(one of my foundational early encounters with the sublime through literature)
“Sublime” means elevated, inspiring awe, lofty, grand, exalted, transcendent, wondrous, marvellous.
My interest in the sublime began with Shakespeare’s Macbeth in grade 11 and Hamlet in grade 12. Also in grade 12, I studied Keats’ Odes and Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” which opened up large, lofty, transcendent views of humans and Nature, which led directly to university English studies, a career teaching high-school English, and a life-long interest in drama and poetry.
Later, I expanded my studies in the Arts to include classical and jazz music, both of which contain sublime audial experiences such as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Stan Getz and Kenny Barron’s People Time CDs. I also found the sublime in the visual arts such as Michelangelo’s “David” and the Gustave Dore engravings for Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
*Typically “the sublime” refers either to the very beautiful (most common version) or the terrifying/that which inspires elevated fear.
Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, and da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” would be examples the beautiful sublime. Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, Picasso’s “Guernica”, and Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho shower scene music would be examples of the terror version of the sublime. (It’s worth noting that there are also beautiful sublime feature films as well as sublime terror films.)
Looking back at what I have enjoyed and learned from, it would be the sublime works of art which have influenced my life and sensibility most of all. (As well as sublime natural settings, sublime experiences, and sublime moments from interpersonal relationships.)