An overview of Romanticism and Wordsworth by 5DU by Anna Laghigna

INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH ROMANTICISM

laghigna — 2015-11-08 09:19:41 UTC

Nr. 3 - The Industrial Revolution

laghigna — 2015-11-08 09:41:16 UTC

The Industrial Revolution was a big process of economic and industrial change which started in the 18th century and continued throughout the 19th century in Great Britain.
The Industrial Revolution was a longer process of economic changes which produced many social consequences.
It developed also as the consequence of the agricultural revolution, that had produced the enclosure of common land and the selective breeding of animals. People in the countryside lost their jobs and moved to the new industrial cities in search for better life opportunities.
Thanks to new mechanical inventions like the first spinning jenny in 1760, the first textile and mechanic industry was born.
New inventions and technological advancements led to the mechanisation of the working processes and completely changed the way goods were produced. New factories were built in cities like Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds.
The Industrial Revolution was facilitated also by the development of transports, which became more efficient and produced positive effects both on the transportation of raw materials like coal as well as on the circulation of finished goods.
The British society came to be divided into two classes, landlords and workers. Although technological and industrial progress grew exponentially, the social divide between classes increased.

The first "mushroom towns" were built to accomodate large masses of people. Severe social problems originated because of the poor living conditions in the slums due to heavy pollution and lack of hygiene. Workers had to work very long hours and especially women and children were exploited. The life of the industrial workers became monotonous and hopeless. Life expectancy fell to 25 years of age.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

laghigna — 2015-11-08 15:26:28 UTC

Nr 5 - The city as seen by Romantics

laghigna — 2015-11-08 17:29:25 UTC

5.How was the city seen by Romantics?
Romantics saw the industrial cities of their time as the opposite to Nature. Most of the industrial cities in England were heavily polluted and affected by many social problems. Crime and poverty were all around.The city started to be seen as an impure, corrupted place infected by modernity and industrial exploitation of man over man.
While in nature they could find beauty and the sublime, and could meditate about the sense of human life - the city was perceived as ugly and corrupted.
The city was also connected to the idea of society. The latter was seen as an evil force because through its many rules and conventions it represented a restriction to the individual freedom. This is the reason why Romantic poets looked for escape in nature. Especially in the countryside, the poet could meditate and enter in contact with his inner self.

Nr 6 - Beauty and the Sublime

laghigna — 2015-11-08 17:31:56 UTC

In his "Reflections about the qualities of the sublime and the beautiful, Edmund Burke explained the difference between for example a beautiful landscape, in which one can admire the beauty of nature and a sublime landscape, which can arouse in the observer emotions such as awe, uncertainty, anguish, reverence or admiration.
While for example a flowerbed or daylight are beautiful because they can be contemplated, the eruption of a volcano, an abyss, a storm or the obscurity of the night are sublime. In Burke's view some natural events or elements are beautiful because we are just fascinated while watching them. We feel pleasure because we admire their beauty but we aren’t astonished. Instead some other natural elements are sublime because they arouse powerful emotions such as uncertainty, anxiety, anguish, admiration, reverence, respect and astonishment whish suspend man's faculty of reason. Burke believed that astonishment is the highest effect that can inspire the artist. He stated that the great and the sublime are more effective than beauty in art because they arouse horror and fear and evoke tha supernatural and magic.

Nr 17 - Figures of speech in Daffodils

laghigna — 2015-11-08 17:33:18 UTC

In the poem ‘’I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’’ the poet first uses the simile of the cloud to describe his sense of melancholy and isolation from the material world.
He then uses a personification to introduce the daffodils, which he associates to a crowd of joyful living beings.
The flowers that he sees all of a sudden beside a lake, under some trees appear to him as angels of golden light. They bring about a message of harmony and joy and invite the poet to meditate about himself and the sense of human life.
The flowers are in fact personified and compared to angelic figures. Through a simile, the poet compares them to the twinkling stars of the Milky Way. They become symbols of joy and complete harmony in the world created by God.
By depicting such a scenario, the poet wants to teach us to admire the beauty of Nature thanks to which one can perceive sensations and emotions that go beyond the physical dimension of our human status.
Moreover, thanks to the state of harmony that we can perceive in nature we are first able to come closer to ourselves and our deeper self and then to God. Just like the daffodils also human beings can be in harmony with Nature.

