This essay argues that through his poetry, Charles Simic navigates a personal via mystica, one that by its very nature must always remain a penultimate affair. In order to reach this conclusion, the essay first demonstrates the affinities between Simic's work and that of the Christian mystical tradition. Secondly, the essay shows how Simic's work navigates the linguistic and philosophical tensions that exist between medieval and postmodern deconstructive forms of negation. Finally, Simic's use of negation is set into the broader context of contemporary poetry through comparisons to the work of Charles Wright and Mark Strand.
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