20. Wordsworth's Poems
(Tintern Abbey & Immortality Ode)
for APPSC TGPSC TREIRB JL/DL
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William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 –
23 April 1850)
Biography:
According to Keats “His Poetry is
Egoistic Sublime”. He was abused and criticized by Jeffery of the
Edinburgh Review. He was the “Bard of Rydal
Mount”, “Harbinger of nature”,
“High priest of Nature”
and regarded as “Patriarch of Letters”. He was universally esteemed as the “Grand Old Man of English letters”. Mathew Arnold says, “His poetry is the reality, his
philosophy is the illusion”
Lake Poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey are called as Lake
poets. Term coined by “Jeffery Francis” in Edinburgh Review (1817)
William Wordsworth was born in
Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, on April 7, 1770. Wordsworth’s mother died when
he was eight—this experience shapes much of his later work. Wordsworth attended
Hawkshead Grammar School, where his love of poetry was firmly established and,
it is believed, where he made his first attempts at verse. While he was at
Hawkshead, Wordsworth’s father died leaving him and his four siblings orphans.
After Hawkshead, Wordsworth studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge and,
before his final semester, he set out on a walking tour of Europe—an experience
that influenced both his poetry and his political sensibilities. While touring
Europe, Wordsworth came into contact with the French Revolution. The
democratic ideals of French Revolution inspired him. This experience, as well
as a subsequent period living in France, brought about Wordsworth’s interest
and sympathy for the life, troubles, and speech of the “common man.” These
issues proved to be of the utmost importance to Wordsworth’s work. Wordsworth’s
earliest poetry was published in 1793 in the collections An Evening Walk and
Descriptive Sketches. While living in France, Wordsworth fell in love with a
French girl Annette Vallone, and had a daughter, Caroline, out of
wedlock; he left France, however, before she was born. In 1802, he returned to
France with his sister, Dorothy, on a four-week visit to meet Caroline. Later
that year, he married, Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, and they had
five children together. In 1812, while living in Grasmere, two of their
children—Catherine and John—died.
Equally important in the poetic life
of Wordsworth was his 1795 meeting with the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It
was with Coleridge that Wordsworth published the famous Lyrical Ballads in 1798. While the poems themselves are some
of the most influential in Western literature, it is the preface to the second
edition that remains one of the most important testaments to a poet’s views on
both his craft and his place in the world. In the preface Wordsworth writes on
the need for “common speech” within poems and argues against the hierarchy of
the period which valued epic poetry above the lyric.
He was made Poet Laureate in 1843,
after the death of Southey.
Wordsworth’s most famous work, The
Prelude (1850), is considered by many to be the crowning achievement of English
Romanticism. The poem, revised numerous times, chronicles the spiritual life of
the poet and marks the birth of a new genre of poetry. Although Wordsworth
worked on The Prelude throughout his life, the poem was published posthumously.
Wordsworth spent his final years settled at Rydal Mount in England, traveling,
and continuing his outdoor excursions. Devastated by the death of his daughter,
Dora, in 1847, Wordsworth seemingly lost his will to compose poems.
William Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount
at his home and was buried in the Grasmere Churchyard on April 23, 1850,
leaving his wife, Mary, to publish The Prelude three months later.
Works:
1.
Descriptive Sketches 1793- collection of poetry about a tour he took in the Swiss Alps
2. An Evening Walk – both were his
early poems published in the university.
3. Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other
Poems
(1798) –there
were 23 poems in this book. Coleridge contributed 4 poems. The first poem is Coleridge’s: “The Rime of Ancient Mariner” and the last poem is Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”.
Great
poems:
a)
Tintern Abbey 1798: Its full title is “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the
Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798”. Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy visit a
natural spot that he had visited five years ago, and the speaker realizes that
he experiences nature in a more mature way now. He looks forward to bringing
this new memory with him into the future. The speaker is also glad to know that
his sister will remember him after he has died. Opening line: “Five years have past; five summers, with the length, Of
five long winters! and again I hear; These waters, rolling from their
mountain-springs”
b) The Idiot Boy 1798- ballad, story of Betty Foy’s disabled son who is naïve and loved by
society.
c) We are Seven 1798: discussion between
an ‘’adult poetic speaker’’ and a "little cottage girl", the speaker
meets a young girl who had six brothers and sisters, before two of them died.
