Andrew Mayden

The creativity process has been divided into four phases – including one where you need to let your unconscious do the work

AE Housman, the English classical scholar and poet, often took a walk after lunch. During one walk he was exceptionally creative – unconsciously. As he strode along, a stanza came to him, and almost immediately afterwards a second stanza wafted his way. He saw the words in front of him and had only to note them down. He knew he wanted to write a poem with four stanzas and after he’d written out the first two and had a cup of tea, he set off on a second walk. The third stanza occurred to him, and again he didn’t have to make any conscious effort. He waited on tenterhooks for the fourth and final stanza that would complete the poem.

It failed to arrive.

After three stanzas, the unconscious apparently felt it had done enough and Housman’s conscious mind would have to think of the fourth for itself. The Muse had flown. It took Housman a year to create a fourth stanza that he felt came somewhere close to the level of the others.

The surprising role of the unconscious in creativity

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