The Thinking of the Body
The work advocates for an art that awakens the body’s sensory and emotional capacities rather than one confined to abstract intellectualism. It criticizes those who value detached reason—mathematicians, theologians, lawyers, scientists—whose focus on cerebral pursuits neglects the body’s inherent potential for beauty and desire. Art, according to this perspective, should arise from the full spectrum of human sensations—touch, taste, hearing, and sight—engendering visceral responses that reflect personal hopes, memories, and feelings rather than mere formal precision or academic abstraction. Through comparisons such as two contrasting paintings of Venice, the text illustrates that the true effect of art is not merely in its detailed execution or technical cleanliness, but in its power to evoke movement within the body. One painting, characterized by careful drawing, seems sterile in its intention, while the other, imbued with emotional depth, invites the viewer to sense the cool depths of water and the interplay of light and shadow. These examples, along with references to celebrated artworks like ancient sculptures and epic narratives, suggest that art’s value lies in its ability to reconnect viewers with the primal, living aspects of human experience. The work further contends that genuine aesthetic pleasure is rooted in the bodily experience of the world; it is an intuition that cannot be reduced to disembodied formulas or abstract concepts. It champions a morality of art that is personal and embodied, one that does not concern itself with generalized laws or detached criticism. Instead, it emphasizes that a fully formed artistic sensibility requires readiness to embrace life with all its risks, to cultivate the physical vitality and wild will that gives rise to authentic creative expression. In summary, the text is a call to reject the dominance of a purely intellectual approach to art and to embrace a form of creative expression that harmoniously integrates the mind and the body. It asserts that the fullness of art—its capacity to evoke, transform, and inspire—is best realized when it speaks directly to the instincts, memories, and desires that lie at the core of human experience.
By W.B. Yeats · Genre: Aesthetics, Literary Criticism, Philosophical Essay · 527 words
First lines
Those learned men who are a terror to children and an ignominious sight in lovers' eyes, all those butts of a traditional humour where there is something of the wisdom of peasants, are mathematicians, theologians, lawyers, men of science of various kinds. They have followed some abstract reverie, which stirs the brain only and needs that only, and have therefore stood before the looking-glass without pleasure and never known those thoughts that shape the lines of the body for beauty or animation, and wake a desire for praise or for display.
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The Thinking of the Body is listed on Textopian as an essay by W.B. Yeats, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Essay
- Author: W.B. Yeats
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Aesthetics, Literary Criticism, Philosophical Essay, Modernist Literature, Poetic Prose
- Length: 527 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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Similar titles
- The Holy Places by W. B. Yeats
- Maeterlinck by G. K. Chesterton
- The Word Of The Water by Bliss Carman
- A Poet Of Shadows by George William Russell
- The Midnight Blossom by George William Russell
- Blake by T. S. Eliot
Genres
- Aesthetics — Examines the interplay between bodily sensation and artistic experience, emphasizing art as a physical, emotional, and sensory phenomenon.
- Literary Criticism — Critiques abstract academic approaches in favor of art that engages deeply with personal and bodily experience.
- Philosophical Essay — Explores abstract ideas about form, beauty, and sensation in a reflective, non-narrative style.
- Modernist Literature — Employs experimental language and fragmented imagery typical of modernist approaches to reframe traditional aesthetic values.
Tags
poetic · symbolism · mysticism · modernism · sensuality · metaphysics · imagery · physicality · introspection · mind-body · duality · transformation