Emergence of complexity in poetry: “Soleils couchants” by Verlaine

Abstract This work investigates emergence of complexity in poetry based on the analogy between the poetics of evocation and the physics of complex systems. For this purpose, we first discuss key concepts of the physics of complex systems, such as emergence, openness, and large variability. It is then suggested that a poem could be viewed as a representative complex system. Emergence of complexity in poetry is further probed in the context of poetics of evocation. As an example, we demonstrate how poetic complexity can indeed be realized, through the analysis of Verlaine’s poem, “Soleils couchants”. In this way, we propose a remarkable convergence of poetics and physics, yielding meaningful results for both fields. On the side of poetics of evocation, its essential characteristic, “relevant mysteries” that give rise to the great variability of interpretations, is verified; on the side of physics of complex systems, the concepts of complexity is validated to provide further understanding of literature as well as natural and social phenomena.