The language of the senses : sensory-perceptual dynamics in Wordsworth, Coleridge, Thoreau, Whitman and Dickinson / Kerry McSweeney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McSweeney, Kerry, 1941-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Senses and sensation in literature.

American poetry--19th century--History and criticism.

American poetry.

English poetry--19th century--History and criticism.

English poetry.

Perception in literature.

Physical Description:

xiv, 208 p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

McSweeney discusses the sensory acuity that informed Wordsworth's, Coleridge's, Thoreau's, Whitman's, and Dickinson's finest achievements and then, when blunted by illness or age, contributed to an attenuation of their creative power. He supplies a "sensory profile" or sensory history for each author and through close readings shows how this profile affected their relationship to the external world and their powers of symbolic perception. Using perspectives gleaned from the poets themselves and an understanding of the physiological ground of perception, McSweeney establishes a compelling theoretical basis for his approach. In clear and elegant prose, he studies the physical basis for aesthetic plenitude - such as the sensory manifold of synaesthesia - not only in the Romantic writers mentioned above but also in two Victorian poets, Hopkins and Tennyson.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Preface

Note on Texts and Citations

Organic Sensibility

Symbolic Perception

Sublime or Mock Sublime?

Wordsworth’s Mighty World of Eye and Ear

Coleridge’s Blessed Interval

Thoreau: A Purely Sensuous Life

Whitman: The Feeling of Health

Dickinson: The Glimmering Frontier

Afterword: Two Victorian Seers

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85513-1

9786612855139

0-7735-6727-5

OCLC:

732600918