Sensibility By Hannah More Essay

The end of the eighteenth century in England is a time of growing unrest at the coming revolution, but also of philosophers, writers, theory, and ideas. One of these writers and philosophers was Hannah More, eighteenth-century playwright and poet; More dabbled in many fields throughout her life. She also visited France during the Revolution, producing poetry and essays regarding France and its players of the Revolution that are still read today. One of her more recognized contributions to English Literature is her poem regarding sensibility: “Sensibility: A Poetic Epistle to the Hon. Mrs. Boscawen” (Hannah More), in which she praises the attribute and those of her friends who possess it. While the attribute described in the poem may have always
The poet here relates a tone of discouragement; the reader can feel More’s disappointment in society and the artificiality of man. We get this sense of tone from her use of words like “reluctant I relate” (275), she does not want to have to share this information with her reader, but feels it is important to warn them of the falsities of the world. In conclusion, false sensibility denotes false emotional reactions, as shown through many examples in the poem, such as seeing a dying fawn, or saving a fly (281-286). In this way, More solidifies her definition of false sensibility and shows the reader that falsifying such a respectable trait was looked quite poorly upon, certainly by More, and ultimately by all of English society. More ends the passage by further criticizing those “whose well-sung sorrows every breast inflame,/ and break all hearts but his from whom they came/ yet scorning life’s dull duties to attend,/ will persecute a wife, or wrong a friend” (287-288). Now, with a solid understanding of “Sensibility”, the reader can adapt the ideas that More presents to other poems to develop deeper meanings, such as in Wordsworth’s “The Discharged
The purposeful distinction that he prefers to be “deserted in silence” makes the narrator seem desolate to the reader; He is definitely on the outskirts, but not overly displeased with his position. Considering More’s poem, this certainly does not give the image of the “sweet sensibility” or “soft compassion” (More, 245, 263). The more the poem goes on, the more the narrator is presented as a sort of tortured soul, but one who brought his position upon himself, “receiving in [his] own despite/ Amusement as [he] slowly passed along” (12-13). The word “despite”, in these lines gives the reader an image of a truly unhappy man, uninterested in the people or world around him. Considering his cold character, it is difficult to find any shred of sensibility at all in the narrator, until suddenly: “[his] body from the stillness drinking in/ a restoration like the calm of sleep,/ but sweeter far” (WW, 22-24). It seems that the narrator’s spirit is responding to the solitude of nature around him, which is making him happier and lighter with every passing stanza (WW 25-35). Finally, at this point we begin to see the narrator’s sensibility, but it seems to focus around nature, solitude and himself, as he avoids people up until this point, until he sees the