WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND ANALYSIS OF HIS SELECTED POEMS - Paper-5

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Ø Prepared by     : KAVITABA P. GOHIL

Ø Roll No                : 19

Ø Paper –5        : THE ROMANTIC LITERATURE

Ø TOPIC: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND ANALYSIS OF HIS SELECTED POEMS

Ø M.A (English)   :  Sem -2

Ø Enrollment No: 2069108420180018

Ø Batch                   :  2017-19

Ø Email                   : kavitabaprahaladsinhjigohil@gmail.com

Ø Submitted to   :  Smt .S. B Gardi, Department of English, MKBU. 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND ANALYSIS OF HIS SELECTED POEMS

Ø LIFE OF WORDSWORTH:

The second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson, William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Wordsworth House in Cockermouth, Cumberland,part of the scenic region in northwestern England known as the Lake District. His sister, the poet and diarist Dorothy Wordsworth, to whom he was close all his life, was born the following year, and the two were baptised together. They had three other siblings: Richard, the eldest, who became a lawyer; John, born after Dorothy, who went to sea and died in 1805 when the ship of which he was captain, the Earl of Abergavenny, was wrecked off the south coast of England; and Christopher, the youngest, who entered the Church and rose to be Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. (W. contributors)

Wordsworth was taught to read by his mother and attended, first, a tiny school of low quality in Cockermouth, then a school in Penrith for the children of upper-class families, where he was taught by Ann Birkett, who insisted on instilling in her students traditions that included pursuing both scholarly and local activities, especially the festivals around Easter, May Day and Shrove Tuesday. Wordsworth was taught both the Bible and the Spectator, but little else. It was at the school in Penrith that he met the Hutchinsons, including Mary, who later became his wife. (W. contributors)

Wordsworth made his debut as a writer in 1787 when he published a sonnet in The European Magazine. That same year he began attending St John's College, Cambridge. He received his BA degree in 1791. He returned to Hawkshead for the first two summers of his time at Cambridge, and often spent later holidays on walking tours, visiting places famous for the beauty of their landscape. In 1790 he went on a walking tour of Europe, during which he toured the Alps extensively, and visited nearby areas of France, Switzerland, and Italy.

In 1791, Wordsworth visited France and during that time he fall in love with one French woman, Annette Vallon; who gave birth to their daughter in 1792.Britain’s stretched relation with France led him to return England alone and he could not meet his daughter and Vallon for some years but after some year with the peace of Amiens he allowed to visit France. When he first time met his daughter she was 9 years old. He and his sister Dorothy visited Annette and Caroline to prepare Annette for the fact of words worth’s forthcoming marriage with Mary Hutchinson.

In 1798, his Lyrical Ballad was published; it is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge. Lyrical Ballad played a vital role in the English Romantic Movement; according to some historians the publication of Lyrical Ballad is starting point of Romanticism which runs till 1832, till the essence of Queen Victoria. They published 3 volumes of Lyrical Ballads first in 1798, second in 1800 and third in 1802 but neither of them helped Wordsworth as well as Coleridge to get reorganization as author. In all three volumes both decided to deal with different subject matter and therefore Wordsworth deals with reality and beauty of nature whereas Coleridge deals with super natural elements and many other things, Wordsworth tries to reflect country side and Coleridge tries to reflect urban side. In this book both have given their own definitions of poetry as well as what is poet?, both tries to give their own opinion but at some extent wordsworth failed to get publicity among readers and other writers that’s why he must have to give prefaces to Lyrical Ballads and his style of writing because his writing is very simple one; thus common people can understand easily and it became problematic for classical writers. After that they published fourth edition of Lyrical Ballad in 1805.Coleridge and Wordsworth worked together for many years but after some year they started living and working separately and then wordsworth return to Lack district because he wanted to live in his home town because he feels homesickness because of long travelling with Dorothy and Coleridge.

Wordsworth was very religious man and he remarked in his of the poem that he was ready to shed bold for his Church, this religious thought of him reflected in The Excursion, a long poem which published in 1814.In the later part of his life he faces many difficult situations in front of his eyes he saw death of his sister Dorothy as well as his close friend Coleridge and many more contemporaries like Charles lamb, James Hogg etc.

