Wordsworth - Disdain for Industrialism/ Disillusionment Flashcards
To My Sister
- “Joyless forms” - materialistic goods - industrial city
- “Living calendar” - refers to clocks starting to dictate lives
- Defying conformity to corrupted ideals of society
- Adversity won’t get them down
“No joyless forms shall regulate / Our living calendar”
Nutting
- Tore off a hazel branch
- Tone shift from awe inspiring appreciative to greedy and harsh
“with crash..merciless ravage…mutilated”
Michael
- Corrupted ideals of city - destroys people that were previously good - this is why living rural in solitude is considered better by WW
- Symbolic of industrialisation’s destructiveness to the rural way of life - shows importance of immortalising it as it will disappear when city encroaches on peoples lives
Michaels son moves to the “dissolute city” where he fell into a life of “evil courses: ignominy and shame”
Michael
- Needed to be immortalised - such an example of destruction of happy lives due to corrupt society should never be forgotten
“The cottage which was named The Evening Star / Is now gone”
Resolution and Independence
- Dispair that fills him when thinking of other Poets who have come before him
“The fear that kills” “the hope that is unwilling to be fed”
Lucy Gray; or, Solitude
- She was a lovely girl despite being raised in a conventional restrictive society and not exposed to nature
“The sweetest thing that ever grew/ Beside a human door”
Tintern Abbey
- Unpleasant, overwhelming harsh
“din of towns and cities”
Tintern Abbey
- Because of this Wordsworth turns to Nature - specifically the Wye river
- Suggests society has become unhealthy both physically and psychologically for humanity
“fever of the world”
Tintern Abbey
- Things that cannot take away the calm/happy mood brought on by Nature - Nature has strengthened him
“Evil tongues, / Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men”
“The dreary intercourse of daily life”
Ode: Intimations of Immortality
- Aporia - philosophising and lamenting over childhood - “glory” that we had in childhood
“Where is now the glory and the dream?”
Ode: Intimations of Immortality
- Metaphor - society is a prison
- “Shades” furthers the negative connotation of society - culpable for separation from nature
‘’Shades of the prison-house begin to close’’
Ode: Intimations of Immortality
- “Light” could be referring to God’s “celestial light” which connotes truth and intelligence. Therefore this paradoxical description could be illustrating how when a child ages their intelligence is lost / “fade(s) into” the broader intelligence of society and thus they take on society’s corrupted values and ideals through conformity
“fade into the light of common day”
The Two Part Prelude
- Gifts guide him through this - disillusioned by industrialisation
“Fretful dwelling of Mankind”
Lines written in Early spring - 1798
- Society is not following Nature’s holy plan - Industrialisation
- Refrain
“Have I not reason to lament / what man has made of man?”
The Tables Turned
- Science and reason-based thinking have replaced learnings from Nature
- Analytical thinking has overtaken deep thinking/ philosophy
- Hyperbole - used to emphasise Wordsworth’s belief that analyisng is as destructive as murder
“We murder to disect”
The Tables Turned
- Metaphorically describing books as “barren leaves” implies cannot impart wisdom - they are bleak and lifeless
“Close up those barren leaves”
The Tables Turned
- Speaks to Wordsworth’s belief that the Age of Reason has gone too far and is taking over important things such as listening to the innate wisdom of nature
- Why he left Cambridge University - it was not teaching him anything substantial
“Enough of Science and of Art”
My heart leaps up when I behold
- Hyperbole highlights his need to be able to admire/love Nature in order to survive - “food”
“Or let me die!”
1801
- Food - relates back to “food for future years” - clearly wasn’t Nature’s “food” that he grew up with
“What food / Fed his hopes?”
