Poetry, Beauty, and Contemplation: The Complete Aesthetics of Jacques Maritain

7. Two Pathways Clarified: Maritain’s Turn to Poetic Knowledge, 1927–1938

103 Seven Two Pathways Clarified Maritain’s turn to Poetic Knowledge, 1927–1938 \ Art, while it is productive in its essence, always supposes a moment of contemplation. —Jacques Maritain The previous chapter traced the early developments in Maritain’s aesthetics from 1920 to 1927. Specifically, we noted that the notion of “Poetry,” central to Maritain’s philosophy of art, did not appear in his first book on art. While the notion does appear in 1927, its close relative, “Poetic Knowledge,” does not. With Maritain’s epistemological interests shifting to a greater focus on the knowledge proper to the creative artist, we will see Maritain’s progressive development of his notion of Poetic Knowledge. This relationship between Poetry and Poetic Knowledge is not always clear and precise, however, and so this chapter will trace the development of their relationship chronologically during the period 1927–1938 by examining the following texts: 1. 1932: The Degrees of Knowledge1 2. 1935: Art and Poetry and the third edition of Art and Scholasticism 3. 1938: The Situation of Poetry 1. This work is being considered as a whole chronologically according to its original publication date, 1932, even though sections of this book appeared from 1925 to 1932. No substantial alterations occurred between their original publication and their appearance in this book and its subsequent editions. The preface to the second edition notes that “[t]he text of the second edition conforms to that of the first in practically every detail. A few alterations and additions have been made in the notes”; Jacques Maritain, The Degrees of Knowledge, xv. The Historical/Theoretical Development of Maritain’s Notions of Poetry and Poetic Knowledge 1. 1932: The Degrees of Knowledge Although the definitive English language translation of The Degrees of Knowledge, Maritain’s major opus in epistemology, was not published until 1959,2 the original French publication date was 1932. The book is comprised of nine chapters, eight of which were published, in whole or part, as separate articles spanning the years 1925 to early 1932.3 And although we now are considering The Degrees of Knowledge chronologically according to its original publication date, the reader will do well to recall that some of the ideas reflected in it were written over the years from just prior to the publication of “The Frontiers of Poetry” through to 1932. In this discussion of The Degrees of Knowledge, we will consider all of the minor chronological developments of the several editions as one. As noted in the previous chapter, Maritain’s early ideas in aesthetics contained two independent and discernible lines of possible development. In the essay that comprises chapter 1 of The Degree of Knowledge, “The Majesty and Poverty of Metaphysics,” Matitain indicates the cognitive aspects of Poetry and he contrasts the Poet and the metaphysician. Notice the rather cognitive tone of the text and the way that the reference to the Poet shows no necessary connection with creative action. The Poet, Maritain says, “thrusts his heart into things like a dart or rocket and, by divination, sees, within the very sensible itself and inseparable from it, the flash of a spiritual light in which a glimpse of God is revealed to him.”4 2. The first English translation, by Bernard Wall and Margot Adamson (London: G.Bles/Centenary Press, 1937), does not contain all of the appendices. The definitive and complete English translation was made from the fourth French edition under the supervision of Rev. Gerald B.Phelan with a forward by Maritain himself. 3. Chapter 1 was originally published in 1925; chapters 2 and 6 in 1926; chapters 7 and 9 in 1930; chapters 8 and 5 in 1931; and part of chapter 3 in early 1932. For publication information, consult the cross-reference information provided by Donald and Idella Gallagher, The Achievements of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain, 54–55. 4. Jacques Maritain, The Degrees of Knowledge, 2. 104 [ Maritain’s Turn to Poetic Knowledge Maritain’s Turn to Poetic Knowledge \ 105 A page later, however, Maritain does refer to the artist as one who “pours out his creative spirit into a work.” This duality between the cognition and the creativity of the Poet appears again in the following important passage from chapter 6, a text the composition of which precedes “The Frontiers of Poetry” by one year, and is roughly cotemporaneous with his correspondence with Jean Cocteau. Matters having to do with moral...