Sentimental poetry (original) (raw)

Sentimental poetry is a melodramatic poetic form. It is aimed primarily at stimulating the emotions rather than at communicating experience truthfully. Bereavement is a common theme of sentimental poetry. Friedrich Schiller discussed sentimental poetry in his influential essay, On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry. A sentimental poet is described as "He who plays off the amiable in verse, and writes to display his own fine feelings" in Poetical Moods and Tenses. Sentimental poetry was parodied by Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.