on the path of our quest, namely, what is a poetic text? However controversial these puzzles and their resolutions adopted or indicated the point of these proposals is to help analogue or highlight various possible essential facets of this phenomenon of the poetical experience as accessed through a poetic text. In the background of this informally conducted phenomenological examination is an implicit transcendental suspension hence the transcendental or trans-phenomenal nature of our investigations. Finally, a systematic format for hermeneutical analysis is tentatively suggested.

II. 	21 Philosophical Puzzles

	As a first puzzle the following question is posed...

1.	What is a poetic text?

	Falling under the shadow of such a question are the following considerations, namely, what is the general nature of the poetical experience, does it have a distinctive phenomenal nature, and lastly, how should we critically go about the process of evaluating a poem if such an avenue is theoretically open to us? In essence we have bundled up in this question the underlying motivation behind this paper. 
	To first appearances the question posed seems to be a simple task, a task that merely entails our listing those features that differentiate a poetic text from a non-poetic text. The puzzle resides in the fact that our recognition of a poem appears to be non-problematic, more often than not, but that to articulate in a convincing and all-embracing manner reasons behind this natural ease of differentiation we find ourselves met by a wall of difficulties, controversies of perhaps impenetrable proportions? Well, hopefully, that will not stop us from attempting this feat of explication. In such a pursuit let us look at the following philosophical puzzles...

2.	Can a poem be translated?

	We might at first think this a rather pointless question when we stop to reflect upon the fact that there exists a thriving business in the book trade that deals with just such a pursuit. Can we deny those translators and publishers in this field the seal of approval and authenticity and declare the fruits of their labours nothing more than some expensive sham fostered upon an unsuspecting public?
	This puzzle does pose some interesting questions. Let us consider the following. Usually a poem is considered to possess a certain form along with the mechanical details associated with the expression of that form, e.g. rhythmic structures, patterns of rhyme, number of lines, verse constructions, etc.  However, some translations are completely literal and preserve little or no formal or mechanical properties of the original poem. And yet we sit down and entertain the translation as something of a poem in its own right that speaks to us as would the original shorn of its ornaments. Across the gap from one language to another, sometimes from one language family to some other, the essential poetic content of the original poem is preserved under the transformation of its translation with enough meaningfulness and air of the artful to entertain our poetic interest. Embedded in thoughtful commentary even greater significance can be generated on a contextual, cognitive and poetic basis to reinvest the translation in our re-reading of the translated text. It would seem therefore reasonable to say that the poetic sense of a poem is translatable and cannot be reduced to considerations of form or formal mechanics. In essence that the substantial heart of the poem is approached through its cognitive appreciation and that formal matters merely assist in the expression of that cognitive-poetic content. Such a bald statement does stand in need of a series of qualifications but for the meantime let us leave it in this provisional state so that we can move on to our next philosophical puzzle. The serious question of the importance of formal matters will be addressed elsewhere.

3.	What differentiates a potential textual work of art from a textual non-work of art?

	If we had a collection of miscellaneous texts how would we differentiate the presence or absence of artistic merit and with respect to those texts treated as potential art-works evaluate the degree of such merit? We need not ask ourselves whether such differentiation is possible or whether such differentiations are valid but how such a state of affairs is brought about as it appears to be conducted in this world around us? Texts like telephone books, shopping lists, tabloid newspapers, street signs, etc. do not normally get treated as works of art. On the other hand novels, poems, essays, and similar can be treated as potential works of art and be evaluated in such a light as good or poor, as creative, original, etc.
	We must ask ourselves, therefore, by what means the general public is able to differentiate texts that are treated as potential works of art from those that are given little or no artistic value or merit?
	At this point in a first order solution to this puzzle we can note the observation that an artistically intended text usually comes with an artistic context or an aesthetic aura that signifies the need, through the prompting of the viewer, to attend to the text with the appropriate attention demanded by an aesthetic state of affairs. Surrounding and incorporated in the potential artwork, textual or otherwise, various signs and contextual settings are conventionally read to imply, or signify, the enclosed or associated presence of an artwork along with the seriousness and depth of aesthetic reflection necessary to be invoked for its successful reception. In poetry the shape of a poem, perhaps its inclusion in a book of poetry, the presence of a title, a preface, etc. are all set up to imply that a particular poem is to be read in a special way, i.e. to be read as a poem in a manner calculated to appreciate its aesthetic power and import. Of course it stands to reason that all these indicators of an artistic text may be present but that the text itself may barely merit this type of attention awarding us in the process with little profit. Therefore the aesthetic value of a text cannot be established through a reading of this aesthetic aura but through an aesthetic evaluation of the cognitive significance of the text as a total phenomenon. Cognitive in the sense that the text must be read in the first place in order to approach its non-cognitive intent if present or intended (and which correctly must be present in order to elevate the text beyond the mere literalness of a description or depiction). 

