The Unsaid

Hermetic Poetry Between Hermeneutics and Deconstruction

Karl Simms

Hermetic poetry is poetry which contains aporias, or gaps in reference, which frustrate a conventional search for meaning – their meaning lies in what is ‘unsaid’. Many readers find such poetry obscure or difficult, since what is left unsaid is, typically, what the poem is ‘about’. Hermetic poems are often, but not necessarily, minimalistic: this book, however, studies hermeticism in poetry, rather than merely assuming that hermetic poetry is a separate, self-contained genre, and so also finds hermetic moments or interludes in longer works. To this end the book is part historical overview, part close textual analysis, of poems which exhibit this phenomenon, from their origins in Renaissance sonnet cycles to contemporary popular songs. In this lucid account, Karl Simms deploys a radical hermeneutics – mediating between the hermeneutics of Gadamer and the deconstruction of Derrida, and between philosophical theory and literary critical practice – to analyse hermetic poetry. In so doing he finds hermetic poetry to be the poetry that most authentically speaks the truth of being to mankind.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 176 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-78348-866-7 • Hardback • August 2025 • $110.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Deconstruction, Literary Criticism / Poetry, Philosophy / Continental Philosophy, Philosophy / Movements / Phenomenology

The Unsaid

Hermetic Poetry Between Hermeneutics and Deconstruction

Hardback

Summary

Hermetic poetry is poetry which contains aporias, or gaps in reference, which frustrate a conventional search for meaning – their meaning lies in what is ‘unsaid’. Many readers find such poetry obscure or difficult, since what is left unsaid is, typically, what the poem is ‘about’. Hermetic poems are often, but not necessarily, minimalistic: this book, however, studies hermeticism in poetry, rather than merely assuming that hermetic poetry is a separate, self-contained genre, and so also finds hermetic moments or interludes in longer works. To this end the book is part historical overview, part close textual analysis, of poems which exhibit this phenomenon, from their origins in Renaissance sonnet cycles to contemporary popular songs. In this lucid account, Karl Simms deploys a radical hermeneutics – mediating between the hermeneutics of Gadamer and the deconstruction of Derrida, and between philosophical theory and literary critical practice – to analyse hermetic poetry. In so doing he finds hermetic poetry to be the poetry that most authentically speaks the truth of being to mankind.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 176 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-78348-866-7 • Hardback • August 2025 • $110.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Deconstruction, Literary Criticism / Poetry, Philosophy / Continental Philosophy, Philosophy / Movements / Phenomenology

Author

Karl Simms is Reader in Hermeneutics at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of Paul Ricoeur (2003), Ricoeur and Lacan (2007), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (2015).

Table of Contents

Introduction / 1. The Origins of Hermeticism in Poetry / 2. Theological Hermeticism / 3. From Symbolism to Imagism / 4. Italian Modernists / 5. American Hermeticism / 6. Celan and the Truth of the Unsaid / Conclusion / Bibliography / Index

The Unsaid

Hermetic Poetry Between Hermeneutics and Deconstruction

Karl Simms

The Unsaid

Hermetic Poetry Between Hermeneutics and Deconstruction

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