The language of the senses
Subtitle: sensory-perceptual dynamics in Wordsworth, Coleridge, Thoreau, Whitman, and Dickinson
By: Kerry McSweeney.
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Montreal
Language: eng
Number of pages: 208
Subjects: American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Senses and sensation in literature.; English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Perception in literature.; English-speaking countries -- Intellectual life -- 19th century.
Description: McSweeney discusses the sensory acuity that informs the finest achievements of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Thoreau, Whitman, and Dickinson and which, when blunted by illness or age, contributes 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.