4.	What differentiates an artistic poem from an artistic novel?

	In the previous puzzle it was noted that in a natural language people often distinguished between an artistic text and a non-artistic text and with respect to the former as to its degree of aesthetic merit. That accepted we now can ask ourselves by what rational a poetic text is differentiated from a non-poetic text with aesthetic intentions or pretensions.
	My first reply to this question is to propose the general rule that an artwork involves some degree of aesthetic compression in its representation of a possible state of affairs or in the expression of that artwork when considered in its own right (like a piece of non-representational abstract sculpture, e.g.).
	As a general observation we can note the following rule, namely, that as a poem the poem is subjected to relatively more aesthetic compression than that which would occur with e.g., a novel, an essay, and other similar types of texts. As to the nature of aesthetic compression we can tentatively define it as an economy of both the essential structures depicted in the body of the artwork and the textual means used to adequately convey and unify such a depiction or construction. It is to be noted that excessive, deficient or poorly conveyed essential structuralization in a work of art disestablishes the effective merit of the aesthetic conception incorporated or intended in that work of art. We must consider a poem to be no different in this respect. A sloppy poem, one that is effectively too short or too long in its construction will undermine the aesthetic value or merit of such a work. 
	When we look at a human face we remember its overall appearance but, fortunately, not its every blemish, freckle, wrinkle, hair, etc. We recall the face as oval or round..., the skin as pale or well tanned..., the eyes as large or small..., the mouth as smiling or sad..., etc., etc. This overall essential understanding, or pragnatz to use a German expression, of the situation to hand intended for textual expression is in the hands of a good artist or group of artists skillfully constructed with the minimum degree of exposition necessary to discharge the intentions of that artist or those artists involved.
	It would appear that a poem in comparison to a novel e.g. is subjected to a greater degree of essential compression necessary to establish the adequate construction of the poetic text as a poetic text, various poetic forms also controlling the degree to which essentialization is established. E.g. a sonnet has fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, a haiku has only three lines of seventeen syllables in total, an epic poem might take many pages even so a novel of the same number of pages might be considered less precise in essential content and more dense in non-essential textual construction?
	We must realize of course that essential compression of itself does not establish the aesthetic properties of the artwork. A shopping list, e.g., is a perfect example of essential compression but under normal circumstances it is neither a work of art nor a poem. Moreover, the mere artistic presentation of a text, e.g. a glossy well illustrated company report, is also not normally considered a sufficient criterion for an aesthetic investigation however much we might admire the technical expertise demonstrated in that text. Although essential compression is necessary in the crafting of an artwork our intuition in this matter would probably tell us that although important the aesthetic heart of a text is centered in a deeper cognitive level to that of its essential construction.

