Quote by Thomas Love Peacock, letter to S
The truth, I am convinced, is that there is no longer a poetical audience among the higher class of minds, that moral, political, and physical science have entirely withdrawn from poetry the attention of all whose attention is worth having; and that the poetical reading public being composed of the mere dregs of the intellectual community, the most sufficing passport to their favour must rest on the mixture of a little easily-intelligible portion of mawkish sentiment with an absolute negation of reason and knowledge.
Summary
This quote suggests that the poetical audience, especially among the higher class, has diminished because subjects such as morality, politics, and science have taken away their attention from poetry. The author argues that the remaining readers of poetry are of lower intellectual caliber, and to appeal to them, poets must rely on simplistic emotions while avoiding reason and knowledge. Essentially, the quote laments the decline of a sophisticated audience and accuses the remaining readers of having lesser intellectual taste, diminishing the value and quality of poetry being produced.
Topics
Poetry
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