"The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thicksighted: thence proceeds mawkishness, and the thousand bitters which those men I speak of must necessarily taste in going over the following pages."
Preface to Endymion
Does that mean that the person goes through that mawkish phase before reading these pages? That the pages describe the mawkish phase? or that the pages will induce it?
I had a head injury several years - and some passages just dont make sense to me....this is one of them....
Could someone perhaps paraphrase it? or put it in more modernistic American English.
2007-10-03 17:56:03 · 3 answers · asked by freshbliss 6 in Education & Reference ➔ Quotations
What the paragraph is saying is that boys are sensible, mature men are sensible, but in between boyhood and manhood there is a period of confusion and craziness, if you like - that period of youth or adolescence is what the author is talking about. The mawkishness is while reading the pages. I hope this is of some help.
2007-10-03 18:06:26 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
It could refer to adolesence. Dictionary meaning of "mawkish" is 1. sickening or nauseating
2. sickly sentimental or weakly emotional
The word awkward comes to mind. Teenagers are like that.
2007-10-04 03:50:53 · answer #2 · answered by Margastar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they know not what they want
2007-10-04 02:27:05 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