5.	A side puzzle - Why is there redundancy in a text?

	This brings me, in the apparent form of a digression, to a discussion of the subject of textual redundancy.
	Some scholar, e.g., might write a learned article or thesis, maybe of some considerable length. At the beginning of their work they will probably give us an introduction and at the end of the work as a conclusion a similar pattern of explanation will most likely be repeated. Moreover, to varying degrees every sentence will have some form of semantic and syntactic redundancy stamped upon it, e.g. in the form of unnecessary words, articles, verbs, vowels, participles, etc. Then again the entire work might be compressed into some succinct abstract of that research in which the title of that work or abstract in itself represents an even greater compression of the subject matter needing only perhaps an affirmation or yes, or a negation or no, or perhaps a qualified maybe to transmit the believed existential status of the findings entailed and transmitted in the overall body of that text. 
	Has such redundancy some form of rational purpose or meaning? Surely its meaningfulness cannot reside purely in its semantic structure because once the essential structure of that meaning is established its repetition can at this level add nothing more. Repetition is a useful rhetorical device to ensure a greater degree of emphasis or to mark out a certain key section of text for the notice of our memory but, again, the wholesale presence of this redundancy through out the body of the text would defeat any such localized rhetorical purpose that might have been intended? 
	This philosophical puzzle of the ever present redundancy in a text might have a potentially useful and fruitful comparison in the coding of DNA in the chromosomes? There redundancy might well be in place as an error correction mechanism. A section of a chromosome might be created, or become, faulty and in that event an identical or near identical section takes over the role assigned to the former. Then again the sheer mass of redundancy might act as the bulk of the chromosome giving it the necessary size to allow it to function as a chromosome rather than as a fragment of DNA.
	My resolution of this puzzle would note the following points. Firstly, the bulk of redundancy does act in an error correcting function but with the nuance that through repetition a greater subtlety of meaning is crystalized or thematized by the reader along with a greater richness in perspective. Secondly, that repetition forms a meaning-background both at a cognitive-semantic level and at an aesthetic-generational level. Using a musical model, succinctly stated in the formula - preparation-dissonance-resolution, one could say that redundancy forms a consonant background in the textual work as preparation to the introduction of dissonant material and that through some form of resolution with that consonant background, founded upon repetition, the tensions in the work of art are allowed to resolve and therein generate or actualize the aesthetic potential of that work of art as a work of art.
	Redundancy therefore would be regarded as a semantic device to create subtle nuances in the meaning of the text and to help establish in aesthetically intended works of art a consonant background prior to and after the introduction of dissonance in order to establish an aesthetic resolution. 

6.	What differentiates aesthetic compression in a textual work of art from a textually documented phenomenological description of a particular type of phenomenal state of affairs?

	This question has a surprisingly sharp point to it. If phenomenological descriptions are found to be practically equivalent to the serious construction of an essential compression in what way does art, in reference to a text, differ from the former? Would it be possible to write phenomenological descriptions of a real or imagined state of affairs and pass them of as poems or similar?
	To attempt to answer this question would necessitate some form of exposition to reveal the phenomenal nature of art in general, and poetics in particular, and in what manner the mere presence of phenomenal descriptions and/or essential compression contribute to the overall expression of the artform.
	Suffice to say, as already alluded to, the mere presence of phenomenological description and/or essential compression does not establish or create an artwork but is for all that a vital ingredient preconditional to the formation or generation of the aesthetic experience of the same. In the next few puzzles let me investigate this deeper structure of the aesthetic as it might be found in a poetic text.
	I would like to leave to others the potentially controversial point as to whether this type of dialectical-aesthetical structure is a necessary ingredient for all good poetry and indeed allows the poem to transcend the form and /or mechanics of its type or individual construction?

