Form and Ideas in Philosophic Poetry: on Being and Non-Being in Different Cultures and Periods

Abstract

This paper approaches from a comparative point of view metrical texts belonging to several cultures and periods and concerning the subject of being and non being. It presents my own Spanish versions of them (except in the case of  Shakespeare, which is adduced in English) and it analyzes in each case why a metrical form, which in principle would be connected with poetic contents, became chosen as a means of expressing and reflecting on a radical ontology, trying to understand the relation between particular ways of asking philosophical questions and a literary form basically alien to them, as well as interpreting the attitudes and motives underlying poetical questions about being and non being from a perspective which integrates form and content of the texts.