An Archetypal Reading of Robert Bly’s Selected Poems

Abstract

Bly’s concern with the use of the archetype in his poetry received an avalanche of criticism as it is employed to convey his vision and themes from a psychic perspective. As a facet of the deep image, Bly’s archetype is essentially used to reveal man’s relation with the inner and the outer world and his endeavor to coincide between them. Also, through the use of the archetype, he images the contemporary man, focusing on his inward emotion. This research aims at examining selected notable poems implying the Jungian archetype, identifying its role and function in these poems with reference to Jung’s theory of the archetype as belonging to the collective unconscious and the deep image.