Revised Consciousness - an epic poem

Why an earth would one even attempt to read or write a stream-of-consciouness, free-verse epic poem? Why not just call it a novel and extend the language to incorporate more of a narrative flow and a more thorough plot? Or shorten it to a pleasant little poem and distill the essence?

I don't know why Isolde thought this would be a good idea. But it is an interesting, though difficult and often impenetrable work. The basic setting is a woman alone (very alone, without any outside interference or necessity to perform the day-to-day) in her thoughts and the thoughts fall freely onto the page as little cadences. What happens to her is all delivered in this way as if the author has indeed recorded each and every thought that she might have over a period of time in the situation that she was in.

There are "rushes", where the thoughts about something come so fast and are so streaming you read - as it is written - almost too fast to keep up with the pace and you are made to feel excited and jittery yourself. One senses that the protagonist is moving physically at the time and blood is flowing freely. Then there are quiet, sad moments when the lines are a few brief words that seem stifled as if (though you are never told such information) she may be crying. And the over-worked, over-stimulated madness of thoughts darting in all directions and not really making any sense at all.

The main theme is an unravelling of the mind which has been hurt and shaken and is stretched to the limits: perhaps it has not had the opportunity to self-reflect for a long time or perhaps it has been avoiding doing so for fear of the darkness that it will encounter. There is certainly lots of darkness; a oft-returned to semi-dream-like state throws up fear and hallucinations and painful memories. But there is hope and optimism as the protagonist finds peace. In fact she finds  peace so deep, she begins to find the concept of peace rather cloying as thoughts circle and settle and "peace" is the only word in her head. It is used and over-used in self-parody an almost hysterical "peace" is shattered time and again and returned to. You begin to believe as the poem draws to its conclusion that it is time for her to leave her hermitage and re-enter the world, for you fear for her sanity.

The other most prominent feature is the growth of the naturalistic leaning; she feels far more attached to the natural world than to the human world and this is were she derives much of her learning, stripped as it is of fantasy and wild-imaginings and closer to an alpha-state of just being.

Overall, the most interesting thing is the extent to which the author uses linguistic device to portray mood and energy. Because of the subject matter - and perhaps because it is poetry - there is much repetition, so much that you hardly feel like reading passages which you have already a couple of times. But it quite important to do so,  because on further inspection, there is an extension, a slight twist which discloses some slight progress.

 I'm not sure the reader feels much empathy with the protagonist; one is essentially a voyeur to often hysterical and over-worked thoughts which are infuriating a lot of the time. But it is not really that important; if we looked inside the heads of the people we feel most fondly about, we would probably not discover much that wasn't infuriating. It is - I presume- intended to reflect the human experience, the human condition and the most frightening and successful thing is the way it reflects back to you.

6/10