The great question that this paper will, but feebly, attempt to answer is, What is the cre

Though much theory has accumulated, little is really known about the power that lies at tile bottom of poetic creation. It is true that great poets and artists produce beauty by employing all the powers of personality and by fusing emotions, reason, and intuitions. But what is the magical synthesis that joins and arranges these complex parts into poetic unity？

John L. Lowes, in his justly famous The Road to Xanadu, developed one of the earliest and still generally acceptable answers to this tantalizing question. Imaginative creation, he concludes, is a complex process in which the conscious and unconscious minds "jointly operate." "There is…the deep well with its chaos of fortuitously blending images; but there is likewise the Vision which sees shining in and through the chaos the potential lines of Form, and with the Vision, the controlling Will, which gives to that potential beauty actuality."

The Deep Well is the unconscious mind that is peopled with the facts, ideas, feelings of conscious activity. The imaginative vision, an unconscious activity, shines through the land of chaos, of lights and shadows, silently seeking pattern and form. Finally, the conscious mind again, through Will, captures and embodies the idea in the final work of art. In this way is unity born out of chaos.

Though there can be no absolute certainty, there is general agreement that the periods in the development of a creative work parallel, to some extent, Lowes' theory of Well, Vision, Form, and Will. There are at least three stages in the creative process: preparation, inspiration, work.

In a sense, the period of preparation is all of the writer's life. It is the Deep Well. It is especially a period of concentration which gives the unconscious mind an opportunity to communicate with the conscious mind. When remembrance of things past reaches the conscious level of the writer's mind, he is ready to go on with the process. Part of this preparation involves learning a medium--learning a language, learning how to write, learning literary forum. It is important to note here that form. cannot be imposed upon the idea. Evidence, though sparse, shows that the idea gives birth to the form. that can best convey it. It is the Vision, according to Lowes, "which sees shining in and through the chaos the potential lines of Form. …"

When remembrance of things past reaches the conscious level, the poet has reached the stage called ______.

A．Well

B．Vision

C．Form

D．Will