The Wordsworth children seem to have lived in a sort of rural paradise along the Derwent River, which ran past the terraced garden below the ample house whose tenancy John Wordsworth had obtained from his employer, the political magnate and property owner Sir James Lowther, Baronet of Lowther (later Earl of Lonsdale). Wordsworth’s deep love for the “beauteous forms” of the natural world was established early. Wordsworth is best known for Lyrical Ballads, co-written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and The Prelude, a Romantic epic poem chronicling the “growth of a poet’s mind.” He began writing poetry as a young boy in grammar school, and before graduating from college he went on a walking tour of Europe, which deepened his love for nature and his sympathy for the common man: both major themes in his poetry. The son of John and Ann Cookson Wordsworth, William Wordworth was born on Apin Cockermouth, Cumberland, located in the Lake District of England: an area that would become closely associated with Wordsworth for over two centuries after his death.
He is remembered as a poet of spiritual and epistemological speculation, a poet concerned with the human relationship to nature and a fierce advocate of using the vocabulary and speech patterns of common people in poetry. So didst thou travel on life’s common way,Īs Wordsworth grew older he became more conservative and his poetry lost its “radical” edge however he was still held in high regard and in 1848 was appointed to be Poet Laureate.William Wordsworth was one of the founders of English Romanticism and one its most central figures and important intellects. Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:
Have forfeited their ancient English dowerĪnd give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,įireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: These sentiments were shared by other contempories such as Blake, although Blake and Wordsworth were mostly unknown to each other. (For some time he lived in France but had to leave when the revolution made it dangerous) His poem London 1802 is a strong advocacy for social change. Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,Įspecially in his early years Wordsworth was a genuinely radical poet, perhaps influenced to some extent by the American and French Revolution and the new ideas of democracy sweeping the world. In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts His sorrows and awareness of humanity’s varied sufferings inevitably led to passages where the beauty of nature contrasted with the fate of man. In this poem Wordsworthsuggests that man’s inhumanity appears even darker when compared to the pristine beauty and purity of nature thatWordsworth moved through.
However Wordsworth’s life was on many occasions touched by tragedy. That floats on high o’er vales and hills, Worsworth’s poetry does include passages of great hope, optimisim and joy best summarised through his famous poem “ Daffodils” For many of the Romantics, the memories or visions of an idyllic childhood become a powerful emotive force as they aspired for life of greater harmony and simplicity. In this poem My Heart Leaps Up, Wordsworth also uses another concept that becomes a theme throughout his poetry the importance of childhood. The early nineteenth century was a time of rapid change and industrialisation, but like his contemporaries, Blake and Coleridge, Wordsworth was often dismayed by what he saw and he sought solace in the grandeur and beauty of nature. Wordsworth offered not just a beautiful picture of nature but also illustrated the healing power of natureon the spirit of man. William Wordsworth was one of the key figures in the Romantic Movement, his early poems helping to define the new movement of Romanticism. Wordsworth sought to bring a more individualistic approach, his poetry avoided high flown language however the poetry of Wordsworth is best characterised by its strong affinity with nature and in particular the Lake District where he lived.
0 kommentar(er)