The World is too much with us; late and soon
- Title
- The world is “too much” for society - Wordsworth valued a simple life
- “late and soon” - helplessness at neverending/ omnipresent frantic chaos of modern society - relates to inability to be present especially in Nature
The World is too much with us; late and soon
- Humanity has traded its ability to think and philosophise (our hearts) for materialism this is described as a We have given our hearts. away, a sordid boon!” paradoxical__exclamatory language evinces speakers confusion about over society
“Getting and spending we lay waste our powers / Little we see in Nature that is ours”
London, 1802
- Apostrophe
- Only way to rectify humanities wrongdoing is to bring someone back from the dead - link to ‘The Worlds is too much with us…’ where the resolution was to go back in time
“Milton! Thou shouldn’t be living at this hour”
London, 1802
- Sees industrial revolution as damaging not progressive
- “Fen” - rotting humanity thus damaging to health of the individual and society
“England hath need for thee: she is a fen / Of stagnant waters”
London, 1802
- Triad - what England is in need of - particularly in the church, military and literature
“give us manners; virtue, freedom, power”
Written in London September 1802
- Expressing anguish over materialistic values and obsession with self image
- Modern day implication with social media - more relevant now than ever
“our life is only for dress”
Written in London September 1802
- Feeling of suffocation - depression felt during this period - in need of solace
“I know not which way I must look/ For comfort, being, as I am, opprest”
French Revolution As It Appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement
- Reinforces foreshadowing, and evinces disillusionment present in the title
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”
French Revolution As It Appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement
- disillusionment over French Revolution and the deceitful nature of the it
Reason personified as “Enchantress”
French revolution ideals were “going forward in her name”
French Revolution As It Appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement
- No in between
- Complete happiness or disappointment
- Optimism shattered
- Insinuates perverted ideals
“We find our happiness or not at all”
The Tables Turned
- Overthinking and analysis can destroy what we are observing
- Science not entirely a bad thing - don’t favour one over the other
“Our meddling intellect/ Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things”
French Revolution As It Appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement
- Exclamatory language
- Emphasising feeling of elatedness at the onset of the French Revolution
“Oh! pleasant exercise of hope!”
The Ruined Cottage
- Throughout the 1790s Britain had undergone a series of poor harvests, resulting in bans on the export of grain and rapidly rising prices
- Poverty
“Many rich / Sunk down as in a dream among the poor. / And of the poor did many cease to be”
“Two blighting seasons when the fields were left. / With half a harvest”
The Ruined Cottage
- “Natural wisdom turn our hearts away” - ignoring innate wisdom of nature
- “Feeding on disquiet” - humans learn to live off unhappiness rather than beauty of nature
- Nature is calming we are the source of our own disquiet
- Valuing solitude and deep thinking
“The weakness of humanity / From natural wisdom turn our hearts away, / To natural comfort shut our eyes and ears, / And feeding on disquiet, thus disturb / The calm of Nature with our restless thoughts?”
“No joyless forms shall regulate / Our living calendar”
To My Sister
- “Joyless forms” - materialistic goods - industrial city
- “Living calendar” - refers to clocks starting to dictate lives
- Defying conformity to corrupted ideals of society
- Adversity won’t get them down
“with crash..merciless ravage…mutilated”
Nutting
- Tore off a hazel branch
- Tone shift from awe inspiring appreciative to greedy and harsh
Michaels son moves to the “dissolute city” where he fell into a life of “evil courses: ignominy and shame”
Michael
- Corrupted ideals of city - destroys people that were previously good - this is why living rural in solitude is considered better by WW
- Symbolic of industrialisation’s destructiveness to the rural way of life - shows importance of immortalising it as it will disappear when city encroaches on peoples lives
“The cottage which was named The Evening Star / Is now gone”
Michael
- Needed to be immortalised - such an example of destruction of happy lives due to corrupt society should never be forgotten
“The fear that kills” “the hope that is unwilling to be fed”
Resolution and Independence
- Dispair that fills him when thinking of other Poets who have come before him
“The sweetest thing that ever grew/ Beside a human door”
Lucy Gray; or, Solitude
- She was a lovely girl despite being raised in a conventional restrictive society and not exposed to nature
“din of towns and cities”
Tintern Abbey
- Unpleasant, overwhelming harsh
“fever of the world”
Tintern Abbey
- Because of this Wordsworth turns to Nature - specifically the Wye river
- Suggests society has become unhealthy both physically and psychologically for humanity
“Evil tongues, / Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men”
“The dreary intercourse of daily life”
Tintern Abbey
- Things that cannot take away the calm/happy mood brought on by Nature - Nature has strengthened him
“Where is now the glory and the dream?”
