“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility,” said William Wordsworth, but his beliefs about what poetry is expand much further. William Wordsworth was a poet from the late 18th to the mind 19th century. He was a major power in launching the Romantic Age of English literature. Romantic poetry in particular is characterized by imagination, reverence for nature, self-expression, spirituality, wonderment, innocence, and pondering the past. Writing styles varied from person to person, however. William Wordsworth believed that Romantic poetry should utilize common language that is easy for many to understand, be inspired by the simplicity of one’s life, contain wonderment, and harmonize with nature. Likely to Wordsworth’s approval, many poets wrote in this style. For example, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats, “She walks in beauty” by Lord Byron, and “Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley are akin to the works of Wordsworth such as “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth. …show more content…
For instance, the lines “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:” tell the reader that imagined melodies, those heard by the spirit, are sweeter than real melodies, those heard by the body. The wonderment of something so simple is a theme aligned with Wordsworth’s ideas about poetry. In his own poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” he uses the lines “Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils,” to reference how he feels walking through nature. One could argue he is most definitely awestruck by the simplicity of a
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Show MoreThe first element of romantic poetry, can be seen through several texts, which the element of that we can learn important things from Nature. For example, in John Keats poem, “Ode to a Nightingale” Keat, dying from a disease, and distraught by grief from being unmarried, goes into his garden where he states, “Tasting of Flora and the country-green, Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!” In which Keat learns that even though he faces a soon death, the smell of flowers and the chirping of a bird bring him peace and happiness where he thought no such thing could be found. Another example can be seen in William Wordsworth poem, “The Table Turned.” In this piece of poetry Wordsworth states, “Sweet is the lore...
In summation, when considering poetry looking at the complexities of it and considering their worth is imperative. “The World Is Too Much with Us” and “It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” are both wonderful poems with deep, wonderful meanings and are sprinkled with literary devices that add depth and understanding to them. The poems of Wordsworth are beautiful sonnets that embody the Romantic era of poetry completely.
While he was in France he had an affair with Annette Vallon, who became pregnant with his illegitimate daughter, Caroline. (Everett, G. "William Wordsworth: Biography." victorianweb.com. N/A, 2000. Web. 26 Feb 2012) He had to return to England before she gave birth because he ran out of money. He met his sister again and moved into a cottage with her. Shortly after that he met a man named Coleridge. After reading “A Ruined Cottage” Coleridge said that it was the finest poem in their language. (Noyes 43) Together they produced Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems. Lyrical Ballads is where the Romantic Movement started in England. Both authors are given credit for starting the Movement but Coleridge only had four poems in the book while Wordsworth had nineteen. (Noyes 47)
In order to define romantic poetry on must look towards Bronte and Hemans male contemporaries at the time since their works influenced many other writers of that time. William Wordsworth and Coleridge both wrote criticisms on what made a good poet and what factors made up good poetry. In Biographia Literaria, Coleridge defines the poet and poetry. He sees a "distinction from the poetic genius itself which sustains and modifies images of the own mind " (Coleridge). He believes in the power of exciting of the reader by using new "colours of imagination " to adhere to the truth of nature. In the Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth describes the principal object of poetry to make the incidents of common life interesting by tracing our nature. He wanted to use "the beautiful forms of nature" to write simplistically so that many could understand it. He attributes great poetry to a certain type of person: "For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; but though this be true, Poems to which any value can be attached, were never produced on any variety of subjects but a man who being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility had also thought...
Additionally, poetry is not only about human feeling, but also the art of diction. Samuel Taylor Coleridge proposes poetry as the most beautiful words (Fadila: 2011). Definitely, in order to get a beautiful literary work the author composes and arranges the words as good as possible. Carlyle defines poetry as musical thoughts (Fadila: 2011). So, the author creates the poem by selecting melodious sounds as the music in his poem. In addition, Dunton present the definition of poetry as human thought concretely and artistically in emotional and rhythmical language (Fadila: 2011). Typically, poetry is composed for revealing something special through artistic ways.
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Good morning/afternoon ladies, I am William Blake, not Wordsworth; Blake, a romantic poet. I was born in 1757, in the Soho district of London, England. I was not only a poet but also a painter and a printmaker. Since I was young, I had these beautiful ‘visions’. I saw a God’s head appear in a window and a tree filled with angels. You may think I was insane but really, I was not. I lived in the Romantic Period, the period of free emotion, adopting individuality and engrossing oneself in nature. We, the Romantic poets, wanted to change the ideas of the previous period, the Enlightenment. We were sick of the industrial society and the want of reasons and purposes behind everything. We believed that nature and emotion were the places in which one found spiritual truth. The idea of engrossing oneself in the natural and beautiful, or in some cases the natural and frightening as in the poem ‘The Tyger’, is distinctly romantic.
