Dr. Sigmund Freud Discovers the Sea Shell
Archibald MacLeish Modernist Poem Analyzes the Scientist's Ego
May 5, 2009
Archibald MacLeish was one of the most celebrated American poets of the 20th century, winning three Pulitzer Prizes, writing over twenty books of poetry, as well as turning out a massive amount of prose and theater pieces.
Hailing from the Modernist school of poetry, Mr. MacLeish, like his contemporaries, Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, relished the role of outsider; artist as outcast.
Archibald MacLeish – The Modernist
Archibald MacLeish’s most well-known poem, Ars Poetica, is often referenced as the definitive poetic statement regarding the Modernist movement: A poem should not mean…But be. It could be argued that his poem, Dr. Sigmund Freud Discovers the Sea Shell, lays out a much broader, and exact, definition of what it means to be a Modernist.
The Modernist movement of the late 19th century and early 20th century, sought to create art in opposition to the Enlightenment period of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Modernists were born partly of Friedrich Nietzsche’s witnessing God’s dying breath.
And as much as The Modernist reveled in piercing holes through The Enlightened notion of an all knowing God guiding an artist’s hand through inspiration; The Modernist also understood, as all good artists, self-examination and self-consciousness compels the artist to question their own beliefs.
Science, that simple saint…
Right from the opening stanza, MacLeish warns the scientist of the pitfalls prevalent in believing anything with absolute certainty; by marrying science to religion:
Science, that simple saint…
Proposing, just as religion instills a sense of entitlement regarding all things omniscient; so too, scientists can also crown themselves king.
rosary of perfect answers
In the third and fourth stanzas, Mr. MacLeish paints a picture of the scientist lying comfortably in bed at night, unfettered by the worries of a spirit world; fearing not an unknown fate, of heaven or hell; egotistically boasting her certainty; again by the use of the rosary symbol, MacLeish correlates closed minds:
Her religion is to tell
By rote her rosary of perfect answers.
Her faith is perfect!
Although the scientist knows with certainty the nature of things; God or Man or Nature produces a sea shell upon the shore; challenging the scientist to consider the deep mysteries buried within; knowing, no matter how many answers may be ascertained, the questions will never cease; as the surf forever pounds the shore.
…knows the world she sees
Is all the world there is! Her faith is perfect!
And still he offers the sea shell…
What surf
Of what far sea upon what unknown ground.
Select Works of Poetry, of the Modernist School, by Archibald MacLeish
Class Poem (1915)
Tower of Ivory (1917)
The Happy Marriage (1924)
The Pot of Earth (1925)
Streets in the Moon (1928)
Einstein (1929)
New Found Land New Found Land (1930)
Conquistador (1932)
Frescoes for Mr. Rockefeller's City (1933)
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