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Lecture One of Book Two The Romantic Period; William Wordsworth

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Lecture One of Book Two The Romantic Period; William Wordsworth I. Introduction Romanticism: literary and artistic movements of the late 18th and 19th century. –

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Title: Lecture One of Book Two The Romantic Period; William Wordsworth

1
Lecture One of Book TwoThe Romantic Period
William Wordsworth
2
I. Introduction

Romanticism
literary and artistic movements of the late 18th
and 19th century.
a rejection of the precepts of order, calm,
harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality
that typified classicism in general and late
18th-century neoclassicism in particular.
a reaction against the Enlightenment and against
18th-century rationalism and physical materialism
in general.
Inspired in part by the libertarian ideals of the
French Revolution,
believed in a return to nature and in the innate
goodness of humans, as expressed by Jean Jacques
Rousseauemphasized the individual, the
subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the
personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the
visionary, and the transcendental.
interest in the medieval, exotic, primitive, and
nationalistic.
From William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge's
Lyrical Ballads in 1798 to the death of Sir
Walter Scott and the passage of the first reform
bill in the Parliament in 1832.

3
II. Background knowledge of Romanticism

1. Historical background
(1) Romanticism as a literary movement appeared
in England from the publication of Lyrical
Ballads in 1798 to the death of Sir Walter Scott
and the passage of the first reform bill in the
Parliament in 1832.
(2) The American and French revolutions greatly
inspired the English people fighting for Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity.
(3) The Industrial Revolution brought great
wealth to the rich but worsened the working and
living conditions of the poor, which gave rise to
sharp conflicts between capital and labor.
(4) In England the primarily agricultural society
was replaced by a modern industrialized one.
(5) Political reforms and mass demonstrations
shook the foundation of aristocratic rule in
Britain.

2. Cultural background
Inspiration for the romantic approach initially
came from two great shapers of thought, French
philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau and German
writer Johann Wolfgang yon Goethe. It is Rousseau
who established the cult of the individual and
championed the freedom of the human spirit his
famous announcement was "I felt before I
thought". Goethe and his compatriots extolled the
romantic spirit as manifested in German folk
songs, Gothic architecture, and the plays of
English playwright William Shakespeare.
(2) The Romantic Movement expressed a more or
less negative attitude toward the existing social
and political conditions, for the romantics saw
both the corruption and injustice of the feudal
societies and the fundamental inhumanity of the
economic, social and political forces of
capitalism.
(3) Romanticism constitutes a change of direction
from attention to the outer world of social
activities to the inner world of the human
spirit, tending to see the individual as the very
center of all life and all experience.
(4) In literature, the romantics shifted their
emphasis from reason, which was a dominant mode
of thinking among the 18th-century writers and
philosophers, to instinct and emotion, which made
literature most valuable as an expression of an
individual's unique feelings.

3. Features of the romantic literature
(1) Expressiveness Instead of regarding poetry
as "a mirror to nature", the romantics hold that
the object of the artist should be the expression
of the artist's emotions, impressions, or
beliefs.
The role of instinct, intuition, and the feelings
of "the heart" is stressed instead of
"neoclassicists" emphasis on "the head", on
regularity, uniformity, decorum, and imitation of
the classical writers. poetry as "the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings".
(2) Imagination emphasis on the creative
function of the imagination, seeing art as a
formulation of intuitive, imaginative
perceptions.
(3) Singularity a strong love for the remote,
the unusual, the strange, the supernatural, the
mysterious, the splendid, the picturesque, and
the illogical.
(4) Worship of nature Romantic poets see in
nature a revelation of Truth, the "living garment
of God". nature to them is a source of mental
cleanness and spiritual understanding.
(5) Simplicity turn to the humble people and the
everyday life for subjects, employing the
commonplace, the natural and the simple as their
materials take to using everyday language spoken
by the rustic people as opposed to the poetic
diction used by neoclassic writers.
(6) The romantic period is an age of poetry with
Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and
Keats as the major poets.

6
III. William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth.
the representative poet of the early romanticism
born in 1770 in a lawyer's family at
Cockermouth, Cumberland.
His mother died when he was only eight. His
father followed her six years later.
The orphan was taken in charge by relatives, who
sent him to school at Hawkshead in the beautiful
lake district in Northwestern England.
the unroofed school of nature attracted him more
than the classroom, and he learned more eagerly
from flowers and hills and stars than from his
books.

