Anatomy and modern western poetry

H. A. Balcioglu ； S. Senlen Guvenc

《Edorium Journal of Anatomy and Embryology》 3期 (2016/01) Pp. 28-33

https://doi.org/10.5348/A04-2016-12-RA-4

摘要

The aim of this paper was to illustrate the connection between 'anatomy', one of the oldest natural sciences, and 'poetry', the most ancient genre of literature. Anatomy and related concepts have been a subject of and used as imagery in poetry since ancient times, but they have never carried such vast and multiple shades of meaning as in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are not only more allusions made to anatomy in modern verse, but also more poets have chosen to dwell upon anatomy, anatomists, dissections and cadavers as a main subject or persona in their poetry. In this respect, the use of anatomy and related concepts as subject and as imagery is examined in selected examples of 19th and 20th centuries Western verse composed by William Wordsworth, Thomas Hood, Charles Baudelaire, Emily Dickinson, Gottfried Benn, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath and Nadine Sabra Meyer in order to show how anatomy has been perceived and represented by poets.

關鍵字

Poetry ； Anatomy ； Literature ； Cadaver ； Medical humanities