Wonder Wednesday
As promised, the first of the Wonder Wednesday series, where I share my doctoral research into wonder and its relationship to poetry.
A bit of background to begin…
For centuries, the subject of wonder has earned the attention of phenomenologists and the occasional historian or scientist with an interest in its role in driving scientific inquiry (a fascinating subject I will go into at a later date). However, over years of research, I realized wonder’s relationship to poetry and literary craft had earned considerably less attention. I figured a study of poems that succeed in capturing “that strange combination of delight and disturbance”[1] that defines wonder, and that reflects on the variety of approaches to enacting the sensation through the vehicle of the page, was overdue.
Wonder is no straightforward feeling, as its etymology suggests: from the Old English wundor, thought to be a cognate with the German wunde or wound. The noun form means a surpassing, opening, or blow, a breach of the mind’s faculties, while the verb form means to demonstrate a state of admiration or astonishment, or to search for knowledge, understanding, or meaning.[2] “The verb wonder,” writes Daniel Fusch, “indicates an emotional response to a marvelous incident; the noun wonder indicates both the name for that response and the marvelous incident that provoked it…That is, at the sight of a wonder, we wonder; such are the beautiful complications of the English language.”[3]
From this “beautiful complication” arises wonder’s generative challenge for writers: to capture both the wonder-inducing event and the act of wondering itself without foregoing the feelings of admiration and confusion, that sensation of being “breached,” that wonder invites.
I hope you’re beginning to see why I was drawn to this subject, and why I was eager to write on the ways that poets capture these nuances in their work. In the meantime, I’d love for you to think of moments when you’ve felt wonder. Please share them with me in the comments below.
xM
[1]American political theorist and philosopher Jane Bennett explores the uses of wonder in the modern world in The Enchantment of Modern Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001) describing it as a “mood of enchantment of that strange combination of delight and disturbance,” (p. xi).
[2] Howard L. Parsons, “A Philosophy of Wonder,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 30, (1969), 84-101 (p. 85).
[3] Daniel Fusch, “The Spirited Mind: The Ethics and Epistemology of Early Modern Wonder,” Mediterranean Studies, Vol. 17 (2008), 183-204, (p. 186).
gorgeous post thanks Maya - we need wonder more than ever in this world if we are to preserve it. I see wonder in the every day - the wild horses feeding on the common in the fog this morning, the trees still hanging on to their bright leaves, the facts my youngest kid tells me - today's was did you know the dog can hear your heart beat?
yes, wonderful maya, thank you for sharing.
well i grew up on a hill under the flight path leading to southend airport, i was filled with wonder as a child, that these vast, heavy, shiny machines should fly
then i was filled with wonder when i heard that bees 🐝 broke the laws of aerodynamics (so said french entomologist august magnan in the 1930’s)
well it seems that they might look like they shouldn't be able to fly, but in reality, they achieve lift off in a totally different way, creating vortices, mini-hurricanes hold them aloft, as an adult i am filled with awe at that too
and despite now--grown up--knowing the physics; that planes can fly because of a careful balance of four physical forces: lift, drag, weight, and thrust, i still wonder at planes floating aloft