He studied at Cambridge from 1787 to 1791. While
at university, he associated with those young
Republicans roused by the French Revolution.
In the year 1790-1792 he twice visited France. On
his second visit he became acquainted with
Beaupuy, an army officer of the new-born Republic
of France, who kindled the heart of the young
English man with a spirit of revolt against all
social iniquities and a sympathy for the poor,
humble folk.
In 1795, Wordsworth settled, with his sister
Dorothy, at Racedown in Somersetshire. They lived
a frugal life and Dorothy, as his confidante and
inspirer, made him turn his eyes to ' the face of
nature' and take an interest in the peasants
living in their neighbourhood.

In 1797 be made friends with Coleridge. Then they
lived together in the Quantock Hills, Somerset,
devoting their time to writing of poetry.
In 1798 they jointly published the Lyrical
Ballads. Coleridge s contribution was his
masterpiece ' The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.
The majority of poems in this collection,
however, were written by Wordsworth.
The publication of the ' Lyrical Ballads' marked
the break with the conventional poetical
tradition of the l8th century, i.e. with
classicism, and the beginning of the Romantic
revival in England.

In the Preface to the "Lyrical Ballads',
Wordsworth set forth his principles of poetry.
"all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feeling.' individual sensations, i.e.
pleasure, excitement and enjoyment, as the
foundation in the creation and appreciation of
poetry.
Poetry takes its origin from emotion recollected
in tranquility."
A poet's emotion extends from human affairs to
nature. Tranquil contemplation of an emotional
experience matures the feeling and sensation.
The function of poetry lies in its power to give
an unexpected splendour to familiar and
commonplace things, to incidents and situations
from common life just as a prism can give a ray
of commonplace sunlight the manifold miracle of
colour.
Ordinary peasants, children, even outcasts, all
may be used as subjects in poetical creation.
As to the language used in poetry, Wordsworth
"endeavoured to bring his language near to the
real language of men.
The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads as the
manifesto of the English Romanticism.

Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey have often been
mentioned as the Lake Poets because they lived
in the lake district in the northwestern part of
England. The three traversed the same path in
politics and in poetry, beginning as radicals and
closing as conservatives.
Wordsworth lived a long life and wrote a lot of
poems. He was at his best in descriptions of
mountains and rivers, flowers and birds, children
and peasants, and reminiscences of his own
childhood and youth. As a great poet of nature,
he was the first to find words for the most
elementary sensations of man face to face with
natural phenomena. These sensations are universal
and old but, once expressed in his poetry, become
charmingly beautiful and new.
His deep love for nature run through such short
lyrics as Lines Written in Early Spring". To
the Cuckoo I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud . My
Heart Leaps Up, Intimations of Immortality' and
- Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern
Abbey'. The last is called his "lyrical hymn of
thanks to nature

Wordsworth was also a masterhand in searching and
revealing the feelings of the common people.
The themes of many of his poems were drawn from
rural life and his characters belong to the
lower classes in the English countryside. This is
so because he was intimately acquainted with
rural life and believed that in rural conditions
man's elementary feelings find a better soil than
in town life and can be better cultivated and
strengthened in constant association with nature.
(' The Solitary Reaper' ). in depicting the
naivety of simple peasant children (' We Are
Seven' ) and in delineating with deep sympathy
the sufferings of the poor. humble peasants
("Michael'," The Ruined Cottage'. "Simon Lee",
and "The Old Cumberland Beggar' ).
His "Lucy" poems are a series of short pathetic
lyrics on the theme of harmony between humanity
and nature.

Wordsworth's poetry is distinguished by the
simplicity and purity of his language. "His
theory and practice in poetical creation started
from a dissatisfaction With the social reality
under capitalism, and hinted at the thought of'
back to nature ' and back to the patriarchal
system of the old time"
"The Prelude" is Wordsworths autobiographical
poem, in 14 books, which was written in 1799-1805
but not published until 1850. it is the spiritual
record of the poet's mind, honestly recording his
own intimate mental experiences which cover his
childhood, school days, years at Cambridge, his
first impressions of London, his first visit to
France, his residence in France during the
Revolution, and his reaction to these various
experiences, showing the development of his own
thought and sentiment.

13
Points of view

(1) Politically Wordsworth was a radical democrat
in the early days, attracted to the slogans of
liberty, equality and fraternity but became a
conservative in his later years. However, in his
whole life, he held a critical attitude towards
the government and the upper class. He was
strongly against the Industrial Revolution which,
he believed, had caused the miseries of the poor
people and destroyed the quiet simple life of the
country people. He had great sympathy for the
poor and regarded them as the victims of the
fortune-hunting capitalists.
(2) Literarily, he was strongly against the
neoclassical poetry, especially that of Dryden,
Pope and Johnson, and tried to restore the
tradition of Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton. He
was the leading figure of the English romantic
poetry. He thought the source of poetic truth was
the direct experience of the senses. Poetry, he
asserted, originated from "emotion recollected in
tranquility". He maintained that the scenes and
events of everyday life and the speech of
ordinary people were the raw material of which
poetry could and should be made. The most
important contribution he hag made is that he has
not only started the modern poetry, the poetry of
the growing inner self, but also Changed the
course of English poetry by using ordinary speech
of the language and by advocating a return to
nature.

