Philosophical Connections: Akenside, Neoclassicism, Romanticism

Chris Townsend

doi:10.1017/9781009222990

Series: Elements in Eighteenth-Century Connections

Philosophical Connections

Akenside, Neoclassicism, Romanticism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 May 2022

Chris Townsend

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Chris Townsend: Affiliation:
Christ's College, Cambridge

Summary

Neoclassical and Romantic verse cultures are often assumed to sit in an oppositional relationship to one another, with the latter amounting to a hostile reaction against the former. But there are in fact a good deal of continuities between the two movements, ones that strike at the heart of the evolution of verse forms in the period. This Element proposes that the mid-eighteenth-century poet Mark Akenside, and his hugely influential Pleasures of Imagination, represent a case study in the deep connections between Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Akenside's poem offers a vital illustration of how verse was a rival to philosophy in the period, offering a new perspective on philosophic problems of appearance, or how the world 'seems to be'. What results from this is a poetic form of knowing: one that foregrounds feeling over fact, that connects Neoclassicism and Romanticism, and that Akenside called the imagination's 'pleasures'.

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Neoclassicism Romanticism philosophy verse Akenside

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Type: Element
Information: Series: Elements in Eighteenth-Century Connections

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009222990 [Opens in a new window]

Online ISBN: 9781009222990

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication: 19 May 2022

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