She now lives at home with her mother. When the speaker asks her how many
siblings she has, she repeatedly tells him, "We are Seven," confusing
the speaker, who counts only five Famous line:
“I met a little cottage Girl:
She was eight years old,”;
------
"How many are you, then," said I,
"If they two are in heaven?"
Quick was the little maid's reply,
"O master! we are seven."
d) The Thorn 1798: The poem begins with the speaker’s description
of an old thornbush perched high on a mountaintop. A sea captain narrating the story of a woman ‘Martha Ray’ and her dead child who is buried beneath the
thorn.
e)
Tables Turned 1798- the speaker tells his friend to stop reading books and instead go outside
and be a part of nature.
Other
important poems in it:
Anecdote
for fathers 1798- subtitled: "showing how the art of lying may be taught". poem
about the wisdom of children
The Thorn
Simon Lee
"Lucy
poems" are a series of five poems composed between 1798-1801:
1. Three years she grew in sun and shower 1798
2. She dwelt among the untrodden ways 1800
3. I travelled among unknown men 1800
4. A slumber did my spirit seal. 1800
5. Strange fits of passion have I known 1807
The first four of the Lucy Poems were published in the "Lyrical
Ballads (1798, 1800)". The last was written in 1801, but published in
"Poems, in Two
Volumes (1807)".
Although they are presented as a series in modern anthologies, Wordsworth
did not conceive of them as a group, nor did he seek to publish the poems in
sequence. He described the works as "experimental" in the prefaces of
Lyrical Ballads. Only after his death in 1850 did publishers and critics begin
to treat the poems as a fixed group.
Four poems by
Coleridge in Lyrical Ballads 1798:
1. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
2.The Foster Mother’s Tale
3.The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem
4.The Dungeon
4. Lyrical Ballads,
with Other Poems (1800)
a. Preface to Lyrical
Ballads (1800) – Regarded as “Romantic Manifesto”, or “Magna Carta of
Romanticism” prose work of Wordsworth, which is considered a piece
of criticism. Its famous preface highlighted several of the key ideas of the
Romantic Movement. In his “Theory of Poetic
Diction” he advocated to use common language in poetry. He says “Poet is a man speaking to men”. ‘Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge’.; ‘Poetry is
the first and last of all knowledge’; ‘Poetry
is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings taking its origin from
emotions recollected on tranquility’ (see
criticism notes)
b. A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal 1800 - the last poem in a short sequence known as
the "Lucy poems," in which a speaker expresses his love for (and grief over) a mysterious,
idealized woman, Lucy. She is so powerful and full of life, the speaker did not think she
would ever die. It examines the unpredictable nature of death.
c. Lucy Gray 1800- describes the death of a young girl named Lucy
Gray, who went out one evening into a storm to help her mother. (It is not
included in Lucy Poems, eventhough it has a character named Lucy.)
d. Michael, a pastoral
1800- pastoral poem, in blank verse- describes the lonely life of a shepherd
Micheal, his wife and his only child Luke. The epigraph of George Eliot's
Silas Marner is taken from the poem
e. Kitten at Play 1800- poem - describes kitten named Tabby, which is compared to Indian
conjuror.
The Yarrow poems are a series of
three poems. (Yarrow river is much
celebrated in earlier Scottish verse):
1. "Yarrow Unvisited" (1803) – about his failure to visit Yarrow river in Scotland, during a tour of
Scotland with his sister Dorothy. It was partly written for his friend Walter Scott, whose friendship with him began
during this same tour.
2. "Yarrow Visited" (1814)- his
impressions on finally seeing the Yarrow in company with the poet James Hogg.