Nr 20 - Shift in verbal tenses

laghigna — 2015-11-08 17:34:40 UTC

The poem is about a past experience that Wordsworth really experienced in his life. This is the reason why in the first three stanzas the poet uses the past tense to describe the daffodils he saw one day while walking in the countryside.
In the last stanza he is on the contrary speaking about a present event. The setting has changed, and now the poet is alone at home.
In this way the poet creates a contrast between what he felt when he first saw the daffodils and what he is feeling now when he remembers those feelings. While at the beginning his loneliness was interrupted by the vision of the daffodils, in the last stanza the poet's heart can dance with the flowers, because he is now in tune with Nature and the music of the universe.

Nr 12 - Wordsworth's view of Nature

laghigna — 2015-11-08 17:37:13 UTC

Wordsworth was often called "The Poet of Nature". Following Rousseau's ideas, he also believed in man and Nature's goodness.
Wordsworth was very interested in the relationship between the natural world and human nature, and described in his poems the emotions and sensations evoked by the observation of natural phenomena.
He believed that man and Nature are inseparable because man cannot exist outside nature since he is an active participant in it.
Following the Pantheistic vision, Wordsworth saw nature as something that includes both inanimate things and human beings. Nature is the seat of the spirit of the universe, and therefore it is the place where God manifests his presence. Man can thus learn from Nature to be in harmony with the universe.
The role of Nature is in fact to teach man to love and to act in a moral way.
According to the poet's vision, man can try to fight Nature but he will lose because Nature is more powerful than man since it has a strong and dark power.

What's more, Nature is like “a caring mother” to man: its beauty comforts man in sorrow because it can offer relief from suffering and be a source of pleasure and joy.

Nr 13 - What should poetry deal with?

ChiaraVallan — 2015-11-08 20:11:46 UTC

As Wordsworth explained in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, poetry should deal with ordinary situations and simple incidents of everyday life.
The poet had therefore to take inspiration from ordinary, rustic places and actions, to give expression to powerful feelings and emotions, recollected in tranquillity.
Poets are more sensitive than the common man. In fact they can see things in a way that other people cannot achieve, due to their lack of imagination.
For this reason, although always starting from the observation of natural phenomena, Wordsworth describes situations that are altered by the poet's subjective view of reality. Thanks to his imagination, the poet can describe these ordinary situations in a unique way.
Through poetry, man can perceive the beauty of Nature. The poet has in this sense a special role as a visionary prophet, who can show man how to really appreciate the beauty of normal and ordinary situations.
In his poems Wordsworth often focusses on the existing link between man and nature and the escape from the material world in the latter.
Poetry should also be easy to understand, because it is addressed to anyone. In fact the language and the figures of speech used are simple to understand because there is no use of refined poetic diction.

Nr 15 - Loveliness and wonder in Nature

ChiaraVallan — 2015-11-08 20:15:21 UTC

Wordsworth's poems often contain powerful images and symbols. The poet made ample use of metaphors and similes to convey his subjective vision of reality.
In "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" Wordsworth compares simple, ordinary events like a walk that he once took in the countryside and the sight of some flowers with the sublime image of the shining stars and the Milky Way in the universe.
Furthermore he uses personifications to make the reader feel closer to the nature. The focus is actually not on the natural phenomena themselves but on the powerful feelings that the natural elements produce in the poet. For instance, he gives human characteristics to the “dancing” daffodils to convey how he felt in front of the beauty of nature. The poet was in fact feeling lonely and melancholic like a cloud, but the golden flowers are welcoming him and offering him relief from pain.
Another way to convey the loveliness and wonder in nature is the radical change of mood that Wordsworth describes in the last stanza. Here the healing quality of nature and the power of the poet's imagination are evident. After he had been in contact with nature and appreciated its loveliness, the poet is now able to feel pure bliss because of the power of his imagination. Through the memory of the daffodils that flash upon his memory he can now feel that his heart is finally dancing in perfect harmony with the flowers. This new emotion is so powerful that will be the true source of inspiration for writing poetry.

