Hermetic poetry is poetry which contains aporias, or gaps in reference, which frustrate a conventional search for meaning - their meaning lies in what is 'unsaid'. Many readers find such poetry obscure or difficult, since what is left unsaid is, typically, what the poem is 'about'. Hermetic poems are often, but not necessarily, minimalistic: this book, however, studies hermeticism in poetry, rather than merely assuming that hermetic poetry is a separate, self-contained genre, and so also finds hermetic moments or interludes in longer works. To this end the book is part historical overview, part close textual analysis, of poems which exhibit this phenomenon, from their origins in Renaissance sonnet cycles to contemporary popular songs. In this lucid account, Karl Simms deploys a radical hermeneutics - mediating between the hermeneutics of Gadamer and the deconstruction of Derrida, and between philosophical theory and literary critical practice - to analyse hermetic poetry. In so doing he finds hermetic poetry to be the poetry that most authentically speaks the truth of being to mankind.
| ISBN: | 9781783488667 |
| Publication date: | 6th August 2026 |
| Author: | Karl Simms |
| Publisher: | Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 176 pages |
| Genres: |
Western philosophy from c 1800 Phenomenology and Existentialism Literary studies: poetry and poets |
Hermetic poetry is poetry which contains aporias, or gaps in reference, which frustrate a conventional search for meaning - their meaning lies in what is 'unsaid'. Many readers find such poetry obscure or difficult, since what is left unsaid is, typically, what the poem is 'about'. Hermetic poems are often, but not necessarily, minimalistic: this book, however, studies hermeticism in poetry, rather than merely assuming that hermetic poetry is a separate, self-contained genre, and so also finds hermetic moments or interludes in longer works. To this end the book is part historical overview, part close textual analysis, of poems which exhibit this phenomenon, from their origins in Renaissance sonnet cycles to contemporary popular songs. In this lucid account, Karl Simms deploys a radical hermeneutics - mediating between the hermeneutics of Gadamer and the deconstruction of Derrida, and between philosophical theory and literary critical practice - to analyse hermetic poetry. In so doing he finds hermetic poetry to be the poetry that most authentically speaks the truth of being to mankind.
The Unsaid features in the following genres: Western philosophy from c 1800, Phenomenology and Existentialism, Literary studies: poetry and poets
The Unsaid is available in Hardback
The Unsaid was written by Karl Simms and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
The Unsaid has 176 pages
£76.50