Poetry as an Oral Outlet1

Among the pregenital activities of the individual, the oral organization is not only the first in point of time, but also ranks first in importance. When the infant first begins to take nourishment from his mother's breast it soon discovers that in addition to satisfying its hunger, it also obtains pleasure in the oral region. This primary pleasure is so impressive that the infant soon imitates it through thumbsucking. Thumbsucking is but a continuation of breast sucking, with this difference, that whereas breast sucking represents to the highest degree the child's anaclitic relation to the mother, who is the embodiment of both hunger and love, thumbsucking is the autoerotic outlet par excellence, and may be conceived as the first manifestation of the child's striving for independence. The infant now wants to get everything from himself instead of being dependent on his mother. Later on thumbsucking is replaced by other stimuli—which may or may not afford him nourishment, but which do give him pleasure. Thus, from time immemorial the human desire for gustatory gratification in the form of candies, tobacco, etc.—for anything which is capable of stimulating his oral zone. This passion for oral pleasure became the more intense the more civilization advanced. Wtiness for example the French—who not only took the lead in the higher arts, i.e., in the specific gratification of the individual senses, but also excelled in the more utilitarian art of eating. The French placed such high value on the art of taste that they even went so far as to erect statues to two of their gastronomic geniuses, Close, and Marie Harel, for having given to the world paté de fois gras and camembert cheese—delicacies that are surely not necessary for the satiation of hunger.

But if we bear in mind the intimate relationship of the organs