Nr 14 - Best poem to illustrate Wordsworth's ideas on poetry

laghigna — 2015-11-08 21:19:03 UTC

The poem that best illustrates Wordsworth's ideas about poetry is "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" also called "Daffodils". Wordsworth believed that poetry can transform a daily action or an ordinary event in something of extraordinary poetic quality.
In this poem, Wordsworth describes the strong feelings that he experienced one day at the sight of a group of daffodils which he saw under a tree, near a lake. Thanks to his poetic sensibility and imagination, he describes the flowers as if they were dancing in harmony with the Milky Way and the surrounding natural world. This view attracted Wordsworth because of its beauty and helped him feel better. In fact, while in the first stanza, he compares himself to a solitary cloud, later he expresses the joy that he felt at the view of the dancing daffodils.
Here it is clear that the poet can feel more than the ordinary man because of his greater sensitivity. This idea is conveyed in the third stanza when Wordsworth writes that a poet could not but be gay in front of the view of the dancing daffodils.
In the last stanza, the poet is meditating alone in his study. He now perceives his solitude as pure bliss, because it helps him recall the beauty of the flowers. Through memory he can now feel an even more powerful emotion, which is the true source of inspiration for writing poetry.

Nr 19 - Initial loneliness vs. final solitude and bliss

laghigna — 2015-11-08 21:22:10 UTC

In the first stanza the poet felt lonely and melancholic. He felt isolated and detached from the reality that was surrounding him. This is why he makes use of a powerful images like that of the cloud floating high over vales and hills.
In the last stanza, however, the initial loneliness and isolation have changed into a positive solitude. The poet remembers the moment when he first saw the daffodils and the many emotions that he felt at that sight.
At this point a new emotion, which is similar but much more powerful than the initial one, is originated. This is the true source of inspiration for his poetry. When the poet is alone and in a meditative mood, he can spiritually reconnect with nature through his imagination and memory. At this point his heart feels in complete harmony with Nature and identifies with daffodils. In fact he says that his heart is dancing with the flowers.

Nr. 26 - The Solitary Reaper

laghigna — 2015-11-08 21:39:28 UTC

The poem " The Solitary Reaper " by William Wordsworth is based on the experience of Thomas Wilkinson during his tour in Scotland.
The poet is addressing an ideal reader or a passerby. He invites him to stop and listen to a girl who is cutting and binding the grain while she is singing. The poem describes an ordinary scene of daily work in the fields and shows that beauty can be found also in ordinary things.
An interesting detail in this poem is that the author does not understand the words that the Scottish girl is singing but he remains totally fascinated by the melody and the girl's voice. His feelings thus change and the solitude that he initially felt completely disappear. Thanks to this sensory experience in Nature and in the rural worls, the poet can now perceive deep joy in his heart.

Nr 9 - Aim of poetry

laghigna — 2015-11-08 21:41:11 UTC

The aim of writing poetry according to Wordsworth is to talk to every single person and to arise his/her emotions and feelings about the importance of Nature and harmony in the world.
Wordsworth's poetry originates not in the extraordinary but in the ordinary. He was convinced that poetry should not be elitarian but that everyone must have the possibility to read it. For this reason he rejected refined diction in his poems and wrote mainly ballads, odes and sonnets using very simple language. In his poems Wordsworth wrote about everyday situations and ordinary, humble people. He in fact believed that humble people living in the rural world were nearer to their own purer passions.
In Wordsworth's view, the poet is not a man superior to the others but he is a man among men. His task consists therefore in drawing attention to the humblest people, where the deepest emotions and truths are to be found.

