Wordsworth Flashcards
1
Q
Biographical info
A
b. 1770 in the Lake district
Life events:
- 1790 - summer in Europe
- excitement of early revolution days
- Swiss Alps
- 1791-1792
- lived in France
- fell in love, but had to leave the country due to war between England and France
- gradually got drawn into literary circles
- 1795
- met Godwin and Coleridge
- moved to Somerset with Coleridge
- lyrical ballads collaboration
- modestly successful
- 1799 - bought Dove cottage with his sister
- 1802 - went to France
- married Mary Hutchinson
- 2 children, but they died in an epidemic
- 1819 - justice of the peace
- 1843 - poet laureate
- 1850 - 'the Prelude'
- Paradise Lost of the Romantics
2
Q
Common concerns in poetry
A
- country roots
- deep and abiding love of nature, natural beauty
- strong interest in solitude and solitary people
- not only for himself
- began to believe that the most interesting people were those who were made solitary by society - the very old and young
- conscious use of simple language and folk-forms
- rural background
- capacity for intense feeling
- divided attention between inward thoughts and observation of the world
- memory
- the deviation from linear chronology through memories
- freedom
- acute awareness of self
- growth and development of identity
3
Q
Lucy poems
A
- composed over various years
- all concerning an imaginary person named Lucy
- she seems not completely human
- elegiac
- the speaker often obsesses over the possibility of her death
- the poet is in a type of waking death
- when she dies he truly wakes
- i.e. poems deal with an initial encounter with the experience of death
4
Q
form of the Lucy poems
A
- romance/tail rhyme scheme (AAB CCB)
- follows a distinct pattern:
- loves Lucy
- worries about her death
- it always remains a surprise to him
- song of adventure
- old form
- young man rides/walks in the countryside
- sees a woman - usually singing
- falls madly in love with her
5
Q
Lucy’s identity
A
- lives in nature and nature in her
- symbol of permanence and transient
- some critics link her to Wordsworth’s sister - Dorothy
- very little physical detail given in the poems
- seems half-human and half-nature spirit
- some people don’t see her
- spirit of place - a muse of the countryside
- links to classical pastoral poetry and muses
- aspect of Wordsworth’s psyche
- when he lived wild and free, but now this has vanished
6
Q
“She dwelt among untrodden ways”
A
- Lucy poem
- alternating 4/3 meter
- alternating rhyme
- Unknown and invisible to many
- untrodden - isolated from others and speaker gives little details about her actual life
- follows general pattern about her death
- her life is over before it’s reached any sense of maturity
- contrast between violet and Venus ‘star’
- possible viewings of his relationship to Lucy
7
Q
Wordsworth’s sonnets
A
- 523 sonnets
- given credit for the revival of the English sonnet
- sonnet gone into decline in 18th century
- return to English literary past
- sonnet form is one of concentration
- believes he suffers under the weight of “too much liberty”
- therefore, structure removes some of the choice which he grapples with
- prefers Italian form to English form
- original: ABBA, ABBA, CDECDE
- changes: ABBA, ABBA, CDCDCD
8
Q
common themes in the sonnets
A
- nature
- the process of art-making
- meta-sonnets
- details the gradual thought process of writing poetry
- structure then becomes a visualisation of the thought process
- Italian sonnets often deal with Q&A etc.
- enough space to tackle question and suggest resolution
9
Q
The World is Too Much with Us
A
- the rat race is too prevalent
- humanity has given up its heart - natural instincts etc.
