Student Scholarship
Document Type
Research Paper
Abstract
This honors project, submitted by Jo June De Weese on May 1, 1954, serves as a record of the author's creative and intellectual development over three semesters of study. Titled Through a Glass, Darkly, the collection is structured to mirror a transition in both poetic technique and philosophical outlook. The author explicitly notes a deliberate shift from the use of free verse and mood-driven pieces in the early sections toward more metrical, regular patterns in the final sections. This technical evolution is intended to parallel the author's move toward more positive and structured ideas.
The document is organized into six distinct thematic sections. The opening section, The Night Is Upon Us, establishes a somber atmosphere through poems like Nocturne I and Death by Flame, which utilize imagery of darkness, sterile moons, and autumn decay. Subsequent sections, such as Banners Stop for Nothing, shift focus toward character sketches and social commentary, featuring titles like Third Vice-President and The Merry Widow. These poems often examine human frailty, social masks, and the mundane nature of small-town life.
In the final section, The Tiger Dies, the author adopts the more formal structures mentioned in the preface. These concluding poems, including Faith and The Ultimate Simplicity, move away from the earlier "dark-dreams" toward themes of realization, reality, and "enclosed infinity". The project concludes with an extensive list of readings, citing major critical works by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, as well as primary texts from classical Greek drama and modern poets like T.S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens, highlighting the academic foundation of the creative work.
Research Highlights
The Problem: The author explores her personal development in poetic technique and thought over three semesters of honors work, moving from free verse "mood poems" to more metrical structures.
The Method: The project is organized into six thematic sections—"The Night Is Upon us," "Sometime Before Summer," "Banners Stop for Nothing," "Reply to Romantics," "Both Naked and Strong," and "The Tiger Dies"—containing approximately 50 original poems and a list of 51 readings.
Qualitative Finding: Modernist themes of isolation, urban decay, and social hypocrisy are addressed through character sketches and nature imagery; more regular rhythmic patterns are intentionally paired with "positive ideas" in the later sections of the work.
Finding: The author draws upon a diverse academic foundation for her creative work, citing classical Greek drama by Aeschylus and Sophocles alongside modern literary criticism and 20th-century poets like E.E. Cummings and Wallace Stevens.
Publication Date
5-1954
Recommended Citation
De Weese, Jo June, "Through a Glass, Darkly" (1954). Student Scholarship. 155.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/student-research-papers/155
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
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