So for Friday, we'll look at some straight-up expressions of unapologetically manly sensibility (and, perhaps, sentimentality). The words "sentimentality" and "sensibility" do not appear in either of these readings, but both texts bespeak the sensibility of their authors and assume that you, the reader coming to the text with your own feeling heart, will share the feelings being expressed.
In class we'll be looking only at excerpts from two much longer poems. Feel free to look at the longer work--but know that we'll only be talking about the lines specified:
- In Mark Akenside's, The Pleasures of the Imagination on p. 344 - 345, lines 500 - 567 (from "---Is aught so fair..." to the end of the verse paragraph).
- In William Cowper's The Task, "Book 1: The Sofa" on p. 541 - 543, lines 592 - 677 (the entire verse paragraph).
Deadline: Friday (2/18), start of class.
7 comments:
The passage from Akenside's poem touches on what we were talking about on Wednesday about how certain emotions are distinctly human. He discusses how other species who are unconscious of their being contrast from humans who have much deeper feelings. "Not reaching to the heart, soon feeble grows / The superficial impulse; dull their charms, / And satiate soon, and pall the languid eye. / Not so the moral species, or the pow'rs / Of genius and design. . . touch'd and awaken'd...." Here, sensibility is described as the defining aspect that makes humans so important, and he goes on to describe how creativity or imagination is the most powerful or persuasive feeling - the one that is farthest removed from other species. This glorification of sensibility in this poem starkly contrasts Wollstonecraft's depiction of sensibility where she criticizes sensibility because it can cause women to be objectified and useless (with exception to the domestic sphere) in society.
In Mark Akenside's The Pleasures of the Imagination, he invokes the traditional ideals of sentimental literature in lines 504-506, when he speaks of visual expressions of emotions (blushing and crying). He also touches on sensibility, by saying that the man's tear "streams from other's woes," meaning he cries for the pain of others. He is not emasculated in this text, though, but admired for his sensibility.
In Cowper's The Sofa, I get the impression sensibility to him is something cultivated or developed through study and by association. In the lines read for today, he goes back to the idea of a "savage" becoming "educated" with the system of culture offered by English society - an education of which is supposed to provide the most cultured of perspectives. One item that does confuse me a bit is his reference in the beginning to advantage of the savage maintaining the fierceness that nature only can provide him with. However, I get the impression somewhat that this fierceness is lost at some in the process of educating this savage with the benefits of culture and sensibility. Why does Cowper advocate for the preservation of this quality of fierceness if sensibility is something to be desired and achieved (assuming they cannot be preserved to exist simultaneously)?
I agree with Jillian that Akinside is touching on sensibility from the male perspective. I don't mean form a male viewpoint as a talking point but it is a male who is showing outward signs of sensibility. Howevr I think one difference to note is that this display seems to be earned. What i mean is, that the speaker of the poem believes the man deserves the display and even respects him for it because ti is born out of deep understanding and emotion rather than a superficial display which I think women were ofen accused of.
I was more confused by Cowper's poem. While I see that he also thinks of stenimentalism in a diferrent light than Wolstencraft, dealing more with the capacity to empathize with others and fee what they are feeling. I could be wrong. I am hoping to get this cleared up some in class. His language was just a bit harder for me to understand.
Although we still don't have a clear definition of what sensibility and sentiment are, sensibility seems to associate with emotion, feeling, and the senses. I agree with Jillian that lines 504-506 are very important in Akenside's poem, "As virtuous friendship? / as the candid blush / Of him who strives with fortune to be just? / The graceful tear that streams from other's woes?" This passage clearly shows an actual feeling, a reaction to some sort of emotion which makes the speaker cry in sympathy of other's. Akenside expresses how powerful the imagination is and that these intense emotions have "Touch'd and awaken'd" the nerves and senses. Much like Akenside's pity for "other's woes" Hume also expresses "that pity depends, in a great measure, on the contiguity, and even fight of the object; which is a proof, that 'tis deriv'd from the imagination" (165). Lines 537-540 reflect what lexijoma1 was saying as far as the male exerting sensibility, "For of all / Th'inhabitants of earth, to man alone / Creative wisdom gave to lift his eye / To truth's eternal measures." I don't really have a clear understanding of Cowper's poem, but hopefully there will be some clarification in class today.
Reading the selection from Akenside's poem provided me with an understanding of sensibility from a male's perspective. The speaker's pure appreciation of the incredible power of the mind is unique; he seems utterly uninterested with nature due to it's physical limitations. I gathered this from the lines "Break thro' time's barrier, and o'ertake the hour / That saw the heav'ns created: then declare / If aught were found in those external scenes / To move thy wonder now" (Akenside 523-526). The "external scenes" he refers to are descriptions of the harmony of the natural world, and the beautiful way in which they are written suggests (before reading further) that the poet would be paying homage to nature. By suddenly introducing a concept that dwarfs the wonder of the physical world, the author gives an intimate glimpse into what he is passionate about.
I agree with some of the comments mentioned above that Akenside speaks about sentimentality from a male perspective, and what's more is that it is described as a very natural feeling or process. He mentions nature explicitly quite a few times in this section, and also evokes natural elements and imagery, like lines 515-19 "...the hoary ocean; trace the forms / Of atoms moving with incessant change/ Their elemental round; behold the seeds / Of being, and the energy of life..." All of this natural imagery leads to the idea that sentimentality/sensibility are natural feelings, which differs from Wollstonecraft's argument that sensibility and sentimentality could oftentimes be insincere.
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