14
2. Major works

Tintern Abbey
Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On
Revisiting The Banks Of The Wye During A Tour.
July 13, 1798.

FIVE years have past five summers, with the
length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur. -- Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage-ground, these
orchard-tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,
Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves
'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see
These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines

Of sportive wood run wild these pastoral farms,
Green to the very door and wreaths of smoke
Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!
With some uncertain notice, as might seem
Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,
Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire
The Hermit sits alone.
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart
And passing even into my purer mind,

With tranquil restoration -- feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,
To them I may have owed another gift,
Of aspect more sublime that blessed mood,
In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened -- that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on, --
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,

If this
Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft --
In darkness and amid the many shapes
Of joyless daylight when the fretful stir
Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,
Have hung upon the beatings of my heart --
How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,
O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods,
How often has my spirit turned to thee!
And now, with gleams of half-extinguished
thought,
With many recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
The picture of the mind revives again
While here I stand, not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years. And so I dare to hope,

Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when
first
I came among these hills when like a roe
I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature led more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then
(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,
And their glad animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in all. -- I cannot paint
What then I was. The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to me
An appetite a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, nor any interest
Unborrowed from the eye. -- That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this
Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur, other gifts
Have followed for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompence. For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I
still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,

From this green earth of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear, -- both what they half create,
And what perceive well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.
Nor perchance,
If I were not thus taught, should I the more
Suffer my genial spirits to decay
For thou art with me here upon the banks
Of this fair river thou my dearest Friend,
My dear, dear Friend and in thy voice I catch
The language of my former heart, and read
My former pleasures in the shooting lights
Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while
May I behold in thee what I was once,
My dear, dear Sister! and this prayer I make,

Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk
And let the misty mountain-winds be free
To blow against thee and, in after years,
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure when thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,

Thy memory be as a dwelling-place
For all sweet sounds and harmonies oh! then,
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance --
If I should be where I no more can hear
Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these
gleams
Of past existence -- wilt thou then forget
That on the banks of this delightful stream
We stood together and that I, so long
A worshipper of Nature, hither came
Unwearied in that service rather say
With warmer love -- oh! with far deeper zeal
Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,
That after many wanderings, many years
Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!

24
She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love

A violet by a mosy tone
Half hidden from the eye!
---Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.
She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

26
I traveled among unknown men

I TRAVELLED among unknown men,
In lands beyond the sea
Nor, England! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.
'Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time for still I seem
To love thee more and more.

Among thy mountains did I feel
The joy of my desire
And she I cherished turned her wheel
Beside an English fire.
Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed
The bowers where Lucy played
And thine too is the last green field
That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

28
I wandered lonely as a cloud

That That floats on high oer vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company
I gazedand gazedbut little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

30
Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge,
September 3, 1802

Earth has not anything to show more fair
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will
Dear God! The very houses seem asleep
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

32
Sonnet London,1802

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour
England hath need of thee she is a fen
Of stagnant waters altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men
Oh! raise us up, return to us again
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

33
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.
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.

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?
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 listen'd, motionless and still
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

(1) Lyrical Ballads (1798)
the landmark in English literature, for it
started a poetical revolution by using the
common, simple and colloquial language in poetry.
The poems were written in the spirit and in the
pattern of the early storytelling ballads. They
are simple tales about simple life told in simple
style and simple language to express the simple
emotions in simple lyricism.
(2) Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802)
The Preface deserts, its reputation as a
manifesto in the theory of poetry. Most
discussions of the Preface focused on his
assertions about the valid language of poetry,
that is, "all good poetry is the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings." He attributed to
imaginative literature the primary role in
keeping man emotionally alive and morally
sensitive, i. e. keeping him essentially human,
in the face of the pressures of a technological
and increasingly urban society. He claimed that
the great subjects of poetry were "the essential
passions of the heart" and "the great and simple
affections" as these qualities interact with "the
beautiful and permanent forms of nature" and are
expressed in a "naked and simple" language that
is "adapted to interest mankind permanently."