7.	In a text what is relatively consonant and relatively dissonant?

	This musical model in the establishment of poetic harmony, namely, preparation, dissonance and resolution also has its corollary in visual terms in applying the same type of concept to painting. In a painting the overall tenor of the work can be considered as creating a sense of psychic background, a general field of consonance. Against this field once established dissonant features are then introduced which through their unusualness psychically seem to stand out and project their temporal incongruity before the focus of our awareness. This element of dissonance being seen as an aspect of competition, difficulty, conflict, inequality, opposition, etc... Then through various forms of resolution some form of accommodation is realized that generates the aesthetic content and integration of that work of art as an aesthetic experience.
	The problem therefore arises for us as to how we can philosophically, phenomenologically and/or hermeneutically differentiate aspects of the text that encode a sense of consonance or dissonance or lead to the resolution of the tensions between these two polarities in our cognitive reception of a certain artwork under examination (or in an investigation into the nature of poetic and non-poetic forms of art in general). Let me therefore sketch something of the rules that if adopted I feel would allow us to do this type of analysis in our critical examination of an aesthetic text in particular or in general, either poetic or non-poetic.
	As suggested before the sense of consonance is created through the repetition of an overall atmosphere or background of regularity. The relative sameness of this incoming information naturally removes itself from our more conscious attention especially through the continual nature of its introduction a process assisted, though on a lesser scale, by the regular introduction of relatively dissonant material that further distracts the center of our attention from this background field. The problem merely lies for us then in how we interpret relatively consonant material from the psychic contrast of material that is relatively dissonant. As a series of rules of thumb we can note, firstly, that dissonant material cannot be more than 50% of the text under review, or i.e. the overall field of the artwork as experienced, as such a state of affairs would then reverse itself to become the background field of consonance. Secondly, that too little introduction of relatively dissonant material will not generate an aesthetic state. Thirdly, that in all probability, dependent on the nature of the form adopted, the introduction of the relatively dissonant is probably, if I was to hazard a guess,  around the figure of 10-15% but with a greater or lesser range dependent on the nature of the work concerned?
	It is at this point that the formal mechanics of a poem might have something to contribute to the aesthetic qualities and intentions embedded in a work of art. E.g., in a formal or informal poem the experienced regularity of rhythm would correctly instigate an overall field aspect of consonance. However slight irregularities in rhythm might contribute additional input to the aesthetic reception of that poem.
	An analogy springs to mind at this point in the doping of a crystalline structure that allows the transistor to function. Without the slight imperfections present in the crystalline structure of the transistor the material would not be able to function as a transistor. In a like manner a poem gains a beauty in its mechanical structure from the artistically placed irregularities that are superimposed upon the regularity of metre that underlies the particular poetic form adopted. Much music also gains from the imposition of this subtle irregularity in pulse or beat.
	With this insight into the formal and mechanical aspects of a poem to guide us we should now find ourselves in a position to come to a deeper appreciation of the possible role played by the material or substantial body of the text. Although dissonance is primarily derived from the consonant-dissonant interplay of essential structures and their mediated resolution additional aesthetic merit would in all probability arise, as our intuitions in this matter would suggest, from the resolution of mechanical-formal tensions and the interplay these elements have with the essential structures themselves. The power of a poem may well often arise from the skillful juxtaposition of stresses with important words in the text and other devices that simulate through the form of some analogous structure the cognitive and/or emotional content of the poem. I would suspect that the accessibility of a poem for the general public would be assisted by an emphasis on the non-essential mechanics of a text. Moreover, aspects that rely on rhythms and cross rhythmic interplays would more easily catch our attention just as music with a good beat or pulse more readily creates a greater bodily awareness of the music itself. The question also arises as to whether it is possible to have a poetic text that has no essential structures in dialectical play and only relies on its formal-mechanical tensions and resolutions, as in e.g. a poetically constructed pure description or in a poem that has no cognitive sense? I would suspect that the essential poetry of such a poem would be evacuated and that we would be left with some other artform, with the semblance of a poem, if such a text was found to have some form of aesthetic merit?

8.	How is aesthetic resolution entered into in an artistic or poetic text?

	As a quick answer to this question I would propose that resolution is basically some form of accommodation or accommodational relief that links the consonant background field with the introduced dissonant material projected metaphorically to the fore (in front of this particular psychic background appropriate to the nature of our aesthetic investigations). Through some form of artful contrivance, allusion, relationship, twist, surprise or whatever, dissonant material is satisfactorily integrated or re-integrated with the consonant body of the text. It must be noted that once the resolutional process, as an-aesthetic-relationship-for-us is completed the poem as a poem must come to an end otherwise the process must be recontinued until the poem has satisfactorily exhausted its overall aesthetic idea or overarching intention. This insight suggests that a poem must not only begin well it must also be completed properly, be ended in a manner befitting the to-be-integrated-richness of its essential ideas or aesthetic intentions.

