Aesthetic Cognition (original) (raw)

The Poem as Icon

Abstract

This chapter places poetic iconicity within the broader context of aesthetics. The history of aesthetics has developed several diverse meanings over time and in different disciplines. The chapter therefore redefines the aesthetic faculty as basic to both the sciences and the arts. It involves purpose, intension, function, and value that leads to empathy and ethical judgment of human behavior and activity. Earlier chapters approached poetic iconicity mainly from the perspective of the poet’s motivations and intensions. This chapter shows how poetic iconicity can establish one means by which poetry can be aesthetically read and evaluated. After introducing what appear to be misreadings of a Matthew Arnold poem that do not take into account Arnold’s aesthetic principles as evidenced in it, the chapter shows that his poem “Dover Beach” is a meditation on the aesthetic faculty in creating a poem as an icon of the felt being of reality.

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