Nr 11 - Who is the poet?

laghigna — 2015-11-08 21:42:22 UTC

In Wordsworth's view, a poet is a common man among other men, but compared to normal people he is endowed with greater sensitivity and imagination.
To write poetry, a poet must pay attention to the ordinary things of life. However, his observation of the natural phenomena is enriched by his imagination, which allows him to communicate his knowledge, sensations and emotions to the reader.
The poet is also a teacher because he is able to teach men how to improve the quality of their life, understand their feelings and improve their moral being.
The poet's task is similar to that of a visionary prophet, who thanks to his greater sensitivity, can see under the surface and show what is beyond the material world. The power of immagination enables him to communicate his knowledge.

Nr 25 - The three stages of human life

laghigna — 2015-11-08 21:43:10 UTC

Wordsworth outlined three stages of human life: Childhood, Adulthood and Old Age.
In the poet's view, Childhood is the most important part of human life, since it is the age in which imagination is at its fullest.
According to Wordsworth, children not only have more imagination than other people, but they are nearer to God because they are still innocent and pure. Children have not been contaminated by the corruption and the evils of society, so that they can still understand and perceive the harmony in the world and in Nature.
Wordsworth believes that adults should learn from children. This is why in his famous poem of the Rainbow, he wrote that "the child is father of the man".

Nr 7 - Four leading ideas of English Romanticism

laghigna — 2015-11-08 21:45:03 UTC

English Romanticism was a literary and artistic movement that spread across Europe in the 19th century. Its leading ideas were Love for Nature, Feeling as opposed to reason, Imagination and Childhood, and the role of the poet as a prophet.
Most Romantics rebelled against the rules imposed by their contemporary society and rejected the conservatorism of the Augustan Age. They shared a more dynamic view of life and wanted to radically change society through revolution.
Great importance was given to the sensitivity of the artist, to the expression of individual sensations in poetry and art, as well as to the affirmation of individual characters.
Feeling was considered higher than reason unlike what Classicism thought. The heart of man was considered to be a secret place, in which man could feel powerful emotions and get in contact with the divine.
Love for Nature was a typical theme of the English Romanticism. Romantic poets took ispiration from Nature to create images of beauty and sublime taken from the rustic and the ordinary world.
Moreover, following the Pantheistic view of nature, God was in fact to be found in Nature not above it. This led to a special Interest in the supernatural and the magical elements which could reveal the presence of powerful forces in Nature .
Other poets, like Wordsworth, chose the glorification of commonplace as the main theme for their poems, as they felt inspired from everyday, ordinary places and situations.

Nr 8 - Role of the poet

laghigna — 2015-11-08 21:46:03 UTC

In the Romantic view, the poet has a special role. Although he is a man among other men, he is endowed with greater sensitivity than the common man. What makes him different from other men is also his imagination, which according to Romantics is a divine faculty.
Thanks to his imagination the poet is able to create beautiful things. This emphasis on the importance of emotions and of the individual shows a dynamic vision of human life. Romantics believed in fact that the artist and the poet in particular could change the world!
Therefore the poet's task is to show other men what he can see beyond the material world thanks to his sensibility.
The poet is also a visionary prophet because he can awaken the common man from his death-like life and contribute to realize the potential of the human mind through Nature. As Wordsworth explained in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, in order to convey his message to the greatest number of people possible, the poet should use simple and ordinary language. Most Romantic poets preferred subjective expression and wrote in the first person singular.

Nr 21 - Process of poetic composition

laghigna — 2015-11-09 08:08:13 UTC

In his Preface to Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth presented his ideas about the process of poetic composition. He explained that the whole process begins with the observation of a physical object in nature. This sensory experience enables the poet to feel powerful emotions, which he however is not able to fully understand immediately. It is in fact in the second stage, i.e. from the memory of a past experience that true poetry originates. When the poet is finally alone in meditation, he can recollect his past sensory experience in tranquillity and he can feel a new emotion, which is similar but much more intense than the first one. At this point the artist is able to create a poem that will be read by others and that will make us feel another new emotion. This process of poetic composition as described by Wordsworth is evident in the poem “The Daffodils”. In the first three stanzas Wordsworth uses the past tense because he is describing his past feelings at the sight of the golden flowers dancing in the breeze. In the last stanza he uses instead the present tense because he is creating a new emotion from the recollection in tranquillity.