(3) Prelude, or Growth of a poet's Mind(1850)
The Prelude is Wordsworth's masterpiece, the
greatest and most original long poem since
Milton's Paradise Lost. It is a personal history
which turns on a mental crisis and recovery, and
for such a narrative design the chief prototype
is not the classical or Christian epic, but the
spiritual autobiography of crisis. The recurrent
metaphor is that of journey, whose end is its
beginning, and in which it turns out that the end
of the journey is "to arrive where we started /
And know the place for the first time". The
journey goes through the poet's personal history,
carrying the metaphorical meaning of his interior
journey and questing for his lost early self and
the proper spiritual home. The poem charts this
growth from infancy to manhood. We are shown the
development 0f human consciousness under the sway
of an imagination united to the grandeur of
nature.

3. Special features
(1) best at the truthful presentation of nature.
He not only sees clearly and describes
accurately, but penetrates to the heart of things
and always finds some exquisite meaning that is
not written on the surface. He gives the reader
the very life of nature and the impression of
some personal spirit.
(2) The theme is about incidents and situations
of common life (generally "low and rustic").
Wordsworth considers that man is not apart from
nature, but is the very "life of her life". So he
thinks the common life is the only subject of
literary interest.
(3) Wordsworth advocates a return to nature.
According to him, society and the crowded
unnatural life of cities tend to weaken and
pervert humanity and a return to nature and
simple living is the only remedy for human
wretchedness. He Shows sympathy to the common
people.
(4)The language used in his poetry is a selection
of language really used by men. In other words,
he uses simple, colloquial language in poetry.

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"
(A) Main idea
The poem is crystal clear and lucid. By
recounting a little episode, the poet gives a
description of the scene and of the feelings that
match it. Then he abstracts the total emotional
value of the experience and concludes by summing
that up. Below the immediate surface, we find
that all the realistic details of the flowers,
the trees, the waves, the wind, and all the
accompanying sensations of active joy, are
absorbed into an over-all concrete metaphor, the
recurrent image of the dance, which appears in
every stanza. The flowers, the stars, the waves
are units in this dancing pattern of order in
diversity, of linked eternal harmony and
vitality. Through the revelation and recognition
of his kinship with nature, the poet himself
becomes as it were a part of the whole cosmic
dance.

(B) Comprehension notes
(a) "I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats
on high o'er vales and hills" While the poet was
taking a walk in the woods, he felt lonely and
detached from earthly fellowship just like a
lonely cloud, wandering and floating in the sky.
(b) "When all at once I saw a crowd, / A host, of
golden daffodils... " Suddenly the poet sees the
host of dancing daffodils. The daffodils remind
him of the stars at night in brightness and
multitude they match the waves in radiance and
gaiety. In a flash, the poet's loneliness is
transformed into fellowship he becomes a part of
all this "jocund company".
(c) "Fluttering and dancing in the breeze" The
dancing image (such as fluttering, dancing,
shining, twinkling, sparkling and tossing) recurs
in every stanza of the poem, revealing a sense of
joy and unity and continuity in the natural
elements of air, water and earth.
(d) "What wealth the show to me had brought" The
moment of vision is a revelation, an intuition of
a vital union between him and the forces around
him, which enriches his life forever.
(e) "They flash upon that inward eye" Through
that "inward eye" of memory, other moods of
loneliness, and listlessness can be animated with
the sense of fulfillment which was captured on
that first spring morning. It is an intensely
personal poem. It creates a purely subjective
experience. The poet tells us about the daffodils
in order to tell us something about himself.

(f) In the last two stanzas, we notice that the
speaker uses in succession five words denoting
joy ("glee", "gay", "jocund", "bliss", and
"pleasure") in a crescendo that suggests the
intensity of the speaker's happiness. Although
Wordsworth uses various words to indicate joy, he
occasionally repeats rather than varies his
diction. The repetitions of the words for seeing
("saw", "gazed") inaugurate and sustain the
imagery of vision that is Central to the poem's
meaning the forms of the verb to dance
("dancing", "dance", and "dances") suggest both
that the various elements of nature are in
harmony with one another and that nature is also
in harmony with man. The poet conveys this by
bringing the elements of nature together in
pairs daffodils and wind (stanza 1) daffodils
and stars (stanza 2) water and wind (stanza 3).
Nature and man come together explicitly in stanza
4 when the speaker says that his heart dances
with the daffodils. A different kind of
repetition appears in the movement from the
"loneliness" of line one to the "solitude" or
line 22.
Both words denote an alone-ness, but they suggest
a radical difference in the solitary person's
attitude to his state of being alone. The poem
moves from the sadly alienated separation felt by
the speaker in the beginning to his joy in
recollecting the natural scene, a movement framed
by the words "lone" and "solitude". An analogous
movement is suggested within the final stanza by
words "vacant" and "fills". The emptiness of
speaker's spirit is transformed into a fullness
of feeling as he remembers the daffodils.

