William Wordsworth
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Created on September 19, 2023
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Transcript
Selected Works
Themes
Biography
From the Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
(1770-1850)
“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”
THE DOVE COTTAGE
Selected Works
- Lyrical Ballads (1798);
- Lyrical Ballads (2nd edition, 1800); this edition contains the famous ‘Preface’, the Manifesto of English Romanticism;
- Poems, in Two Volumes (1807);
- The Prelude (1805);
- The Excursion (1814).
The object of poetry From the ‘Preface’ to Lyrical Ballads. The principal object […] was to choose incidents and situations from common life […] to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them […] the primary laws of our nature. The language of poetry From the ‘Preface’ to Lyrical Ballads: The language […] of these men (low and rustic people) is adopted […] because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived […] and because, being less under the influence of social vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated Who is the poet? From the ‘Preface’ to Lyrical Ballads: What is a poet? […] He is a man speaking to men: a man […] endued with more lively sensibility who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind. What is poetry? From the ‘Preface’ to Lyrical Ballads: Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till by a species of reaction the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind. Poetic composition From the ‘Preface’ to Lyrical Ballads In this mood successful composition generally begins, and in a mood similar to this it is carried on; but the emotion […] from various causes is qualified by various pleasures, so that in describing any passions whatsoever, which are voluntarily described, the mind will upon the whole be in a state of enjoyment.
THE POETIC PROCESS
MAN AND NATURE
- Man and nature are inseparable;
- pantheistic view of nature: nature is the seat of the spirit of the universe;
- nature comforts man in sorrow, it is a source of joy and pleasure, it teaches man to love, to act in a moral way.
THE SENSES AND MEMORY
- Wordsworth exploited the sensibility of the eye and ear to perceive the beauty of nature;
- he believed that the moral character develops during childhood ‒ influence of David Hartley (1705-1757);
- the sensations caused by physical experience lead to simple thoughts.
- These simple thoughts later combine into complex and organised ideas;
- memory is a major force in the process of growth of the poet’s mind.
THE POET'S TASK
LIFE
Wordsworth’s House in Cockermouth, Cumberland
- Born in in Cumberland, in the English Lake District in 1770;
- in 1791 he got a B.A. Degree at St John’s College, Cambridge;
- in 1791 he travelled to Revolutionary France and was fascinated by the Republican movement.
- the Reign of Terror led him to become estranged to the Republic, and the war between England and France caused him to return to England;
- in 1795 he moved to Dorset with his sister Dorothy, who was his most faithful friend.
Lake District National Park