Ø     His important works

·       Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (1798)

·       "Simon Lee"

·       "We are Seven"

·       "Lines Written in Early Spring"

·       "Strange fits of passion have I known"

·       "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways"

·       "Three years she grew"

·       "Expostulation and Reply"

·       "The Tables Turned"

·       "The Thorn"

·       "A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal”

·       "Lines Composed A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"

·       Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems (1800)

·       Preface to the Lyrical Ballads

·       "I travelled among unknown men""Nutting"

·       "The Ruined Cottage"

·       "Michael"

·       "The Kitten At Play"

·       "Lucy Gray"

·       "The Two April Mornings"

·       "The Solitary Reaper"

·       Poems, in Two Volumes (1807)

·       "Resolution and Independence"

·       "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" Also known as "Daffodils"

·       "My Heart Leaps Up"

·       "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"

·       "Ode to Duty"

·       "The Solitary Reaper"

·       "Elegiac Stanzas"

·       "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802"

·       "London, 1802"

·       "The World Is Too Much with Us"

·       Guide to the Lakes (1810)

·       " To the Cuckoo "

·       The Excursion (1814)

·       Laodamia (1815, 1845)

·       The White Doe of Rylstone (1815)

·       Peter Bell (1819)

·       The Prelude (1850)

William Wordsworth dies on April 23^rd in 1850, and after his death his widow Mary published words worth’s autobiographical work – “poem to Coleridge” as The Prelude but it failed to get much reorganization.

Ø      A Brief Analysis of his some important poems

Here I am going to analyse his 2 poems which I like most.

1] THE SOLITARY REAPER

Behold her, single in the field,

Yon solitary Highland Lass!

Reaping and singing by herself;

Stop here, or gently pass!

Alone she cuts and binds the grain,

And sings a melancholy strain;

O listen! for the Vale profound

Is overflowing with the sound. (The solitary Reaper)

No Nightingale did ever chaunt

More welcome notes to weary bands

Of travellers in some shady haunt,

Among Arabian sands:

A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard

In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,

Breaking the silence of the seas

Among the farthest Hebrides. (The solitary Reaper)

Will no one tell me what she sings?—

Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow

For old, unhappy, far-off things,

And battles long ago:

Or is it some more humble lay,

Familiar matter of to-day?

Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,

That has been, and may be again? (The solitary Reaper)

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang

As if her song could have no ending;

I saw her singing at her work,

And o'er the sickle bending;—

I listened, motionless and still;

And, as I mounted up the hill,

The music in my heart I bore,

Long after it was heard no more. (The solitary Reaper)

v Analysis:

The Solitary Reaper is ballad by Wordsworth and known as one of the best work by him. The poem divided into 4 stanzas each stanza reflects wonderful melody. Poem begins with speakers question to reader to behold a young girl ‘Reaping and singing’ in a beautiful field, her song was very sad, people as passing by and poet has noted that some stop for listening her but other gently pass by intension of not disturbing her; poet struck by her sad beauty of song and listen her song for many hours. Poet was unable to understand her language or what she actually singing but poet compares her singing with Nightingale and also with singing of cuckoo bird. Poet uses metaphors and tries to convince readers that her song is more thrilling to hear then the cuckoo bird during spring.

In third stanza speaker tries to understand what she is singing and he imagines that the tone of her song is sad therefore she might be singing about some past sorrow, pain or loss of someone or something. Speaker also guess that she might be sing a song of war or battles fought long ago, or it might be a simple song of present sorrows, pains etc. Speaker found that she is singing like her song will never end. Speaker watched peacefully, enraptured and he was not moving anywhere but at the end he quietly walks away, by keeping her song in his mind and her music in his heart for a long time.

