Analysis of The Two Travelers’ Musings
Karl Constantine FOLKES 1935 (Portland)
The two travelers.
In dialectical chat.
Ego and Psyche.
Ego as the extravert.
With animated speeches.
The two travelers.
Forever tied together.
Ego and Psyche.
Psyche as the introvert.
Courting her partner, Ego.
The two travelers.
Ever the two as partners.
Ego and Psyche.
Each warring with the other.
Espousing who is master.
The two travelers.
Like Jacob and like Esau.
Tied to the hipbone.
Competing for their birthrights.
That — requires sacrifice.
The two travelers.
In greatest competition.
One will be victor.
Ego claiming — all matter.
And Psyche — knowing better.
Travelers musing.
Ego with selfish motives.
Inconsiderate —
Ignoring Psyche’s courting.
As weakness — unbefitting.
Travelers jousting.
Psyche with shining armor.
Dazzling her rival.
Ego as knight — defeated.
Fallen in battle — wounded.
But in his demise.
In psychic confrontation.
What is sacrificed.
Can yet find resurrection.
Ego — now courting Psyche.
| Scheme | AbCbx AdCxe AaCdd Axxxx Afddd gxbge gdxhh xfxfc |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) |
| Metre | 01100 001001 10010 10101 110010 01100 0101010 10010 101010 1001010 01100 1001110 10010 1101010 0101110 01100 110011 11011 010111 101010 01100 010010 11110 1010110 0101010 10010 1011010 1 0101010 1101 10010 1011010 100010 1011010 1001010 10101 010010 1110 111010 1011010 |
| Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
| Characters | 953 |
| Words | 191 |
| Sentences | 39 |
| Stanzas | 8 |
| Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
| Lines Amount | 40 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 18 |
| Words per line (avg) | 4 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 92 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
About this poem
To Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung, the ego is the center of the field of consciousness, the place where our conscious awareness resides, and is merely a part of the psyche that Jung describes as the totality of all psychic processes, conscious as well as unconscious. The psyche is therefore a self-regulatory system beyond the processes of ego’s musings and the conscious brain. Thus, the ego in chivalrous battle with the psyche, can be regarded symbolically as an image of the ‘part,’ as reflected in the realization of one’s Personal Conscious engaged in psychological battle with the ‘whole,’ or greater unrecognized and more complete self of the human personality, as represented putatively and hypothetically by the Collective Unconscious. This poem, “The Two Travelers’ Musings,” depicts the eternal dialectical engagement of the ego with the psyche towards the teleological objective of Individuation, or psychological healing and wholeness. more »
Written on 2022
Submitted by karlcfolkes on May 01, 2022
Modified by karlcfolkes on August 07, 2022
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"The Two Travelers’ Musings" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/125872/the-two-travelers%E2%80%99-musings>.
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