William Wordsworth: Life, Works, and Philosophy

1. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770 – 1850)

2. LIFE • Born in Cockermouth in Cumberland in 1770. • 1791: B. A. Degree at St John’s College, Cambridge. Wordsworth’s House in Cockermouth, Cumberland

3. LIFE • In 1791 he travelled to Revolutionary Franceand was fascinated by the Republican movement • In 1792 he had a daughter, Caroline, from a French aristocratic woman, Annette Vallon. ANNETTE VALLON

4. LIFE • In 1793 the Reign of Terror and the war between England and France caused him to return to England.

5. LIFE • In 1795 he developed a close friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with whom he collaborated in the 1797-1799 period to write Lyrical Ballads. • In 1843 he became the Poet Laureate. • He died in 1850. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

6. MAIN WORKS • 1798 first edition of Lyrical Ballads • 1800 second edition of Lyrical Ballads which contains the famous Preface, the Manifesto of English Romanticism. • 1807 Poems in Two Volumes • 1814 The Excursion • 1850The Prelude

7. The object of poetry From the Preface to Lyrical Ballads • “The principal object […] was to choose incidents and situations from common life […] to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them […] the primary laws of our nature”.

8. What is a poet? From the Preface to Lyrical Ballads “What is a poet? […] He is a man speaking to men: a man […] endued with more lively sensibility who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind”.

9. What is poetry? From the Preface to Lyrical Ballads “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity (…) In this mood successful composition generally begins, and in a mood similar to this it is carried on”

10. The poetic process Sensoryexperience poet object poet’semotion Reader’s emotion Memory= recollection in tranquillitiy reader poem poet’skindredemotion

11. Man and nature • Man and nature are inseparable • The view of nature is pantheistic • Nature comfortsman in sorrow, it is a source of joy and pleasure, it teaches man to love and to act in a moral way. Daffodils

12. The poet’s task The poet = a teacher • The poet shows men how to understandtheir feeling and improvetheir moral being • The poetdrawsattention to the ordinarythings of life where the deepestemotions are to be found

13. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud I wandered lonely as a cloud That 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 stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

14. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed—and gazed—but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

15. PERSONIFICATION • flowersacrowd(l. 3), dancing(l. 6) theirheads(l. 12), glee(l.14),jocund company (l.16) SIMILE • flowersstars in the milky way (l.7), Nature isjoyful and alive. The daffodilshave the samedignity Man has in a universalorder .