Poetry as an oral outlet

Abstract

The text is inspired by some of Freud’s observations, regarding, among other things, the pleasure the child takes from playing with words as preliminary degree of wit. As zealous follower, Brill extends and intensifies the importance of Freud’s thought trying to establish a link, or at least a point of contact between the poetry in a generic sense and the various forms of oral gratification. This gives rise to unusual associations that are for the contemporary reader slightly comical: if poetry can be seen as an expression of the mysteries of oral Erotica, the relationship between poet and gourmet can only be the closest. To define and limit the scopes of fulfillment that is realized in oral poetry, Brill passes rapidly through the various forms this satisfaction takes in neurotics, in psychotics, in the child, in the primitive. The conclusions, unfortunately, are very general: many poets do not go beyond the oral stage and give clear signs of a fixation of libidinal development at this level.