9.	How is ongoing resolution maintained in the temporal extent, or reception, of a poem?

	As just suggested the ongoing resolution of a poem would seem to necessitate the continual reintroduction of consonant-dissonant material and their adequate and successful ongoing resolution as till such a time that sees the exhaustion of the overall aesthetic intention or intentions of that artwork's concept or overall idea.

10.	Can a work of art, e.g. a poem, be phenomenologically reduced in our hermeneutical investigations?

	It might seem obvious to a zealous phenomenologist that to expose these essential structures in the text of a poem one should subject the poetical text (in its literary-social context) to a transcendental-phenomenological suspension, reduction and re-synthesis or re-constitution. Through the exercise of the reduction we would be left with the exhibited essential structures cognitively entailed in the poem. The question arises as to whether these essential components in the poem are none other than close phenomenological descriptions of the ostensive content of the poem? I would contend that to all practical purposes this equation, on one hand, between essential structures and their resolutional integration and, on the other hand, the idea of phenomenological descriptions is one of an effective coincidence if not an exact conceptual coincidence. So if the poem is dealing with the representational description of a landscape, e.g. then the meaning-of-the-landscape-for-the-person is revealed. This revelation is also intensified through the aesthetic contrast of dissonance and consonance. Then, if the poem deals with a non-representational depiction, e.g. of a particular emotion, type of person or personal dilemma again the essentials of the situation as a situation-for-us are likewise exhibited. Through the auspices of the transcendental suspension both the aesthetic value or merit of the poem along with the originality of insights entailed are allowed to speak for themselves (without having to investigate the factual truthfulness or truthful-likenesses of the situations descriptively constructed or re-constructed).
	Analysis conducted by itself must act upon the poem and through its reductive destruction diminish the poem as a poem however useful such manipulation and fragmentation of that text. On the other hand a transcendental inspection of the text allows the existential worth of the poem to come to the surface and expose its insightfulness, its value and aesthetic merit and through the clarification of such aesthetic power as it has allow itself to be evaluated in and through the light of its own being. Through such encirclement even a minor poem is allowed to appear as a small jewel in the living fabric of human endeavour, in this world of life or life-world, this realm or dimension of dasein.
	And how is this phenomenological appreciation entered into? As a process the necessary pre-conditions, conditions and post-conditions must be supplied. As argued in other papers I would propose that...

	i.	Pre-conditionally our essential appreciation of the text is cognitively entered into.
	ii.	Conditionally the evaluational process is allowed to spontaneously speak for itself through a balance entertained between a transcendental suspension, reduction and re-constitution. (A balance put in place through the exercise of a transcendental suspension, transcendental reduction and a transcendental re-constitution or synthesis. A balance put in play through a suspension of all types of value judgment. A balance put in play between the following factors, namely, a freeplay between conceptual-perceptual thinking, cognitive appreciation of the artwork as an artwork and the open concept of oneself, one's own appreciation of self and that of others shared or transmitted to us, a balance between emotional evocation and cognitive examination, a balance between existential forces and non-existential forces released in the detached disinterested-interest of the aesthetic reflection actively entered into. A transcendental suspension also suspending a cognitive sense of space and time, self, causality or i.e. a phenomenal sense of world). 
	iii.	Post-conditionally our retrospective examination of the apparent consequences and the signs that accompanied this re-observed process must be conducted in order to ensure that the state of transcendental reflection was correctly carried out preconditionally and conditionally.

11.	Can artistic intentions be delineated?

	As a quick answer to this question let me state that in so far as we are made aware through the textual articulation of the essential structures and their dialectical interaction and resolutional integration it is to that same degree that we have access to the intentions of the artist. The integrity and clarity of those intentions behind these essential structures or constructions being allowed to speak for themselves. All other intentions of the artist being personal and non-retrievable for others (unless articulated by that artist in the form of a written or oral commentary, or preface, as an addition to their ostensive publicly appreciated intent).