(2) "Composed upon Westminster Bridge"
(September3, 1802)
(A) Main idea
The poem is a kind of dramatic monologue, in the
present tense, to express immediate pleasure in
the eye and ear and to celebrate qualities of a
particular personal experience. The tone is
solemn but not heavy. The first 8 lines present a
very beautiful picture of London in the early
morning, with its "ships, towers, domes,
theatres, and temples" glittering "in the
smokeless air". By linking the city buildings
with the open fields and the sky, the speaker
tries to put the stress to the scenes of the
whole country in which the city is only a part.
In doing so, the speaker intends to connect the
valley, rock and hill and river in the next few
lines to present the natural beauty.

(B) Comprehension notes
(a) "This City now doth, like a garment, wear /
The beauty of the morning" The poet chose the
word "wear" to say that the city wears its beauty
just like people wearing a garment. Generally
people wear something for two purposes one is to
keep them warm the other is to cover up
something ugly. The beauty of the morning might
be the calm and the quiet of the city. Thus, the
speaker would observe the city in such a way that
his eyes as if went on tiptoe over the scene,
anxious not to awaken the city into the ugliness
and confusion of noisy activities he hated.
(b) "All bright and glittering in the smokeless
air" The air of London was severely polluted
during the early Industrial Revolution in the
19th century. Smokeless air could only be seen in
the early morning.
(c) "The river glideth at his own sweet will"
The river runs freely, for there is no barges or
steamers to hinder its running in the early
morning. Here the river is personified so that it
has its own will.

(3) "She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways"
(A) Main idea
This is One of the five well-known "Lucy poems"
by Wordsworth. It tells us that since Lucy lived
remote from the great world, her death passed
unnoticed. Few people knew her, and the few
simple, unlettered folk who knew her lacked the
means to set forth to the world the tributes due
to her. Yet, though Lucy's passing made no
difference to the great world, it has made all
the difference to her lover, who speaks the poem.
The poem is written with rare elusive beauty of
simple lyricism and haunting rhythm.

(B) Comprehension notes
(a) "She dwelt among the untrodden ways" The
speaker tries to say that the lowly country girl
led her simple life of obscurity far away from
"the madding crowd".
(b) "A violet by a mossy stone / Half hidden from
the eye! /--Fair as a star, when only one / Is
shining in the sky" By using a metaphor and a
simile, the poet compares Lucy with a Violet, a
wild flower growing by a mossy stone, and a fair
star, shining in the sky. The two comparisons are
meant to enhance Lucy's charm by associating her
with such attractive objects as flowers and
stars. Lucy's natural charm, like that of the
violet, was derived from her modesty She, too,
was "half-hidden from the eye", obscure and
unnoticed. Though Lucy was, to the world, as
completely obscure as the modest flower in the
shadow of the mossy stone, to the eye of her
lover she was the only star in his heaven,
shining like the planet of love itself.
(c) "The difference to me" This phrase reveals
the speaker's strong love-for Lucy. Although
others may be indifferent to her whether dead or
alive, he still loves her and her beauty. And her
fine qualities are also living in his memory.

(4) "The Solitary Reaper"
(A) Main idea
This is a deceptively simple poem, in which
Wordsworth describes vividly and sympathetically
a young peasant girl working in the fields and
singing as she works. The plot of the little
incident is told rather straightforwardly.
Wordsworth did not experience the incident
himself it was suggested by a passage in his
friend Thomas Wilkinson's Tour of Scotland. Yet
the short lyric is an admirable poem of a simple
peasant girl who obviously enjoys her work and
whose plaintive song leaves strong and lasting
impression upon the chance listener.

(B) Comprehension notes
(a) "Nightingale", "Cuckoo bird" By using both
images as metaphors, the poet compares the
beautiful song, sung by the peasant girt with
those by the birds. On hearing a bird sing, we
sometimes feel that we are heating the voice of
nature itself. In the similar way, we could, in
overhearing the girl's song (under the
circumstances described), feel that we were
overhearing the voice of human nature itself.
(b) "Will no one tell me what she sings" The
traveler cannot make out the words of the song,
because, presumably, they are in Gaelic, the
native language of the Scottish Highlands.
(c) "Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, /That
has been, and may be again" Sorrows, losses and
pains are the common sufferings the poor people
had in the past and may have again in their
future.
(d) "The music in my heart I bore, / Long after
it was heard no more" The music, which is both
lovely and sad, touches the poet so greatly that
he can hardly forget it. With mixture of
happiness and sorrow, the poet celebrates the
beautiful rural life and expresses his sympathy
for the suffering of the peasants.

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