3. "Yarrow Revisited"(1831)- a tribute to his friend Walter Scott,
who died in 1832
5.
The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind; An
Autobiographical Poem (1799,1805,1850) – fourteen-volume
epic-length poem written in blank verse. It is a complete record of
his development from his childhood days to the period of maturity. He never
gave it a title, but called it the "Poem to Coleridge" in his
letters to his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. He described the Prelude as “a poem on the growth of my own mind” with “contrasting
views of Man, Nature, and Society.” He began it in 1798 at the age
of 28 and continued it throughout his life.
Three versions of
“Prelude”
in 1799, first
published as 2-part poem;
in 1805, as 13
books poem;
in 1850, as 14
books poem, shortly after his death, by his wife.
Its present
title was given by his widow Mary Hutchinson. He coined the term “Spots of
Time” (=Ordinary events described as extraordinary) Famous lines: “Bliss
was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very
Heaven!”- in The Prelude Book XI (about early years of French Revolution)
6. Poems, in Two
Volumes (1807) – his remarkable lyrics included in these two volumes are:
a)
The Solitary Reaper 1807- melodious song sung by a Scottish woman
while reaping alone on the plains of Scotland. The speaker can only guess at
what she is singing about because he cannot understand her language. At the
end, he is glad to take this new memory.
b) I Wandered Lonely
as a Cloud 1807- (also known
as Daffodils), Dorothy and Wordsworth came across a belt of daffodils.
The speaker is happy to have this memory to look back on during less happy
times.
c)
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
1807 (known as
"Ode", "Immortality Ode" or "Great Ode") -
from Recollection of Early Childhood. It is the high-water mark of poetry in
the 19th century-said by Emerson.
d) Resolution and
Independence 1807 (known as The Leech-gatherer)- based on Wordsworth's actual
encounter with a leech-gatherer- contains famous line about
Robert Burns, who died at the age of 37: of
Him who walked in glory and in joy / Following his plough, along the
mountain-side"; another famous line about Chatterton,
committed suicide at the age of 17: “I thought
of Chatterton, the ‘Marvelous Boy’, The sleepless Soul that perished in his
pride;”
e)
Ode to Duty 1807- modeled on Thomas Gray's “Hymn to Adversity,” which in turn was
imitated from Horace's “Ode to Fortune.”
f)
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 – sonnet- unsual- about the beauty of a city rather
than the beauty of nature. Opening line: Earth
has not any thing to show more fair
g)
The world is too much with us 1807- sonnet- criticises the world absorbed in materialism
of the First
Industrial Revolution- the speaker is angry at the people who prefer
manufactured goods to the joys of nature
h) Elegiac Stanzas
1807- full
title: "Elegiac Stanzas, Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a
Storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont."
i)
My Heart Leaps Up 1807- Also known as ‘The Rainbow’. It suggests that children are actually above adults because of their
close proximity to nature, God and heaven. This Opening line: “My
heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky” Famous line in it: “The
child is the father of the man”. Last three lines of this poem are used as an
epigraph for his poem “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of
Early Childhood (1807)”
j)
It is a beauteous evening calm and free 1807 - sea side walk with his illegitimate daughter
Caroline. The speaker met his daughter after ten years. Even though she doesn't
experience nature in the same way he does, the speaker considers her divine.
k)
London, 1802 (1807)- petrarchian sonnet- It’s an encomium and is dedicated to John Milton. The speaker feels that humanity is losing its
connection to nature, So he asks John Milton to save humanity. Opening line- Milton!
thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need
of thee:
|
Encomium is a speech or piece of
writing that praises someone or something.
|
1.
"French
Revolution" (1810)- Published as separate poem but later merged in
“Prelude”. It welcomes the ‘French revolution as a
pleasant exercise of hope and joy’
2.
Guide to the Lakes
(1810)- A Guide through the District of the Lakes, William Wordsworth's
travellers' guidebook
3.
"To the
Cuckoo"
4.
