Page:Psychology of the Unconscious (1916).djvu/145

 CHAPTER IV

THE SONG OF THE MOTH

later Miss Miller travelled from Geneva to Paris. She says:

"My weariness on the railway was so great that I could hardly sleep an hour. It was terrifically hot in the ladies' carriage."

At four o'clock in the morning she noticed a moth that flew against the light in her compartment. She then tried to go to sleep again. Suddenly the following poem took possession of her mind.

The Moth to the Sun

Before we go into the material which Miss Miller offers us for the understanding of the poem, we will again cast a glance over the psychologic situation in which the poem originated. Some months or weeks appear to 87