3.3 Wordsworths poetry The importance of nature in William Wordsworth 1. The World is too much with us (1807) Dr.

M Luz Surez, University of Deusto Vocabulary: Boon=gift Triton: a sea deity, usually represented as blowing on a conch shell (used by Spenser) (half fish, half man) Proteus=an old man of the sea who can assume a variety of shapes (in Odyssey), used by Milton (also a deity), Wisdom and the gift to foretell the future are his characteristics. Lea: prairie Bare: uncover

1. Read for general sound: it is a Petrarchan sonnet rhyming abba/abba/cdcdcd. Wordsworth follows strictly the rhyming pattern of the Petrarchan sonnet as well as the pattern of thought because the octave and the sestet are separated by a break in thought. There is much variation in the rhythm at first but then in the sestet it becomes regularly iambic. 2. General meaning: complaint about the mercantilism / materialism of our way of life and neglect of the natural beauty around us 3. Detailed meaning: the first quatrain brings the lament/complaint. The second brings a description of nature with which we are out of tune (we are not in harmony). And the sestet, starting with an exclamation brings the essential message that we are not moved/touched by nature, and the conclusion that if we ignore Christs messages it is better to live like the pagans, because at least they live close to nature. Christs message is that nature is there to comfort us and to be appreciated by us. The important implication is that God has given nature to us and we as Christians with a superior knowledge than the pagans should be aware of it. Otherwise we are much worse than they are.

The first sentence consists only of monosyllabic words. The statements fall like strokes/beats due to the colon and the comma, the caesura and the contrastive adjectives as well as the rhythm.
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In the second line the poet follows the same pattern of contrast but now he uses gerunds to make the sentence longer and more pensive, although the hyperbaton at the beginning adds a sharp note to all he says. There is an important variation of the rhythmic devices because now the rhythm has become dactylic and grows ever more irregular (beginning of the third line). This should shake us and show the poets preoccupation.

At the end of the first quatrain there is a poignant affirmation and an exclamation mark. This is emphasised by the rhythmical variation. We can see that the most outstanding device in this first quatrain is the rhythmic device. Yet the rhyme pattern is interesting too: the use of masculine lines and the sound pattern of /au/ /u:/ strengthen the idea of pity and anger in the voice of the poet. (line 4)

The second quatrain brings a change in the point of view, which is now more neutral, and also in the theme because the poet gives a description of nature to show what it is that we see little. The rhythm is iambic, regular; the sentences are long and the alliteration in /b/ gives the effect of the waves rising (ebb and tide). The preference of /w/ in line 5 and 6 together with the conjunct at the beginning of the line give the idea of a very soft wind; the rhythm underlines this softness and swiftness of a wind that is up gathered, hardly here, peace. The simile (like sleeping flowers) is soft and tender. Then we are shaken up again by a rhythmical variation. There is again a pyrrhic foot to make the out stand out sharper. The statement that follows is paralleled to the statement at the end of the first quatrain and technically and rhythmically similar. It prepares us for the sestet which brings a total change. The rhyming pattern is now very regular but the sound devices change. The first couplet brings the poets message in an apostrophe directed first to God and then to the reader: staccato, emphasised by full stop and exclamation mark and by a very angry enjambment, which is all the more effective, because it is contrasted to ever softer consideration in condition of what it could be.

The point of view has changed to the self. Not only does the poet take refuge in Greek mythology but he appeals very strongly to our senses first by the parallelism of have glimpses and have sight, and then by appealing to our sense of hearing. His intention
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is to tell us that we should use our senses to appreciate nature and forget the material things of the world. We would then be able to see more in nature (not little), we would perhaps be able to see how god manifests himself in every tree (Rousseau: back to nature). Wordsworths intention is to make the reader feel strongly that we have lost important aspects of life and that the old civilization still had.

4. Conclusion: 1. We have learnt that the Romantics make use of Greek mythology but Wordsworth invests it with a special feeling for nature and fuses mythological imagery with nature imagery. This is where he is truly original. 2. We see that Wordsworth relies strongly on perception coming from outside (Cf Locke). His poem is sensual. All he wants to say is expressed in a sonnet of rhythmical variation. He relies strongly on the senses; therefore the phonetic properties are important. Imagery is precise, metaphor sparsely used, simile very soft. 3. In the early Romanticism, the self is in the background. The poet as seer. 4. A different concept of nature: Wordsworth is here similar to Blake and Byron as a critic of society, though with his own individual poetic expression; like them he sees the need for a radical change of heart, a complete rejection of contemporary assumptions and habits of thought. It is the sheer waste and sadness of life that angers him 8first quatrain of The World is too much with us). The doctrine of nature in Wordsworths poetry is an unremitting campaign against the destruction of the individual by material and social pressures. To this end he described the poet as the rock of defence for human nature; an upholder and preserver, carrying everywhere with him relationship and love. He saw himself and Coleridge as prophets of nature, not so much to propagate a gospel as to demonstrate the power and beauty of the mind of man when influenced by nature:

See Prelude, XIII, 442-48.

When W. writes about nature, he is doing so in the context of his own beliefs and experience, and of his own consciousness of the prophetic role. His writings

about nature must not be understood superficially: when he writes about nature, as he does in Tintern Abbey, as The nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul Of all my moral being (II. 109-11) He is using precise language because he wishes to declare to the world that in contrast to the mechanical, diseased waste of life that is encouraged by modern urban society, there are ways of living that allow the fuller development of the mind and heart: Tintern Abbey, II. 122-34.

Wordsworth is always known as the poet of nature but he thought himself as writing principally about man: The mind of ManMy haunt, and the main region of my song. (Preface to The Excursion, II. 40-41). Indeed his insight into the nature of man, both individually and in society is extraordinary. His poetry is filled with characters, as sharply defined as those in Greek tragedy. In addition to those individual figures, W. has an extraordinary ability to foresee the problems of human beings in society. He is interested in the problems of living in cities; in the relationship between money and the individual; in the relationship between the individual and the State , and the States responsibility towards its members; and in the way in which certain pressures tend to reduce the individual to a machine, or at least to something less than his or her full individuality. In his own life he experienced (during his stay in London) the sudden transition from a moral and agricultural society to a mass society; and Wordsworths experience in London gave him an insight into these problems, and a life-long attachment to the values which the mass society denied: individuality, local loyalty, the spirit of community. His ability to see these matters clearly and to devise a poetry which expresses his beliefs about man in society is one of the reasons why he is a central poet of the modern tradition. His preoccupations are those which lie at the heart of the human reaction to a technological, urbanized, and industrialized society. The demagoguery which is associated with mass society was also experienced by Wordsworth during the French Revolution. Alone among the Romantics he was actually living there, in the Provinces during the September massacres and subsequently (through his relationship with Annette Vallon
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and their child) having a deep emotional involvement and interest in the countr ys progress.

2. Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood The theme: the process of human maturity and the loss of imaginative seeing and hearing (as well as neo-platonic memory) is a recurrent or the loss of imagination theme in Wordsworths poetry. The most famous treatment is in the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.

Individual activity: to be handed in on November 5 How is the process of human growth reflected in the Ode, and what happens to mans connections with the natural order that surrounds him during this process? Your comment should cover the first six stanzas (I-VI) and you should pay particular attention to nature imagery.