The Excursion: Being a portion of The Recluse, a poem (1814) – part of recluse, unfinished poem runs in 9
books. It is based on the poet’s love for nature.
5.
Laodamia (1815,
1845) - based on Trojan War- Laodamia, the wife of Protesilaus, prays to the
gods that her husband may return to her from Hades (god of the dead/ king of
underworld). He returns to her and narrates the story of his death.
6.
The White Doe of
Rylstone or, The Fate of the Nortons (1815)- is a long narrative poem
7.
Peter Bell: A Tale in Verse
(1819)- writtern in 1798, but published in 1819.
8.
Ecclesiastical
Sonnets (1822)- originally called "Ecclesiastical Sketches."
9.
Recluse 1888– if completed, would have become three-part epic and
philosophical poem. In prefatory advertisement to the First Edition of the
Prelude, 1850, it is stated that that poem was introductory to Recluse. It was
left as incomplete manuscript, later published in 1888.
a. the Prelude
b.
The Excursion 1814
c.
Planned, but neer completed
"Matthew"
poems are a series of poems, composed by Wordsworth, that describe the
character Matthew. From October 1798 to February 1799, Wordsworth worked on the
"Matthew" poems. The Poems include: Mathew, The Two April Mornings, The Fountain, Address to the Scholars
Other Great Poems
1.
Lines written as a School Exercise 1785- first poem composed as a school
boy
2.
The Sparrow’s Nest
3.
The Affliction of Margaret or Ruined Cottage
4.
Character of Happy Warrior-
5.
The Cumberland Begger-
“Wordsworth’s
poetry is egoist sublime”- Keats
Play:
1.
“Borderers (1795-97)”– his only verse drama(tragedy) set during the reign of King Henry III of
England.
Note:
To the skylark -by
Wordsworth
To a skylark -by
Shelley
Wordsworth's Poetical Works Themes
Nature
"Come forth into the light of things, /
Let Nature be your Teacher." No discussion on Wordsworth would be complete
without mention of nature. Nature and its connection to humanity makes an
appearance in the vast majority of Wordsworth's poetry, often holding a poem's
focus, and has become the cornerstone of the Romantic Movement primarily
because of him. For Wordsworth, nature is a kind of religion in which he has
the utmost faith. Nature fills two major roles in Wordsworth's poetry:
1. Even though it is intensely beautiful and
peaceful, nature often causes Wordsworth to feel melancholy or sad. This is
usually because, even as he relishes in his connection with nature, he worries
about the rest of humanity, most of who live in cites completely apart from
nature. Wordsworth wonders how they could possibly revive their spirits. In the
end, however, he often decides that it is wrong to be sad while in nature:
"A poet could not but be gay, / In such jocund company."
2. Nature also gives Wordsworth hope for the
future. Form past experience Wordsworth knows that spending time in nature is a
gift to his future self, because later, when he is alone, tired and frustrated
in the busy, dirty city, he will be able to look back on a field of daffodils
he once spent time in and be happy again.
Memory
For Wordsworth, the power of the human
mind is extremely important. In several of his poems he begins in a negative or
depressed mood, and then slowly becomes more positive. The most important use
of memory, however, is to maintain connections. For instance, in poems like
"Line Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" and "I wandered
lonely as a cloud" Wordsworth is in nature (his favorite place to be) and
he is happy, but he becomes even happier when he realizes that he never actually
has to leave his memories behind. Once he has returned to the daily gloom of
the city, he will be able to remember the time he spent among nature and make
himself happy again: "And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances
with the daffodils."
As Wordsworth begins to consider his
own mortality memory is again a huge comfort, because he realizes that even
after he has died he will be able to live on in the memory of his family and
friends, just as those who have passed on before him are in his memory.
Wordsworth is especially heartened to know that his sister Dorothy, with whom
he spent countless hours, will remember him fondly, carrying him with her
wherever she goes.
