On Apophatic Poetics (Part 2).

LITERARY criticism; POETRY (Literary form); NEGATIVE theology; MYSTICISM & poetry; POETICS; LITERARY style

This article presents an exploration into the nature of apophatic knowledge and expression in poetry. Several examples of metaphysical poetry are presented wherein the absence of an idea is a strong literary feature. The origins of apophatic thought from Eastern Orthodox Christian theology are reviewed and the mystical elements of poetry are applied in the same manner.