12.	Does phenomenological reduction in practice destroy the poem as a poem?

	The answer to this problem as already mentioned is no! Through the act of transcendental suspension, reduction and re-constitution the poem as a poem is allowed to speak for itself, all forms of analysis being given a final reconstitution in the collective idea of that artwork under examination. Otherwise how would we ever find the poetry of others, and those from other cultures and languages, to be personally meaningful for us! The progressive aesthetic and poetic thematization and appreciation of a text is in some ways controlled by the power of the dialectical structures of that text itself and thus it stands to reason that the symbolic richness and associated meaning of a text is better expressed by a work with a well integrated sense of the aesthetic. That the powerfulness of this aesthetic is a direct reflection of the forcefulness generated and controlled or directed by those processes and avenues of resolution indicated by the text.

13.	Need poems possess formal structures and forms of mechanical expression?

	I would like to answer this question with a tentative yes and no.
	A poem certainly stands in need of an adequate text even if it were to never be written down as in the case of oral recitation. However, as it has been indicated that the poetry of poetry resides more in the interplay of its essential structures, as witnessed by the residual appeal of literal translations, it might be safe to say that a poem could be completely non-formal with no ostensive mechanical assistance? On the other hand we witness the fact that most poetry is formally and mechanically dependant to some degree or other. 
	As a bare minimum one might state that a text is poetically constructed if it consists of some form of phenomenological description or descriptions of a relatively complex, rich, symbolic or analogical nature possessing a poetic degree of essential compression subject to an adequate degree of consonant-dissonant tension in some form of satisfactory dialectical resolutional-accommodation. That these four basic or major requirements of description, compression, tension and resolution are the minimal necessary conditions for a text to be correctly considered and ascribed as poetic in intent.
	Also to be noted, and indirectly derived from these four major facets, that a poetical text proffers a certain degree of insightfulness into the nature of reality which through essential compression implies a meaningfulness above and beyond the mere literalness of the text opening itself up to symbolism, allusion, suggestion, connotation, etc. Moreover, through the aesthetic power of the poem there is entailed the ability to provoke or evoke personal recollections that further enrich the existential meaningfulness of that poem to its audience. Finally, the intensity of that insight through its relational integrity with the phenomenal world finds itself expressing a general reflection of the world of that artist from the point of view of that artist along with the richness of psychological, social, political, cultural and religious forces therein contained and consequently holistically encapsulated in the body or text of that artwork.  In summary we could add therefore the following four minor requirements, namely, insightfulness, trans-literalness, provocation and encapsulation. 
	These four minor requirements are correctly indirect in that they evaluate the way their corresponding major facet is expressed in that poetic or non-poetic artwork, the degree of clarity expressed and the degree to which the force of intent is artistically realized or actualized.

14.	Can hermeneutical encirclement of a poem be a productive philosophical process?

	We could ask ourselves as to what value could be derived from an hermeneutical approach in our attempt to understand a particular poetic text? It could be argued that if we can read that language then let us immediately go forth and read that text and leave it to speak for itself. Unfortunately secondary matters of taste and other digressions are ever present to divert and distract our attention from the task to hand. Moreover an enrichment process in our encircling the text in its totality and in our passing from the text to our hermeneutics and v.v. must be a productive and informative process. Then again to be able to articulate our intuitions must further clarify both those intuitions and the methodology and philosophy of our hermeneutics.

15.	Is a critique of a poem merely a subjective exercise in individual taste?

	Without doubt a process of criticism is an exercise in individual taste and appreciation that as a process when correctly conducted is also a creative artform, an artform moreover like any other artform that can be taught and perfected, analyzed and polished. My position in this regard therefore is to see the process of criticism as both subjective and objective, as both an art and a science. I see this observation of mine applying especially to the field of aesthetics in general and to poetics in particular through the definitive phenomenal structuralization of the aesthetic moment.
	In our scanning of a poetic text our criticism can be directly applied to the essential-poetic descriptions or depictions embedded in the text and indirectly to the degree of clarity in their poetic presentation noting that clarity is not synonymous with attempts in literalness or absolute realism. Then the critic can continue and directly and indirectly investigate the patterns of tension-resolution instigated by the poet between these essential components or facets. Among other things the critic can directly and indirectly evaluate the degree of aesthetic satisfaction afforded by the poem when subjected to a careful reading by the critic or critics. By rights the critic is an interpreter of the poem not only for themselves but also for others and has the opportunity to go about this process in its parts and totality as artists in their own right. But discounting the personal perspective of the critic a good poem should still be able to demonstrate enough objective structuralization in its own phenomenal presence to eventually elicit some form of objective response, i.e. realize its inherent aestheticallity and through the power of the aesthetic express the insightfulness and vision therein contained.