Mortality
Wordsworth's fascination with death frequently
shows up in his poetry. The Lucy Poems, for instance, are a series of poems
about a young girl who may or may not have been a figment of Wordsworth's
imagination, and who ultimately dies. Wordsworth looks at the event from
several angles. In "She dwelt among the untrodden ways" he focuses on
the unexpectedness of her death, and the unpredictability of life and death in
general. In "Three years she grew" Wordsworth creates a fanciful rationale
for her death: Nature became entranced by her and promised to give her an
incredible life, but once all of her promises were fulfilled Lucy had to die.
In "We are Seven" Wordsworth looks at a young girl who had six
siblings but now lives at home with only her mother, because two of her
siblings have died and the others have moved away. The little girl seems not to
understand death throughout the poem, but in the end the reader learns that she
may have a clearer understanding than the speaker. In "Lines Composed a
Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" Wordsworth is comforted by the thought that
he will live on after his death, because his sister Dorothy will remember him
lovingly.
Humanity
One of Wordsworth's greatest worries is the
descent of humanity. As man moves further and further away from humanity he
seems to be losing more and more of his soul. Often when Wordsworth is in
nature he is saddened because he is forced to think about the people trapped in
cities, unable or unwilling to commune with nature. In "London,
1802," for instance, Wordsworth makes a plea to the poet John Milton to
return and teach humanity how to regain the morality and virtue it once had.
Similarly, in "The world is too much with us" Wordsworth worries that
the world is too full of people who have lost their connection to divinity, and
more importantly, to nature: "Getting and spending we lay waste our
powers, / Little we see in Nature that is ours."
Transcendence and Connectivity
The idea of transcendence did not gain full
speed until the Romantic Movement moved to America, but Wordsworth was
certainly a fan of the idea long before then. "Transcendence" simply
means "being without boundaries." For Wordsworth, this means being
able to connect with people and things outside of oneself, especially in terms
of nature. It was Wordsworth's supreme aspiration to metaphorically transcend
the limitations of his body and connect completely with nature. Mankind's
difficulty accepting the beauty that nature has to offer saddened Wordsworth;
he found the loss of such a gift difficult to accept.
Morality
In Wordsworth's poems, morality doesn't
necessarily stem directly from religion, but rather from doing what is right by
oneself, by humanity, and by nature. In "London, 1802" Wordsworth
complains that man's morals are in a state of constant decline, but the morals
he is talking about have more to do with following the natural process of life
- being free and powerful, not tied down by city living or common thoughts. The
most important lesson a person can learn, according to Wordsworth, is to be
true to his own impulses and desires, but not greedy. A person should be
available to help his fellow man, but should not be consumed by other peoples'
needs. He should be in communion with nature, with humanity, and with himself.
Religion
Religion, while not as prevalent as in the
poetry of the Enlightenment, does have a place in much of Wordsworth's poetry.
Often religion is included simply to help Wordsworth's more pious readers
understand the level of his commitment to and faith in nature. Wordsworth uses
religious imagery and language in his poems in order to convey his ideas about
the power of nature, the human mind, and global interconnectivity.
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey; On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798
Background/Context:
"Tintern Abbey" was written
in July of 1798 and published as the last poem of Lyrical Ballads, also in
1798. At the age of twenty-three (in August of 1793), Wordsworth had visited
the desolate abbey alone. In 1798 he returned to the same place with his
beloved sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, who was a year younger. Dorothy is referred
to as "Friend" throughout
the poem.
The full title of the poem is “Lines
Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey; On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye
During a Tour, July 13, 1798". But the poem is simply called "Tintern
Abbey." This is misleading because the it is actually located "a
few miles" away! At the time the poem was written, Tintern Abbey was
already just the ruins of a gothic cathedral--a stone shell with no roof.
Ruins of ‘Tintern Abbey’
in Wales
The poem's structure is similarly
complex, The poem is written in tightly structured decasyllabic blank verse
and comprises verse paragraphs rather than stanzas. Categorising the poem is
difficult, as it contains some elements of the ode and of the dramatic
monologue. The flow of the writing has been described as that of waves,
accelerating only to stop in the middle of a line (caesura). Divided into five
stanzas of different lengths.
