In literature, artistic merit is distinguished between “sentiment” and “sentimentality.” The word “sentiment” refers to the emotional import of a passage as distinguished by chosen words. Determining the sentiment in a poem enables us to understand its tone. Excessive sentiment is “sentimental,” a negative term in literary analysis. By referencing the excessiveness, the speaker shouldn’t be so in love, angry, or envious. The writer did not give the reader enough background information, evidence, to feel the same way that they feel about a child, war, pleasure or envy. X.J. Kennedy wrote, “Sentimentality results when a writer implies that he feels great emotion but fails to give us sufficient grounds for sharing it.”
Sentimentality is a form of manipulation. For example, bad movies use dramatic moments to make us feel sad, uplifted, relieved or affirmed. Song lyrics, Hallmark greeting cards, children’s books, poems, novels and short stories can all be sentimental. Generally, if a writer takes shortcuts with the sentiment, then the writer will most likely be taking shortcuts on characterization. As well, a sentimental writer uses stereotypes, some embodiment of cultural clichés. For example, the poem may describe an old man sitting on a bench in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. It may expound upon the social injustice that creates outcasts. The fact is the sentimental writer is not able to take the time to get to know the person rather the writer uses him as an excuse to feel bad about social injustice. Although the writer may sincerely feel bad, the writer has failed to convince the reader by providing necessary proof in the form of evidence.
A private poem may be more sentimental than a public poem. For example, if the writer wrote the piece specifically for a particular individual, the writer has license to circumvent evidence normally necessary to convince a reader of a public poem because of personal background information already understood. Poems that illustrate ethics, morality or temperament of groups who would be predisposed into accepting values demonstrated in the poem. A poem that presents a standard Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Native American perspective has as its audience members of that group. Sentimental poems in this category include cowboy, nature, New Age, queer or feminist poetry whose intention is merely to congratulate a particular point of view. There are ways to write about one’s mother as well as ways to write from a particular ideological or personal perspective without being sentimental. One way is for the writer to create new and engaging images, being wary of invoking stereotypes, and being aware that people and solutions to problems are complex.
The meter and strategies of a poem also indicates sentimentality. If the meter of a tragic poem is light lilting energy of anapest, that meter is more appropriate for a tale like “The Night before Christmas.” The placement of stresses may make emphatic an already sentimental line. Thus, it contrasts and negates the achievement of the words. The sentimental poet often believes that meter intensifies feelings. However, such a writer’s lack of technical skill and their weakness with imagery, grammatical structure and precision are intensified by meter and rhyme. When the meter and the writing are mismatched, the effect can generate unintentional humor, a trap that sentimentalist frequently falls.
