Tracking the Muse: The Writing Processes of Poets.

Focusing on the nature of revision in lyric poetry, a study investigated poets' writing processes. Primary data sources included poets' commentary, letters, recorded conversations, interviews, and essays. Two case studies were also conducted--an evaluation of two poets at work (one a novice and one an experienced poet) and a textual analysis of six poets' working papers. These data were examined in relation to current composing theory. Results suggested that the current perspective on revision is incomplete. In terms of text development, findings indicated that conventionally used systems for describing transactional texts were inadequate for describing revisions made to lyric poems. However, the major finding involved the area of cognition. While transactional writers may be described as revising either internally (for oneself) or externally (for a reader), the investigation revealed a third such process--aesthetic revising. In this case, a text is reworked for poetic purposes. The results suggest that artistic abilities underlie this process and allow poets to detach themselves from either self-expressive or communicative purposes. The results also suggest that aesthetic revising probably exists to varying degrees in other genres. (JD)