Wordsworth - Love and Worship of Nature Flashcards
Tintern Abbey
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Personification - pantheism - he is a worshipper and god rewards those that show faith
- Reason for needing to connect with nature as she will provide gifts
- Implying ‘she’ betrays those that do not love her??
“Knowing that Nature never did betray/ The hear that loved her”
Tintern Abbey
- Conscience that dwells in Nature and can now be observed for he is an adult and no longer “thoughtless” - pantheist views
- “Impels” suggests capable of doing things consciously
“A motion and a spirit, that impels”
Tintern Abbey
- “Anchor” metaphor grounding - not swayed by corrupt society
- “Nurse” personification healing - speaker was depressed
- “guide” “guardian” personification accompanies speaker throughout life - protects him - omnipresent
“The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, / The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul / Of all my moral being.”
To My Sister - 1798
- Colloquial - for the common man
- Sister - Dorothy
“My sister! (‘tis a wish of mine)…Come forth and feel the sun”
To My Sister - 1798
- Romantic value - emotional thinking rather than books that were previously mentioned
“The hour of feeling’’
To My Sister - 1798
- One moment of feeling and being present is more valuable than years of distress and worry
- “reason” does not provide solace - ‘French Revolution’ pushed its ideals under the guise of reason
“One moment now may give us more / Than years of toiling reason”
Nutting
- Personification - Nature did not resist - was made powerless by WW’s greed - felt condemned by this
- Nature connoted as selfless, innocent
“Patiently gave up / Their quiet being”
Nutting
- Personification - elevating Nature as it has a conscious and is alive
- Treat Nature with respect and kindess
“Move along these shades/ In gentleness of heart…for there is a spirit in the woods”
Michael
- WW and Michael therefore shared this pantheistic perception of Nature
Michael “felt the power/ Of Nature”
Resolution and Independence
- Reason for needing to revert back to Nature throughout his life
- “roaring” - personification - strong and powerful
- Childlike glee Nature gives him
“I heard the woods and distant waters roar… as happy as a boy/ The pleasant season did my heart employ”
Resolution and Independence
- Due to “woods and distant waters roar”
- Personification - reinforces power in calming qualities
- Disillusionment was soothed and healed
“Old remembrances went from me wholly; / And all the ways of men, so vain and melancholy”
Resolution and Independence
- He came from Nature - when separated from her “solitude, pain of heart, distress, and poverty”
- Romantic view that children come from god which Wordsworth found in Nature
“Child of earth”
Three Years She Grew In Sun and Shower
- Suggests that the girl was always apart of Nature as she is a “flower” that was “sown”
- Reinforces the idea that Nature has a right to and did take her
“A lovelier flower/ On earth was never sown”
Three Years She Grew In Sun and Shower
- Going to a better place - in the nurturing hands of mother nature - transforms her into all the beauteous forms of nature
- Nature being the narrative voice personifies her
“This Child I to myself will take;/ She shall be mine”
Lucy Gray; or, Solitude
- Suggests Nature took her or that she wished to live in nature
“some maintain..She is a living…Upon the lonesome wild”
Lucy Gray; or, Solitude
- Cheerful and at peace in nature - has transformed or run away - not important what is important is that she - does not have regrets - is free
- She is in solitude which Wordsworth believed to be profound
“never looks behind;/ And sings a solitary song”
Tintern Abbey
- Pantheism - Romantic values - holds Nature in high regard
- Gives his life to Nature
“Worshipper of Nature”
I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud
- Natures company
“Jocund company”
I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud
- Enjambement - emphasises their magnificent presence
“Continuous as the stars that shine/ and twinkle on the milky way”
I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud
- Sibilance - repetitive ‘s’
- Hyperbole - exaggeration highlighting the awe inspiring presence
- Beautiful alive
“Ten thousand saw I at a glance”
I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud
- Host is the collective noun for angels - elevates Nature and suggests it is welcoming
”A host of golden daffodils”
I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud
- He no longer feels alone in his solitude - they accompany him - “food”
- Never happier than when in Nature but power of memory portrayed through the fact that his hear is “danc[ing]”
“And then my heart with pleasure fills, / and dancers with the daffodils”
The Two Part Prelude
- Gifts received from Nature
- Asks Nature “Is it for this” - apostrophe
“Composed thoughts…infant softness…A knowledge, a dim earnest, of the calm”
The Two Part Prelude
- Personification - Nature chastised the boy
- “voluntary” suggests intent and consciousness
‘’Voluntary power”
The Two Part Prelude
- Tone shifts and as the boy becomes terrified - sublime because he recognised the power which made him feel small and scared but simultaneously important because this force was taking an interest in him
- Imagery - vivid memory - looming presence
“Upreared its head…like a living thing…strode after me”
The Two Part Prelude
- Morals and beliefs taught by Nature not man - he saw Nature as an eternal powerful object because he found God and a consciousness in Nature
“Not with the mean and vulgar works of man,/ But with high objects, with eternal things”
The Two Part Prelude
- Romantic value - emotions are important and inform thoughts better than critical thinking
- Nature capable of education
“From Nature … I had received so much that all my thoughts / Were steeped in feeling”
The Two Part Prelude
- Saw God and Nature as inextricably linked
”lived / With god and nature communing”
The Two Part Prelude
- Personification of the clouds - elevates them - suggests they are living entities
”voices in the clouds”
The Two Part Prelude
- Never forget - often occur in childhood given children are more impressionable thus they can shape the adult
“spots in time”
Line written in Early spring - 1798
- Enjambment - emphasises the connection that human souls have with Nature and implies that they are almost apart of “her fair works” - thus disconnection results in our very souls being lost
- Symbiotic relationship between man and nature that exists intrinsically but is being quashed by Industrialism
“To her fair works did Nature link / The human soul that through me ran”
Lines written in Early spring - 1798
- The plan was for him to see Nature in all her glory and beauty
- “Holy” implies Nature is heavenly/ devine
“Nature’s holy plan”
The Tables Turned
- Call to action - expresses concern for aspects of the Age of Enlightenment
- Personification - image of teacher
“Let Nature be your Teacher”
The Tables Turned
- Romantic values - has to come from Nature - more important than critical thinking
- One who turns to Nature for inspiration is described as having
“A heart that watches and receives”
My heart leaps up when I behold
- Personification of heart suggests it is alive - heart connected to Nature
- Conveys the spontaneous energy and love the child has when in nature
“My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky”