2] LUCY GRAY OR SOLITUDE:

         OFT I had heard of Lucy Gray:

          And, when I crossed the wild,

          I chanced to see at break of day

          The solitary child. (Wordsworth)

          No mate, no comrade Lucy knew;

          She dwelt on a wide moor,

          --The sweetest thing that ever grew

          Beside a human door! (Wordsworth)

          You yet may spy the fawn at play,

          The hare upon the green;                                    

          But the sweet face of Lucy Gray

          Will never more be seen. (Wordsworth)

          "To-night will be a stormy night--

          You to the town must go;

          And take a lantern, Child, to light

          Your mother through the snow." (Wordsworth)

          "That, Father! will I gladly do:

          'Tis scarcely afternoon--

          The minster-clock has just struck two,

          And yonder is the moon!" (Wordsworth)                                    

          At this the Father raised his hook,

          And snapped a faggot-band;

          He plied his work;--and Lucy took

          The lantern in her hand. (Wordsworth)

          Not blither is the mountain roe:

          With many a wanton stroke

          Her feet disperse the powdery snow,

          That rises up like smoke. (Wordsworth)

          The storm came on before its time:

          She wandered up and down;                                   

          And many a hill did Lucy climb:

          But never reached the town. (Wordsworth)

          The wretched parents all that night

          Went shouting far and wide;

          But there was neither sound nor sight

          To serve them for a guide. (Wordsworth)

          At day-break on a hill they stood

          That overlooked the moor;

          And thence they saw the bridge of wood,

          A furlong from their door. (Wordsworth)                                  

          They wept--and, turning homeward, cried,

          "In heaven we all shall meet;"

          --When in the snow the mother spied

          The print of Lucy's feet. (Wordsworth)

          Then downwards from the steep hill's edge

          They tracked the footmarks small;

          And through the broken hawthorn hedge,

          And by the long stone-wall; (Wordsworth)

          And then an open field they crossed:

          The marks were still the same;                             

          They tracked them on, nor ever lost;

          And to the bridge they came. (Wordsworth)

          They followed from the snowy bank

          Those footmarks, one by one,

          Into the middle of the plank;

          And further there were none! (Wordsworth)

          --Yet some maintain that to this day

          She is a living child;

          That you may see sweet Lucy Gray

          Upon the lonesome wild. (Wordsworth)                                   

          O'er rough and smooth she trips along,

          And never looks behind;

          And sings a solitary song

          That whistles in the wind. (Wordsworth)

v  Analysis:

Lucy Gray is a beautiful ballad written by Wordsworth in 1799 but he published it, in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads during 1800. Poem is about a little innocent girl who is living in a town near by valley and most of her time she pending alone because she has not many friends and her family is also small. As a solitary child she has no one with whom she can share or talk or play. This poem is based on famous story of Lucy Gray, which heard by him from her sister Dorothy. It is mysterious story of a girl whose father many times sends her to fetch her mother when she was out of the town.

At one day when storm comes before expected time and Lucy was going to fetch her mother at that time she lost her path and mysteriously died. People though believes that she was not dies but she is still alive and singing songs of her solitude and tries to tell everyone that how lonely she is? In the end of the poem by the use of supernatural elements Wordsworth keeps Lucy alive in hearts. Supernatural theory shows that how she was attached with town or the people of town. This ballad is written very lyrically and the tragic end of the poem leaves everlasting impact on the mind of readers.

Ø     Conclusion:

In above paragraphs, we have seen that how simplicity and nature is used by William Wordsworth as his main objects, scholars of the age were unsatisfied with his work and some remarks his poems as childish one but as per Coleridge’s view, If Wordsworth’s poems are childish one then it should be drawn in the passage of time but that was not happened; it means there is something in his poems which made him remarkable poet of the age.

Bibliography

contributors, Wikipedia. "Early life of William Wordsworth." Wikipedia. 3 march 2018. 4 april 2018 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_of_William_Wordsworth>.

contributors, WIkipedia. "William Wordsworth." Wikipedia. 28 Mar. 2018. 4 April 2018 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth>.

"The solitary Reaper." Poetry foundation . 4 April 2018 <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45554/the-solitary-reaper>.

Wordsworth. The complete poetical works. 1770-1850. 4 April 2018 <http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww158.html>.