The Romantic Poets

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The Romantic Poets
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William Wordsworth romantic poetry
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William Wordsworth principal poem
We are seven
Lines Written in Early Spring
To the cuckoo
I Wondered lonely as a cloud
The Solitary Reaper
Intimations or Immortality
The Prelude
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I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud ----William
Wordsworth
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I wandered lonely as a cloud 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 tress, Fluttering and dance in
the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on
the milky way, They stretched in the
never-ending line Along the margin of a bay Ten
thousand say I at a glance, Tossing their heads
in sprightly dance.
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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 gazed and
gazed but 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 dance with the
daffodils.
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Glossary

• Valesvalleys
• Fluttermove up and down or form side to side
• Twinkleshine form bright to faint
• Sprightlycheerful, active
• Gleedelight
• Jocundmerry, cheerful
• Oftoften
• Vacantthoughtless
• pensivemelancholic, sadly thoughtful

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Questions

• 1. What is the recurrent central image in this
  poem?
• 2. What does the persona feel at the end of the
  poem?
• 3. Write in a few sentences your understanding of
  What wealth the show to me had brought.
• 4. Explain in a few words that inward eye/Which
  is the bliss of solitude.
• 5. This poem is considered by many the most
  anthologized poem in English literature, and one
  that takes us to the core of Wordsworths poetic
  beliefs. How is the core manifested?
• 6. What is the relation between man and nature?

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I wandered lonely as a cloud

• It revisits the familiar subjects of nature and
  memory, this time with a particularly (simple)
  spare, musical eloquence.
• Plot the poet's wandering and his discovery of a
  field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which
  pleases him and comforts him when he is lonely,
  bored, or restless.
• Form The four six-line stanzas of this poem
  follow (a quatrain a couplet) rhyme scheme
  ABABCC. Each line is metered in iambic
  tetrameter.

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I wandered lonely as a cloud

• I wandered lonely as a cloud
• 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.

• ??????,???? ?????????, ???????? ??????????,
  ????,????, ?????????

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• 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.

• ????,?????, ????????, ????????? ??????????
  ?????????, ??????????

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• 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 gazed and gazed but little thought
• What wealth the show to me had brought

• ?????????, ?????????? ??????????, ?????????!
  ?????,????? ??????????

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• 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.

• ?????????, ?????,?????, ?????????, ?????????
  ??????????, ??????????

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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.

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• 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. 

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• 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?

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• 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.

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• ??!?????????,                          
•  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.

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• ??????????,                                   
• No nightingale did ever chaunt???????????,       
                          
• More welcome notes to weary bands?????????,      
                                  
• Of travellers in some shady haunt,??????????    
                                
• Of travellers in some shady haunt,??????????,    
                                 
• No sweeter voice was ever heard?????????,        
                                
• In spring - time from the cuckoo -
  bird,??????????,                                 
    
• Breaking the silence of the seas
  ???????????                                  
• Among the farthest Hebrides.

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• ????????????                               
• 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!

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• ??????????,                                   
• Whateer the theme, the maiden sang??????????   
                                 
• As if her song could have no ending???????????, 
                               
•   I saw her singing at her work,???????????      
                              
•  And oer the sickle bending????????,??,        
                        
•   I listend, till I had my fill???????????,    
                             
•  And, as I mounted up the hill,???????????,      
                           
• The music in my heart I bore????????????         
                         
• Long after it was heard no more.

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Solitary Reaper 1252

• In 1803 Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy, and
  Coleridge visited Scotland. Dorothy wrote It
  was harvest-time, and the fields were quietly
  might I say pensively? enlivened by small
  companies of reapers. It is not uncommon in the
  more lonely parts of the Highlands to see a
  single person so employed. The following poem was
  suggested to William by a beautiful sentence in
  Thomas Wilkinsons Tour of Scotland.
• Wilkinsons sentence was, Passed a female who
  was reaping alone she sung in Erse as she bended
  over her sickle - the sweetest human voice I
  ever heard her strains were tenderly melancholy,
  and felt delicious, long after they were heard no
  more.

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Solitary Reaper

• Using simple language, Wordsworth, in only four
  stanzas, paints a clear picture, involves us in a
  mysterious musical experience, stirs our
  emotions, stimulates our imagination, and
  suggests some ideas.
• Stanza 1 suggests loneliness of one human being
  in the vastness of a Highland vale. Her song
  dominates the sweeping landscape.

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• Stanza 2 two effective bird images communicate
  to us the startled, unexpected delight the song
  gave the poet, a thrill comparable to that of
  weary travelers of the Arabian desert suddenly
  hearing the song of the nightingale, suggesting a
  nearby oasis, or of cold Northerners overjoyed by
  the cuckoos cheerful announcement of the arrival
  at last of spring.