Mother and The Sprawling City: a modern metaphor in Emile Verhaeren’s poetry

Abstract Abstract The present study aimed to provide a fresh reading of Emile Verhaeren’s Les Campagnes Hallucinées (1893) and Les Villes Tentaculaires (1895) in light of psychological criticism. The concept of city in his work in meaningfully linked to the metaphor of mother and manifests different and sometimes contradictory aspects: city as mother (an embodiment of strength), the manifestation of ferocity and terrible male mother as the herald of simultaneous life and death. It seems that retrieving the desire, the sole path to the reconnaissance of spiritually suffering human, constitutes a symbol , image and reflection of malevolent mother and a trigger for insatiable desires.But the question is whether the world question will eventually be freed from thee dominance of cities. In the recent poems, freedom from the dominance of Godmother is the expression of the unconscious desire, which does not stand much chance in the face of its stunning power.