Nr. 22 - My Heart Leaps Up...

laghigna — 2015-11-09 08:18:46 UTC

In the poem “My Heart Leaps Up...” Wordsworth meditates upon his past, his present and his future. This contemplation begins with the powerful image of a rainbow in the sky. The poet says that anytime he sees a rainbow, he feels happy and joyful like a child. This memory leads the poet to reflect about his personal experience in his childhood and adulthood. He says that he would like to be able to feel the same also in the future when he becomes old or else he would prefer to die. In the second part of the poem, Wordsworth presents a paradox in which he says that “the Child is father of the Man”. He thus underlines the importance of childhood as the age in human life in which imagination and sensitivity are at their fullest. Moreover the contact with nature is also essential to man because Nature is the place where man can experience powerful emotions and reconnect with his inner self and with God.

Nr. 23 - The famous paradox

laghigna — 2015-11-09 08:27:34 UTC

The famous paradox about the three stages of human life is expressed in the line seven, when the poet says that “the Child is father of the Man”. Here Wordsworth is talking in universal terms. In his opinion, the child has more imagination and a better connection with nature than adults, because he is still innocent and pure.

Worsdsworth shared Rousseau's ideas about the goodness of man and he himself believed - like many Romantics - that society was an evil corrupting force. The child was seen as still unspoilt by civilisation, and thus closer to God. For this reason, Wordsworth states in the poem of the Rainbow that the Adult should learn from the Child. This is also the reason why the author considers the child as a father and as a model to man, although in reality this condition is obviously the reverse.

Nr. 24 Figures of speech and meaning of the Rainbow

laghigna — 2015-11-09 08:37:14 UTC

INCOMPLETE

In the poem "My Heart Leaps Up..." Wordsworth uses very simple language and no poetic diction.
He however creates very powerful images that become symbols of his ideas and feelings. The most important ones are that of the rainbow and the famous paradox baout the stages of human life.

.......
Between the first and the second line and between the eighth and the ninth line there is an enjambment, which increases the emphasis on the poetic images of the rainbow and of the stages of man. The lines from third to fifth are characterized by anaphora; the repetition of initial “so” means to emphasize the importance of the verses. The lyric “life” in verse six represents an antithesis, where life and die counteract each other. Line seven is a paradox to express the importance of childhood in comparison to adulthood and old age.
and explain what their function is.

What message does the poet want to convey through the image of the rainbow?
???????????

Nr. 27 - Please COMPLETE!!!!

laghigna — 2015-11-09 09:06:39 UTC

The poem dedicated to ‘’The Solitary Reaper’’ is about an ordinary incident of life that Wordsworth actually experienced while hiking on the Scottish mountains.
This poem celebrates the dayliness and humbleness of common work, of which reaping is an example, and Nature, a place in which the poet finds refuge.
Wordsworth describes the scene that attracted his attention while walking. He stops to listen to a young girl singing while working in the fields.
The poet explains that he was not able to understand neither the words in the song nor the reason why the young girl was singing. He makes a few suppositions: EXPLAIN HERE!!!!!!
Only through his poetic imagination can he find meaning in the song. At this point the focus changes and the poet's feelings become more important than the girl.
COMPLETE please!

Nr. 10 - What is poetry? The poet's role

laghigna — 2015-11-09 09:19:13 UTC

According to William Wordsworth, "poetry is an overflow of powerful feelings, which has its origin in emotion recollected in tranquillity".

He believes that poetry originates also from the relationship between present and past emotions. In other words, what the poet remembers about his past sensory experience, can fill up his heart with powerful emotions and influence his present. Poetry originates from the recollection of a past memory, which produces an even stronger emotion. This is the source of poetic inspiration: it will lead to the creation of a poem, which will make us readers feel a strong emotion.

