ABSTRACT

In the lines from the Prelude Wordsworth captures the essence of aesthetic appreciation through symbolic congruence: the "fitting" of the individual mind to the aesthetic object, in such a way that boundaries merge and yet the independent integrity of both partners in the drama is affirmed and radiates significance. In the fields of art and literature, for example, the artist's experience as embodied in the art form, serves as a model for the aesthetic mentality. The chapter first expands the definition of "symbolic congruence", with the help in particular of Adrian Stokes, and then explores the apprehension of beauty in Wordsworth's sonnet "On Westminster Bridge". The language of aesthetic criticism, should therefore, by means of its own deep-laid metaphor, image a goal of generating new realms of meaning through exploration and discovery, based on passionate congruence between the forms of the inner self and those of the aesthetic object.