Griswold recalls how a childhood encounter with a sentimental, “middlebrow” poem about a dog and a veteran (which makes her cry to this day) tapped into wells of empathy. She explains how such responses to aesthetic experiences, so often downplayed in academic inquiry, deserve our sustained attention—and even respect.
Source
“They Called Him Rags,” by Edmund Vance Cooke, featured in The Best Loved Poems of the American People
Contributor
Wendy Griswold, professor of sociology, Northwestern University