Why should we not Talk about “Mari Poems” in the Late Poetry of Petri?

Abstract

In György Petri’s love poetry, three muses appear: Sára, Maya and Mari. This paper examines the poetic characteristics of the latter muse in Petri’s late poetry. The research analyses the corpus through the concept of the “apostrophe” from Culler and the “poetics of reckoning”, which makes it possible to claim that the figure in focus cannot be addressed, but can be replaced by other muses in the poems. Indeed, it is as if Mari fulfills her true significance in mediating for the other muses. Consequently, we cannot speak of “Mari poems” in Petri’s late love poetry because the muse in the enumerative type of speech is defined as part of the lived life, a member of the “összestöbbinő” [’allotherwomen’].