William Words Worth 10-11

8/8/2019 William Words Worth 10-11

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William Wordsworth

1770-1850

Content: Wordsworths life Wordsworths works Nature prime inspiration The child and the poet Whats poetry The Daffodils

or I wandered Lonely as a Cloud- Detailed Explanation

- Some exercises References


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William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was born onApril 7th, 1770 in Cumberland,England, just on the border of theregion called Lake District.

His father was fairly well off, so heattended a grammar school and,

years later, graduated at CambridgeUniversity. He started reading poetry under the

suggestion of his father, but quitesoon his parents died: his motherwhen he was eight years old and five

years later his father. He and his brothers and sister grew

up under their uncles guardianshipand he had to separate from hisbrothers and, most sorrowful, fromhis sister.


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William Wordsworth

After his degree he went for a journey in France, where heimmediately sympathized with revolutionary ideas and

with Annette Vallon, who bore him a child, a daughter.

Quite soon he had to come back to his home land because hewas penniless.

Then a war between England and France broke out and hewas not able to go back, as he had promised to do.Furthermore he started growing more and more

disillusioned with the outcome of the French Revolution andbecame ever increasingly conservative.

He saw again Annette and his daughter, Caroline, only tenyears later, but he is believed to have done his best to supportthem both all through his life.


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William Wordsworth In 1797 he met Coleridge, who encouraged him to write

poetry.

They got along so well together that together theypublished the Lyrical Ballads in 1798.

In 1798 he made a trip to Germany with Coleridge andDorothy.

In 1802 he married a childhood friend, Mary

Hutchinson, and they had five children, but two of themdied very young.

Luckily he was given a very good job in 1813 and this lethim devote totally to poetry.


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William Wordsworth In the following (40) years he kept on writing

poetry, thus establishing himself as the mostimportant exponent of the Romantic Englishpoets.

His inspiration gradually faded, as he wasgetting wealth and honour, which was not soconsistent with the troubled, fashionablefigure of the romantic poet.

He lived for the rest of his life in the LakeDistrict, his dear native region in closecontact with nature, which inspired him someof his best known poems.

In 1843 he was made poet laureate.

In 1850 he died.


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William Wordsworth

WORKSWORKS.

He is generally considered the most representative English

Romantic poet.

He wrote

Besides the Lyrical Ballads (1798, 1800, 1802)

An Evening Walk, one of his first published poetry. (1793)

The Prelude, a long narrative poem (written 1805, published

1850, posthumously) Poems in two volumes (1807) which included Ode: Intimations

of Immortality. one of the most famous poems in English

Literature

The Excursion (1814)


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NATURE PRIME INSPIRATION

Nature as countryside as opposed to life in town; thecountryside as Wordsworth sees it is rural, solitary,impressive, uncontaminated, just as the Lake District

was. The Solitary Reaper and The Daffodils areperfect samples of such nature-inspired poetry.

Nature will bring and arouse feelings, even from smallthings (such as the Daffodils) or trivial events.

The description of Nature is mainly the description of

the poets response to landscapes, views, flowers, etc. Nature is also an active force, quite powerful and rather

mysterious. Nature is a direct expression of God,sometimes God himself embodied.


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The child and the poet

Childhood is seen as the original state of

pureness, not yet corrupted byadulthood, so

the childs view of Nature is the

closest to truth as he is a betterinterpreter of reality than the adult, who

can not feel with Nature anymore,

whereas the child still can.


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Whats poetry Wordsworth rejected the Augustan poetry, which was based

mainly on technique, golden rules, and attached littleimportance to feelings, imagination and free creation.

Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: ittakes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity, it

portrays incidents and situations from common life ; the

essential passion of the heart. The function of poetry is to produce pleasure (aestheticpleasure)

The poet will use a certain colouring of imagination and willuse a selection of language really used by men, not any

poetic diction, purposely refined for poetry and poets.

The poet is a man speaking to men, even if he lives apart inorder to cultivate his intense and peculiar communion withnature.

The poet - take Wordsworth as a Romantic poet- will alsoaccomplish the prophetical task to teach men to live

according to nature.


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I wandered lonely as a cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales andhills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the

breeze.

Continuous as the stars

that shine and twinkle on the MilkyWay,They stretched in never-ending linealong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,tossing their heads in sprightly

dance.

The waves beside them danced;

but theyOut-did the sparkling waves inglee:A poet could not but be gay,

in such a jocund company:I gazed - and gazed - but littlethoughtwhat wealth the show to me had

brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasurefills,And dances with the daffodils.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQnyV2YWsto


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I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the starsthat shine and twinkle on the Milky Way,They stretched in never-ending linealong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

orThe daffodils

AS I WAS WALKING ALL ALONE LIKEA CLOUD

WHICH IS SWIMMING IN THE SKYOVER THE VALLEYS AND THEHILLS,I SUDDENLY SAW A CROWD,

A BIG GROUP OF GOLDENDAFFODILS;BESIDE THE LAKE, UNDER THE

TREES,MOVING LIKE A WAVE (BLOWN BYTHE WIND) AND DANCING IN THEBREEZE.

IN A CONTINUOUS LINE/STRIP LIKETHE STARSTHAT SHINE INTERMITTENTLY ONTHE MILKY WAY,THEY WERE DISPLAYED IN ANEVER-ENDING LINE

ALONG THE MARGIN OF THESHORE OF A LAKE:


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The waves beside them danced;

but theyOut-did the sparkling waves inglee:A poet could not but be gay,in such a jocund company:I gazed - and gazed - but littlethoughtwhat wealth the show to mehad brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inwardeyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with

pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

orThe Daffodilsu

THE WAVES (OF GRASS) BESIDETHEM DANCED; BUT THEYSEEMED MORE DELIGHTED THANTHOSE SHINING WAVES:A POET MUST BE GLAD,IN SUCH A HAPPY COMPANY:

I LOOKED - AND LOOKED - BUT IREALIZED THATLITTLE WEALTH THE SHOW HADBROUGHT TO ME:

BUT OFTEN, WHEN I LIE ON MY SOFATHOUGHTLESS OR WORRIED,THEY FLASH UPON THAT INTERNALFEELINGWHICH IS THE PERFECT HAPPINESS OFSOLITUDE;AND THEN MY HEART FILLS WITHPLEASURE,AND DANCES WITH THE DAFFODILS.


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Thanks to:

http://www.nlu.edu/~eller/men/focus/lyricals/collab.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth

http://www.island-of-freedom.com/WORDSWOR.HTM

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=mQnyV2YWsto

&feature=related http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=gS9-tEbv75E

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William Words Worth 10-11