Wordsworth

Wordsworth(1770/1850)the poet of Nature

Autobiographical poetAutobiographical poet At the centre of his interest:At the centre of his interest:connexion connexion

child-naturechild-nature A man had to be as happy as a childA man had to be as happy as a child He started his career protesting He started his career protesting

against the evil of war/ against the evil of war/ industrialization, the upper class industrialization, the upper class indifference to the suffering of rural indifference to the suffering of rural peoplepeople

1789 French Revolution He had to leave France Shocked by the bloody F.R. England against Napoleon :war As a reaction W. became a reactionary

( Tory) He went to the Lake district with his sister

Dorothy He met Coleridge : a new philosophy,poetry

“ The Lyrical Ballads”

Nature a whole,stg.alive including animate and inanimate elements

Educator of senses Educator of mind Guide to wisdom Guide to goodness Source of

consolation Perceived through

the sight and the hearing

Influenced by Hartley

A child = simple sensations caused by by physical experiences/simple ideas

A man = complex ideas -associations The poet elaborates and memorizes

complex ideas (pag 293) creates a poem

The poet Poetry = record of a state of mind +

imagination Imagination allows the poet to perceive, to

see with the eyes of the soul It allows to see the relation man (child)-

nature The poet is endowed with Imagination The poet Is superior to other men The poet Is the VATE, THE TEACHER

The Lyrical Ballads ( 1798–1880manifesto of the Romantic Movement

W. 19 poems Starting point rural

people, natural elements seen through the eyes of Imagination to fuse the real with the ideal

Coleridge 4 poems Opposite starting

point to make the ideal seem real

Language and style The language had to be simple, but his best

poems are written in an elevated style A minimum of stylization He didn’t work in any poetical tradition At the end of his life he was: respectable,

conservative / a Tory) 1843 “ laureate poet” Criticized by the poets of the second

generation