Primal sympathy

PRIMAL SYMPATHYMentioned perhaps most famously and exquisitely in William Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality", the "primal sympathy" has been the subject of numerous critical interpretations. Below, is an excerpt from Wordworth's poem which references the "primal sympathy":

"What though the radiance

Which was once so bright

Be now forever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass,

Of glory in the flower,

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind;

In the primal sympathy

Which having been must ever be;

In the soothing thoughts that spring

Out of human suffering;

In the faith that looks through death,

In years that bring the philosophic mind."

The prevailing view of the "primal sympathy" is that Wordsworth was referring to a reservoir of human emotions and experience that is common to all humans "qua humans" and that it is a core register of fundamental passions that artists may tap into and to which arguably all great works of art appeal. So it has been said of Beethoven's Fifth, for example, that there is a piece of music which stirs the principal emotions of people everywhere, regardless of their personal backgrounds, philosophy, religion, nationality or culture.

The "primal sympathy" unites all of humanity in that every person has the capacity to feel. In this sense, one might say it is really a kind of "primal empathy" rather than "primal sympathy," for through art we can take that which is external and internalize it and actually FEEL something as a result. Great art moves its audience; it creates strong feelings -- and such feelings can be shared: across borders, across genders, across even the span of centuries of time.