- structure
- ABBA, ABBA
- feminine rhyme after that
- man is out of tune with the universe
- speaker would rather be a pagan, polytheist
- at least their presence indicated that you responded with the world
10
Q
The Solitary Reaper
A
- written immediately after a highlands walking tour
- based on an actual memory of a woman working in a field
- pattern of listening and speaker/singer
- music compared to water - life giving
- link to bird-son
- Cuckoo - harbringer of spring
- Nightingale - if in a desert, then close to water
- speaker doesn’t understand what she sings
- operation of memory
- ability to recapture ideas
- although written soon after the event, it still captures W’s delicate balance between initial impressions and further reflection
11
Q
the Ode
A
- long lyric poem
- anything from 1 page on
- focuses on human emotion
- serious subject matter
- elevated style
- elaborate stanza structure
12
Q
History of the Ode
A
- Pindar - Ancient Greece
- odes to celebrate to Olympic athletes
- Pindaric 3 sections
- turn
- counter-turn
- stand
- usually differs vastly from previous 2 sections
- often slightly irregular
- Horace - ancient Rome
- serious subject matter
- elevated style
- elaborate stanza structure
- regular stanza structure
- more restrained
- the Great Romantics
- liked Horatian style
- but Pindaric also worked
13
Q
background to Tintern Abbey
A
- written 11-13 July 1798
- the Prelude is an expansion of Tintern Abbey
- discusses how poet’s mind confronts nature
14
Q
characteristics of Tintern Abbey and the Prelude
A
- double scheme
- physically standing on a mountain looking down on the ruins of the abbey
- it’s not the first time he’s there
- he is accompanied by Coleridge and Dorothy
- much like in Prelude
- writes as an adult remembering his boyhood
- organisation
- blank verse
- circular view
- begins and ends with view over the wide valley
- progression of states
- initial state
- falling from said state
- sees in Dorothy a return to the initial state
- slow beginning
- expansive
- but each repetition has purpose
- like waves on a beach
- covering the same ground but pushing the idea a bit further each time
- but each repetition has purpose
15
Q
Tintern Abbey - basic ideas
A
- man
- nature
- solitary thought
- extreme emotion
- memories
- morality of the human condition
16
Q
Themes of Tintern Abbey
A
- solitude
- although he’s with Coleridge and Dorothy
- they become his alter-egos
- Dorothy as spirit of inspiration
- she is a reflection of Wordsworth’s love
- a reflection on relationship between human beings and nature
- stages of growth
- children - unconsciously we are part of nature
- youth - excited by nature, respond emotionally
- adulthood - creation of meaning of the relationship between humanity and nature in an individual’s life
- nature and its influence
- the role of the senses
- we half create what we say
- nature becomes a moral influence
- blesses human beings who are in touch with it
- fills them with understanding
- the role of the senses
17
Q
“Three Years she grew”
A
- romance/tail rhyme
- nature ‘sees’ young Lucy and decides to make her a vessel
- she becomes one with the beings/things around her
- takes on the idea of the sublime - “insensate things”
- Nature as both caring and indifferent
- her death is potentially due to her joining with Nature
- leads to necessary abandonment of her human lover
- death is not necessarily physical, but at least implies separation
- she becomes absorbed into Nature
18
Q
“A slumber did my spirit seal”
A
- ballad rhyme and meter - alternating
- first stanza - eternal image of the girl
- second stanza - eternity undermined by physical death
- “slumber” - sleep of the senses which wakes the creative spirit (see also Tintern abbey)
- both represented as part of the speaker’s consciousness in the poem and an enduring one through nature
- they are separated by either sleep or death
19
Q
“London, 1802”
A
- altered Italian sonnet rhyme
- octave - Milton save us
- reasons for stagnation and selfishness of man
- sestet - reasons why Milton is amazing
- still uses nature imagery
- Milton becomes a representative of the sublime - overwhelming majesty of nature
- nature (and Milton) become moral guides
- shortly after his return from France, perhaps has some of the contrast between the cities
20
Q
“Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept 3, 1802”
A
- based on an early morning city scene looking over most of London
- due to hour, no bustle
- the spot in time
- love poem to the city
- altered Italian sonnet (CDCDCD)
- landscapes merge - disappearing/lengthening of horizon
- personification of London as a woman
- octave - description
- sestet - personal response
21
Q
“Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room”
A
- altered Italian sonnet (CDDCCD)
- octave - imposed restriction
- sestet - chosen restriction in sonnet form
- allows himself to be restricted to escape the “weight of too much liberty”
- introduction of writing as an idea