So the poet has an important role in Wordsworth's view, because he is like a prophet who is able to communicate his knowledge to other people. Through his poetry, he can make us see what we often cannot see because hidden behind materialism. Therefore the most important element in poetry is imagination accompanied by feelings.

Nr. 2 - The French Revolution

laghigna — 2015-11-09 09:33:55 UTC

The French Revolution was initially welcomed by people, especially intellectuals. They supported the quest for radical change in society because it promoted the values of brotherhood, equality and freedom, which were instead negated under the French monarchy.

Many English Romantics, like Wordsworth for example, even travelled to France to fight in support of the French revolutioners. Later, the bloody excesses of the "Reign of Terror" and the imperialist tendencies of Napoleon cooled down their enthusiasm, but the belief in the values of the French Revolution remained and continued to inspire all Romantics. The general sense was that a new era had begun. The connection between revolution and poetry was so strong that following the French Revolution a Romantic Revolution started.

Many Romantic works reflected these democratic ideals, as most of them focussed on simple people and used ordinary language with no poetic diction. The aim was in fact to allow everybody to read and understand poetry. Romantics believed in the power of poetry, imagination and feelings to change the status quo and reconnect the human being to his inner self and divinity.

Nr 16 - Main themes in "The Daffodils"

laghigna — 2015-11-09 09:39:57 UTC

The main theme in the poem 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' is the beauty of nature and the power of feelings, as well as the nature of poetic composition.
As Wordsworth explained in the Preface to 'Lyrical Ballads', Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings that are inspired by a memory of the past.
While the author is lying on his coach, feeling pensive and lonely, the memory of his past experience and the the vision of the golden daffodils flashes on his inward eye, which is a symbol of the poet's imagination and the source of his poetic inspiration.

A very deep change has happened in the poet's heart since the beginning. From being a lonely cloud detached from the world, he now feels like the flowers and can join them in their dance of joy and harmony with the universe.

This changing of feelings was possible thanks to the healing quality of Nature as well as the special sensitivity and powerful imagination of the poet.

Nr. 18 - The poet's state of mind and the inward eye

laghigna — 2015-11-09 09:41:10 UTC

NOT CLEAR!!!!! SOME IDEAS are not correct!

While in the first stanza the poet was in a melancholic state and felt isolated and detached from the rest of the world, in the last stanza he is relaxed and meditative at home.
He recalls the moment when he first saw the golden daffodils and the emotions he felt at the sight of them dancing in the breeze. Only when he is in complete solitude, can his heart feel in harmony with nature and God and at that point his heart is dancing together with the daffodils.
The image of ‘’the inward eye’’ symbolizes the power of imagination; the poet is able to see beyond surface reality and apprehend a truth which goes beyond the power of reason.
In Wordsworth's view the poet is therefore like a visionary prophet whose task is to mediate between man and nature. Being a man with greater sensitivity and imagination, his role is to talk to other men about what he can see in Nature.

Nr 4 - Origins of Romanticism - 4 leading ideas

laghigna — 2015-11-09 09:44:04 UTC

INCOMPLETE

Romanticism was an artistic movement that begun in Germany during the XIX century. It later spread all over Europe as the leading artistic and cultural current of the 19th century. The origins of the movement are to be found in the German Sturm und Drang, of which Schiller and Goethe were the main exponents.

The four leading ideas of English Romanticism in general were Love for Nature, Feeling as opposed to reason, Imagination and Childhood, and the role of the poet as a prophet.
In this period nature was seen in pantheistic terms. Romantics believed that Nature was a living being and that God was in nature not above it. Nature was also perceived as a comforting mother to man's suffering as well as a powerful force that could not be controlled by man.
Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective and imagination. EXPLAIN!!!!!
INCOMPLETE!!
The sublime is off-topic!
Write something about: Feeling as opposed to reason, Imagination and Childhood, and the role of the poet as a prophet.