From the following context clues, determine what definition of "sententious" Lawrence is using. And Melville really is a bit sententious: aware of himself, self-conscious, putting something over even himself. But then it's not easy to get into the swing of a piece of deep mysticism when you just set out with a story. Nobody can be more clownish, more clumsy and sententiously in bad taste, than Herman Melville, even in a great book like Moby D*ck. He preaches and holds forth because he's not sure of himself. And he holds forth, often, so amateurishly. —D.H. Lawrence, from Studies in Classic American Literature Hint: The following all correctly define "sententiously." Think connotation. tense and energetic concise and full of meaning preachy; given to ponderous moral lecturing precise and exact