Self-Realization Through The Sufi Journey In The Realms Of Materialism: A Case Of Louise Glück’s Poetic Persona

Abstract

The poetry of Louise Glück (b. 1943) is characterized by the confusion and disorder that a seeker faces on the path of self-realization. The disorder is, in a way, a symbol of new knowledge and clarity. Hence, the poetic persona (the first person pronoun/ the speaker/ the adept/ the lover/ the subject self/ the voice/ the self) “I” in her verse is in a struggle with itself to reach some shore swimming across the ocean of multiple disorders. The study is about the poetic persona “I” as portrayed in Glück’s poetry and its struggle to initiate a spiritual journey to find the ultimate truth. The persona in her poetry is a seeker that is in search of self-realization which is a spiritual and mystical notion in Sufism. The study traces several stages of the persona’s journey that include existential crisis, self-awareness, self-purification, self-illumination, and its final stage self-realization or the fulfillment of life’s purpose. For the theoretical insight to interpret the selected texts, Ibn-e-Arabi’s mysticism was consulted as he is the first to systematize Islamic mysticism, that is. Sufism. The selected poetry of Glück was interpreted in the light of Sufism to find the poetic persona of Gluck as a Sufi. However, the study concludes that the poetic persona of Gluck remains within the station of awakening and purification of the self and fails to achieve illumination of it.