Ode: Intimations of Immortality
- Aporia - philosophising and lamenting over childhood - “glory” that we had in childhood
‘’Shades of the prison-house begin to close’’
Ode: Intimations of Immortality
- Metaphor - society is a prison
- “Shades” furthers the negative connotation of society - culpable for separation from nature
“fade into the light of common day”
Ode: Intimations of Immortality
- “Light” could be referring to God’s “celestial light” which connotes truth and intelligence. Therefore this paradoxical description could be illustrating how when a child ages their intelligence is lost / “fade(s) into” the broader intelligence of society and thus they take on society’s corrupted values and ideals through conformity
“Fretful dwelling of Mankind”
The Two Part Prelude
- Gifts guide him through this - disillusioned by industrialisation
“Have I not reason to lament / what man has made of man?”
Lines written in Early spring - 1798
- Society is not following Nature’s holy plan - Industrialisation
- Refrain
“We murder to disect”
The Tables Turned
- Science and reason-based thinking have replaced learnings from Nature
- Analytical thinking has overtaken deep thinking/ philosophy
- Hyperbole - used to emphasise Wordsworth’s belief that analyisng is as destructive as murder
“Close up those barren leaves”
The Tables Turned
- Metaphorically describing books as “barren leaves” implies cannot impart wisdom - they are bleak and lifeless
“Enough of Science and of Art”
The Tables Turned
- Speaks to Wordsworth’s belief that the Age of Reason has gone too far and is taking over important things such as listening to the innate wisdom of nature
- Why he left Cambridge University - it was not teaching him anything substantial
“Or let me die!”
My heart leaps up when I behold
- Hyperbole highlights his need to be able to admire/love Nature in order to survive - “food”
“What food / Fed his hopes?”
1801
- Food - relates back to “food for future years” - clearly wasn’t Nature’s “food” that he grew up with
- The world is “too much” for society - Wordsworth valued a simple life
- “late and soon” - helplessness at neverending/ omnipresent frantic chaos of modern society - relates to inability to be present especially in Nature
The World is too much with us; late and soon
- Title
“Getting and spending we lay waste our powers / Little we see in Nature that is ours”
The World is too much with us; late and soon
- Humanity has traded its ability to think and philosophise (our hearts) for materialism this is described as a “Sordid boon” paradox evinces speakers confusion about over society
“Milton! Thou shouldn’t be living at this hour”
London, 1802
- Apostrophe
- Only way to rectify humanities wrongdoing is to bring someone back from the dead - link to ‘The Worlds is too much with us…’ where the resolution was to go back in time
“England hath need for thee: she is a fen / Of stagnant waters””
London, 1802
- Sees industrial revolution as damaging not progressive
- “Fen” - rotting humanity thus damaging to health of the individual and society
“give us manners; virtue, freedom, power”
London, 1802
- Triad - what England is in need of - particularly in the church, military and literature
“our life is only for dress”
Written in London September 1802
- Expressing anguish over materialistic values and obsession with self image
- Modern day implication with social media - more relevant now than ever
“I know not which way I must look/ For comfort, being, as I am, opprest”
Written in London September 1802
- Feeling of suffocation - depression felt during this period - in need of solace
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”
French Revolution As It Appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement
- Reinforces foreshadowing, and evinces disillusionment present in the title
Reason personified as “Enchantress”
French revolution ideals were “going forward in her name”
French Revolution As It Appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement
- disillusionment over French Revolution and the deceitful nature of the it
“We find our happiness or not at all”
French Revolution As It Appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement
- No in between
- Complete happiness or disappointment
- Optimism shattered
- Insinuates perverted ideals
“Our meddling intellect/ Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things”
The Tables Turned
- Overthinking and analysis can destroy what we are observing
- Science not entirely a bad thing - don’t favour one over the other
“Oh! pleasant exercise of hope!”
French Revolution As It Appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement
- Exclamatory language
- Emphasising feeling of elatedness at the onset of the French Revolution
“Many rich / Sunk down as in a dream among the poor. / And of the poor did many cease to be”
“Two blighting seasons when the fields were left. / With half a harvest”
The Ruined Cottage
- Throughout the 1790s Britain had undergone a series of poor harvests, resulting in bans on the export of grain and rapidly rising prices
- Poverty
“The weakness of humanity / From natural wisdom turn our hearts away, / To natural comfort shut our eyes and ear, / And feeding on disquiet, thus disturb / The calm of Nature with our restless thought?”
The Ruined Cottage
- “Natural wisdom turn our hearts away” - ignoring innate wisdom of nature
- “Feeding on disquiet” - humans learn to live off unhappiness rather than beauty of nature
- Nature is calming we are the source of our own disquiet
- Valuing solitude and deep thinking
