Robert Desnos and Creative Awakenings

       The two most striking features of Robert Desnos’ poetry are his use of anaphoral language with wildly differing metaphors at the end of each line, and his use of traditional poetic images (especially flowers, stars, and  “kisses”) that often set-up or frame those surreal juxtapositions. I found myself frustrated at times by the second point, wondering just how many times Desnos was going to rely on stars and cosmic objects to describe mystical or dreamlike experiences. However, I was able to push beyond my mild annoyance to appreciate some of the truly odd and unique turns of phrase that emerged in each poem, due in part to his automatic writing method.

                                    Robert Desnos - Man Ray, 1928.

        I found his poem “Awakenings” (reprinted below) especially interesting for its mediation on the unknown side of the Self encountered in dreams. Desnos personifies this part of the psyche as “that night visitor with the unknown face” who is “trying to re-enter us,” only to discover the key no longer fits the lock of our bodies. Desnos links the dream world and the creative act as two ways to re-connect to the Shadow side of our psyche that often lies outside our awareness while awake. When this re-connection happens in dreams, we often experience “a reflection of ourselves in the mirror” that seems alien to us. Desnos writes of this stranger (in an example of anaphora): “Is it a poor man begging food and a place to sleep / Is it a thief a bird…Is he pain? Where will he go   next / Is this the origin of ghosts? / of dreams?” The Shadow side, as the storehouse of our unconscious desires or repressed memories, often appears as a dark or even evil figure in our dreams. Desnos suggests that upon waking (and in order to awaken), we must reconstruct the Self even as part of our identity will remain always an unknown but essential part of our inner lives.

        What is so striking at the end of the poem for me is Desnos’ declaration of renewal: “Never knock at my door again / There’s no place at my hearth or in my heart / For old images of myself.” Upon waking, we often tell ourselves that we never want to meet that Dark Stranger of our dreams ever again. Yet such encounters are essential for individuation, at least according psychoanalytic theory. The “old images” of our identity—the ones we wish to lock out—are often the ones most responsible for charting the course of our waking reality, and to “meet” them in a dream is to have an opportunity for self-knowledge. The "awakenings" (plural) of the title are two-fold: the moment in which the unconscious mind generates a new Self ("we've changed..."), and the moment in which the poet externalizes that change through his art. Both awakenings are acts of self-creation. As a poet who desires so strongly to connect to the unconscious mind, Desnos realizes that encounters with the dark side of the psyche can be dangerous, but also rewarding, for these moments ultimately lead to the construction of new images and ways of understanding the inner world, which also stands as an apt description of Desnos’ poetry.

 "Awakenings"

It's strange how sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night
Fast asleep someone knocked at your door
And in that extraordinary town of half-awake half-memory
iron gates ring heavily from street to street. 

Who is that night visitor with the unknown face?
what's he looking for is he spying
Is it a poor man begging food and a place to sleep
Is it a thief a bird
A reflection of ourselves in the mirror
Back from transparent depths
Trying to re-enter us 

Then he notices we've changed
his key no longer turns the lock
Of the mysterious door to our bodies
Even if he just left seconds ago
in that anxious moment when you turn out the light 

What happens to him then
Is he in pain? Where will he go next?
Is this the origin of ghosts?
of dreams?
the birthplace of regret? 

Never knock at my door again
There's no place at my hearth or in my heart
For old images of myself.
Perhaps you recognize me.
me, I'll never know if you recognize yourself.

Source:
Desnos, Robert. "Awakenings." The Voice of Robert Desnos: Selected Poems. Trans. William Kullick. Riverdale-on-Hudon: Sheep Meadow P, 2004. 37.