ABSTRACT
Many Romantic texts of course contribute to the mythological fusion of mind and matter, subject and object, or man and nature. These moments of fusion, however, can emerge only when properly framed. The frame produces a fictional or figurative region in which phantasmatic images of unity can appear temporarily. The figure of the Eolian harp presents a syncopated subjectivity in which music and language cooperate to form a bond between self and other. The lure of the explanatory force of "ground" and "figure" is strong indeed; there is a temptation to view the discourse of "science" or perhaps of "economics" as determining those of music, language or literature. The sciences and popular practices experimenting with resounding instruments surround and condition this poetry. The figure of the "frame" makes possible the distinction between "inside" and "outside. Typically placed in the casement, the harp literally marks the passage-way between inside and outside in the material terms of an architectural window.