16.	Ultimately is a poem known or experienced?

	Correctly a good poem cannot be just known, rather it is known first and then experienced. Once these essential structures are intuitively deciphered and the various tensions-resolutions are experienced or lived through then a moment is arrived at which, in some measure or fashion, there is simulated the aesthetic moment of an approximately the same essential form that possibly inspired its creation or construction in the first place. Until that moment of experience it might be said that the poem has been tasted but not digested, seen but not seen into or seen through.

17.	Could a computer compose a true poem?

	In our 13th puzzle four major and four minor necessary requirements were listed for the construction of a real poem, a poem with some aesthetical and poetical depth or potential. Programming a computer to merely construct the formal-mechanical appearance of a poem would therefore be, correctly, not a real poem, only a quasi-poem or pseudo-poem. On the other hand if a computer can not only use or construct the formal-mechanics of a particular poem and integrate these eight major and minor conditions as noted need we worry about the fact as to whether the poet is a person or a computer? If in chess tournaments a computer and its programme can earn enough points to become a grand master why can a computer not win the accolade of poet, albeit a non-human one. If such a computer could also reflect upon, evaluate and modify its poetic products and processes do we need to continue to draw such a distinctive dichotomy between a computer and the person, between parallel forms of complex computation and creativity?

18.	How do we know if a poem has a poet as its source?

	As the human personality is integrated to a certain degree so should this integrity be reflected in its processes and therein stamped upon its products. In our scanning of a poem if we find a lack of this sense of unity in the overall intentions discovered in our reading of it then we can conclude either it is a bad or poor poem, or, that it was not constructed by the artistry of a person or persons. On the other hand a good poem will reflect the perspective of its originator and from an analysis of this flavour in a work of art it might be able to deduce the nature of its background, electronic or otherwise. And this brings us on to a point where we can now introduce the next puzzle.

19.	Can a poem escape the times, places, persons and causes or pre-conditions in the fabrication of its construction?

	In a poem each word contributes to the life of the sentence and v.v. Then again each sentence contributes to the life of the verse, or what ever construction is adopted. In the same manner the use of language must reflect the philosophical paradigms embedded within its ambit. It is my contention that a good poem does this process of encapsulation better seeing time, etc. both statically and dynamically, especially in its treatment of the latter. W.r.t. the past there is a recreation of the past, the roots of antiquity albeit subject to a transformation that speaks to the present. W.r.t. the present there is an emphasis on the immediately essential centered in the existential richness and novelty in the unfolding of the eternal moment. Then with respect to the future we are allowed to glimpse in the present the trends in the current unravelment of this ever-present present. In the hands of the gifted poet we are often allowed to see the crystallization of this process and have made loudly sounded out for us any prophetic warnings that might deserve to be brought to our attention. In this way the overall psychological, sociological, political, cultural and religious profile of the poet inadvertently escapes establishing for us a sharing that opens us up to a virtual poetic relationship with the artist whether they be dead or alive. It is on such grounds that an understanding of aesthetic taste, authenticity and connoisseurship have their roots and are allowed to assert their functions with such authority and tacit approval of our equally cognizant peers.

20.	Would a good poem have anything to share, in our involvement with that poem, and, what is the nature of our involvement or relationship to that poem?

	Through the power of the aesthetic the reader is able to reconstitute the vision had by the poet. In a sense the poet shares their insights, their perspectives upon the world, their appreciation of time and space, self and this universe of meaning and value, meaningfulness and valuableness that is allowed to enter into the experiential stream of being that defines our existential place in the world.

21.	If the poet in their construction of a poem cannot escape from an encapsulation of time and space, the sense of self and the causality of the world how could the merit or value of a poem be found to transcend such worldly dimensions?