A great author does not just come up with their stories out of the blue, but alas they gain that knowledge from personal experiences. William Wordsworth was a man of many wonders, he was one of the few great poets of his time. Wordsworth took his personal experiences and transferred them to paper to create great poetry. Since he was raised on Lake District, the landscape and colors of the place influenced him at an early age. William Wordsworth grew up alongside his four other siblings, that is until they were separated. All five of them lived a temporary good life. Growing up, Wordsworth was against obedience and was very willfully. This influenced his style of writing because he then later went on and wrote about his behavior as a child within
‘It is often suggested that the source for many of William Wordsworth’s poems lies in the pages of Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal. Quite frequently, Dorothy describes an incident in her journal, and William writes a poem about the same incident, often around two years later.’ It is a common observation that whilst Dorothy is a recorder – ‘her face was excessively brown’ – William is a transformer – ‘Her skin was of Egyptian brown’ . The intertextuality between The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals and ‘I wandered lonely as a Cloud’ allows both Dorothy and William to write about the same event, being equally as descriptive, but in very differing ways. Dorothy writes in a realist ‘log-book’ like style, whereas William writes in a romantic ballad style. This can be very misleading, as it gives William’s work more emotional attachment even though his work is drawn upon Dorothy’s diary, which in its turn is very detached, including little personal revelation. When read in conjunction with William’s poetry, Dorothy’s journal seems to be a set of notes written especially for him by her. In fact, from the very beginning of the journals Dorothy has made it quite clear that she was writing them for William’s ‘pleasure’ . This ties in with many of the diary entries in which she has described taking care of William in a physical sense. In a way this depicts the manner in which William uses his sister’s journal to acquire the subject of his poetry, which makes it seem as though Dorothy is his inspiration.
At the end of the 18th century, after founding the Romantic movement, William Wordsworth wrote the poem " I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud".
Wordsworth's Poetry A lot of literature has been written about motherhood. Wordsworth is a well known English poet who mentions motherhood and female strength in several of his poems, including the Mad Mother, The Thorn, and The Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Woman. This leads some critics to assume that these poems reflect Wordsworth's view of females. Wordsworth portrays women as dependent on motherhood for happiness, yet he also emphasizes female strength.
William Wordsworth, like Blake, was linked with Romanticism. In fact, he was one of the very founders of Romanticism. He wrote poems are about nature, freedom and emotion. He was open about how he felt about life and what his life was like. Also, Wordsworth wrote poems about the events going on around him ? for instance the French Revolution. Mainly, Wordsworth wrote about nature, however, rarely used simple descriptions in his work. Instead, Wordsworth wrote complexly, for example in his poem ?Daffodils?.
During the late 17th and early 18th centuries the style of poetry changed drastically. Poets shifted their focus away from the audience and concentrated on the internal self. This created the expressive, lyric poetry we now recognize as typical of Romanticism. William Wordsworth is one of the most famous of the Romantics, as well as author of "It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free." Written in 1807 after a trip to France to visit his daughter, "It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free" focuses on Wordsworth's view of nature and childhood as essentially divine.
In conclusion, there are clear similarities between the painter Constable and poet Wordsworth. These artists mimicked one another in their works and influenced the other to remain consistent to the depictions of nature and landscapes. In telling a story of feelings and emotions the artists capture the audiences’ bodies and minds, instilling a sense of dreaminess. The paintings by Constable, Barges on the stour: Dedham Church in the distance, 1812 and Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, 1831 perfectly depict this idea of the dreamy, whimsical feeling represented in nature. Wordsworth’s poem, Tintern Abbey similarly highlights these airy, dreamy feelings that nature exhibits. These works perfectly represent the state of mind of John Constable and Williams Wordsworth and in comparing them one can duly note their similarities.
One of the most famous poets in literary history is that of William Wordsworth. He lived between the years of 1770-1850. He was a very strong poet and many of his works have some degree of a pessimistic view to them. They could be understood after the hard life he led. He saw the French Revolution at its height and wrote several poems about it. He had an illegitimate daughter with a woman in France. When he returned back to England he married Mary Hutchinson, who gave him two sons and another daughter.
Attitudes Towards Nature in Poetry Discuss Wordsworth's and Coleridge's attitudes to nature in their poetry with particular reference to Resolution and Independence. The Leech Gatherer and This Lime Tree Bower my prison. Coleridge and Wordsworth are both now referred to as Romantic poets. During the romanticism period there was a major movement of emphasis. in the arts towards looking at the world and recognising the beauty of human emotions and imaginations and the world in which we live.