While the poetry in this reading assignment provided good examples of the concepts being discussed, I think it's also important evaluate the concept of sympathetic listening in order to understand the impact the literature will have on its readers.

            Understanding that "the sympathetic imagination is the ability of a person to penetrate the barrier which space puts between him and his object, and by actually entering into the object, so to speak, to secure a momentary but complete identification with it" allows us to understand the goal of a writer when engaging its reader in sympathetic imagination (882).  By writing works that allow for this technique, the writer is able to reveal "the inner 'truth' and nature of the particular, concrete object", which might be more difficult to reveal through rational writing (882).  In comparison with using a rational approach to writing, "the true poet has no character, no identity, he is annihilated in the character of others and concerns himself solely with revealing their essential natures" (882).  In doing so, he flees himself and is able "to throw his soul in to the body of another man, and be at once possessed of his sentiments, adopt his passions, and rise to all the functions and feelings of his situation" (882).  Analyzing the means by which a writer achieves literature capable of provoking sympathetic imagination is important in developing each of our talents as writers.  How can we promote sympathetic imagination through our writing?

            But why should we promote sympathetic imagination?  Does it have any benefits?  Realizing that imagination can place us in the situation of another person, reading acts as a catalyst for our imaginations.  By immersing ourselves in a different world and experience through reading, we are able to judge actions moral or immoral.  We engage in "sympathetic participation with those who would be affected by the external consequences, good or bad, of an act" (883).  On the other hand, constantly trying to appeal to emotion through stories could lead to a dangerous mindset that allows us to get carried away by constantly straying from concrete facts that can check our emotional crusades.