LIFE
(1770-1850)
- 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 developed a close friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with whom he collaborated in the 1797-1799 period to write Lyrical Ballads.
WORKS
• Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other
Poems (1798).
• Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems (1800). This edition contains the
famous Preface, the Manifesto of English Romanticism.
•
Poems,
in Two Volumes (1807).
•
The Excursion (1814).
•
The Prelude (1850).
THE OBJECT OF POETRY
From the Preface to Lyrical Ballads à”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 à” “The language […] of these men 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 expressions”.
WHO IS THE POET?
From the Preface to Lyrical Ballads à “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 à “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 à “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
Object à Poet à Sensory experience à Emotion àMemory= recollection in tranquility àkindred emotion àpoem àreader àemotion
MAN AND NATURE
- Man and nature are inseparable.
- Pantheistic view of nature: it 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.
Nature is à the
countryside, a rural scene (silent and solitary, but not desolate) often
opposed to the noise and confusion
of the town, a source of pleasure
à a source of inspiration, not a power
external to man, revealing moral and spiritual values.
à a life force, man communicate with
it as God is present in nature and not separable from it
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.
THE POET’S TASK
The poet= a teacher
·
Shows
men how to understand their feelings and improve their moral being.
·
Draws
attention to the ordinary things of life where the deepest emotions are to be
found.
STYLE
- Abandoned 18th-century poetic diction.
- Almost always used blank verse.
- Proved skilful at verse forms such as sonnets, odes, ballads and lyrics
