Maurice Manning: The Uses of Nostalgia (January 2012)

Poet Maurice Manning questions whether the idea of nostalgia might offer a powerful perspective, rather than an aesthetic shortcoming. Wordsworth’s “Prelude” suggests that nostalgic moments are not “sentimental” but are a means of recognizing the wellspring of a speaker’s poetic vision. Using Emerson’s essay “Nature” as a guide, Manning considers the idea of nostalgia in Frost’s “Going for Water,” and Vachel Lindsay’s “Nancy Hanks, Mother of Abraham Lincoln.”