Narrative Structure:
|
Part |
Lines/Stanzas |
Description |
|
I |
Stanza-1&2 (Lines 1–49) |
contextual scene-setting |
|
II |
Stanza-3&4 (Lines 49- 111) |
developing theorisation of the significance of his
experience of the landscape |
|
III |
Stanza-5 (Lines 111–159) |
final confirmatory address to the implied listener. |
Summary:
Wordsworth begins his poem by telling
the reader that it has been five years since he has been to this place a few
miles from the abbey. Wordsworth emphasizes the act of returning by making
extensive use of repetition: "Five years
have passed; five summers, with the length / Of five long winters! and again I
hear / These waters..." He describes the "Steep and
lofty cliffs," the "wild secluded scene," the "quiet of the
sky," the "dark sycamore" he sits under, the trees of the
orchard, and the "pastoral farms" with "wreaths of smoke"
billowing from their chimneys. The reader is introduced to the natural beauty
of the Wye River area.
In the second stanza, Wordsworth
departs from the present moment to describe how his memories sustained over the
past five years. He tells his readers that his first visit to this place
gave him "sensations sweet" when he was "in lonely rooms, and mid the din / Of towns and cities".
He intimates that these "feelings... / Of unremembered pleasure" may
have helped him to be a better person, perhaps simply by putting him in a
better mood than he would have been in. Wordsworth uses words such as
"sublime,""blessed," and "serene." Wordsworth
goes on to suggest his spiritual relationship with nature, which he believes
will be a part of him until he dies. Nature, it seems, offers humankind
("we") a kind of insight ("We see into the life of things")
in the face of mortality ("we are laid asleep"). Wordsworth lays
emphasis on the last line by making it only eight syllables (four iambs) long,
as opposed to ten.
In the third stanza, he begins
to consider what it would mean if his belief in his connection to nature were
misguided, but stops short. Seeming not to care swhether the connection is
valid or not, he describes the many benefits that his memories nature give him.
Wordsworth returns to the present and reiterates how important his memories of
this landscape have been to him. At the end of the stanza he addresses the Wye
River as: "O sylvan Wye!" (apostrophe).
In the fourth stanza, Wordsworth
begins by explaining the pleasure he feels at being back in the place that has
given him so much joy over the years. He is also glad because he knows that
this new memory will give him future happiness: "in this moment there is
life and food / for future years." He goes on to explain how differently
he experienced nature five years ago, when he first came to explore the area.
During his first visit he was full of energy. Wordsworth quickly sets his
current self apart from the way he was five years ago, saying, "That time
is past." At first, however, he seems almost melancholy about
the change: "And all its aching joys are now no more, / And all its dizzy
raptures." Over the past five years, he has developed a new approach to
nature. Wordsworth is "still / A lover of the meadows and the woods,"
but has lost some of his gleeful exuberance. Instead, he views nature as the "anchor of [his] purest thoughts, the nurse, / The
guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul / of all my moral being."
In the fifth and last stanza,
Wordsworth addresses his sister Dorothy, calling her both "Sister"
and "dear Friend." Through her eyes, Wordsworth can see
the wild vitality he had when he first visited this place, and this image of
himself gives him new life. It is apparent at this point in the poem that
Wordsworth has been speaking to his sister throughout. Dorothy serves the same
role as nature, reminding Wordsworth of what he once was. Wordsworth then
shares his deepest hope: that in the future, the power of nature and the
memories of himself will stay with Dorothy. He is implying that he will die
before she does and hopes that in her memory he will be kept alive: Even as
Wordsworth thinks about dying, he is given new strength and vitality at the
thought that his sister will remember him. He describes the setting vigorously:
At the end of the poem, Wordsworth
combines their current setting with his sister's future memory of the moment.
He is satisfied knowing that she will also carry the place, the moment, and the
memory with her.
Line by line Summary
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