	Or put more succinctly does a great work of art have some part of it that transcends those dimensions described or depicted in that world as presented to us through the artwork? If accepted in the affirmative in theory and practice this irreducible content would then be that inner essence or overall idea of the poem that would ultimately defy analysis, being only that which could be pointed to, shown or argued for in a round about fashion.
	This je ne sais quoi would then be that irreducible contribution or spirit of that poetic text, which, as a powerful phenomenon in its own right is able to declare through the distinctive forcefulness of itself its own being, its own distinctive insightfulness into the world. Such reconstitution of the aesthetic moment allowing us to experience its creation or re-creation, and through such provocation as entailed in the work of art permit it to speak to us in its own language, effectively of the-thing-itself, albeit as an artwork. That practically, I would argue, the world is truly known not through entertaining a series of descriptions but through an experience that in effect is essentially direct, existential and trans-analytical.

	As a critic our task must in the final analysis humble us for a great work of art must ultimately escape all the infinity of commentary that could be wound around it, leave behind all the books that hope to illuminate that particular poetic phenomenon. 
	Hopefully, this paper of mine has shed some light on the nature of the poetical experience and has been able to answer something of our initial philosophical puzzle that asked what is a poetic text? Does such an artifact represent a unique type of phenomenon that as a phenomenon can be subjected to a transcendental suspension, reduction and re-constitution? Can we formulate a hermeneutical-phenomenological approach to explain, if anything, the natural ease most poetry is approached by the non-specialist reader? As such questions are best approached on a practical level perhaps we should decide such an issue in those terms of reference leaving, in the meantime, both the puzzles formulated in this paper and the solutions tentatively proposed there to a state of un-prejudiced suspension?

					Noël Tointon,
						    Leura and Sydney, 24/2/90.

A Systematic Hermeneutical Approach To Poetic Texts

	This will be done under the following headings. These heading being considered under the sub-headings of Direct or Indirect. Direct analysis dealing with the artistry of the artwork while Indirect deals with the craft or expression of that artwork. Correctly this distinction is to a degree artificial as art reinforces or disestablishes craft and craft reinforces or disestablishes art hence their interdependence.

Primary Headings

	1.	Poetic Criteria (See Puzzles 13, etc.)
	2.	Quasi-Poetic Criteria (3, 4.)
	3.	Formal Criteria (13.)
	4.	Mechanical Criteria	 (2, 13.)
	5.	Material Criteria (2, 13).
	6.	Contextual Criteria (10, 14, 18, 19.)
	7.	Linguistic Criteria	(18, 19.)
	8.	Semantic Criteria (18, 19.)
	9.	Aesthetic Criteria (5-8, 11, 15, 17.)
	10.	Existential Criteria (21, 20, 19.)

1. Poetic Criteria

	A. Direct - Four Major Requirements

		i.		Phenomenal Description
		ii.		Poetic Compression
		iii.		Tension
		iv.		Resolution

	B. Indirect - Four Minor Requirements

		v.		Insightfulness
		vi.		Transliteralness
		vii.		Provocation
		viii.	Encapsulation

i.	Outline that part of the text that deals with the 			essential phenomenon or phenomena to hand.
ii.	Note what has been included in i. and what is missed 			out. Note elements of allusion, suggestion, 				connotation, etc.
iii.	a.	Define the overall atmosphere of the text, using 
text to define this sense of consonance or background.
b.	Define those sections of text relatively dissonant 
both essentially and formal-mechanically, materially...
iv.	Define the avenues open to us through the text that allow the dissonant to be resolved, define the nature 		of that accommodation.
V.	Discuss how phenomenal descriptions embedded in the 		text are insightful for the artist and their audi
ence.
vi.	Discuss the trans-literal nature of the text, the presence of allusion, suggestion, absence, emphasis, 	connotation, etc.
vii.	Evaluate the power of the text to provoke our insight-fulness into the associated aesthetic moment of 	the artwork and its ability to evoke additional 	material in the enrichment of our enjoyment of that 
text.
viii.Discuss the encapsulation, or otherwise, of 
psychological, social, political, cultural and religious components in the fabric of the world of 
that artist that find themselves reflected in that 
text.