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British Romantic Lit > William Wordsworth > Flashcards

William Wordsworth Flashcards

1
Q

1770

A

born in West Cumberland (in Lake District)

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2
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1787

A

enters Cambridge University

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3
Q

1790

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spends summer vacation hiking through France and the Alps; exposed to French revolution and the anniversary of the fall of Bastille

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4
Q

1791-92

A

spends year in France and becomes fervent supporter of French Revolution

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5
Q

1795

A

moves in w/ sister Dorothy in Dorsetshire; befriends Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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6
Q

1798

A

Lyrical Ballads (co-written w/ Coleridge) anonymously published

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7
Q

1800

A

published 2nd edition of Lyrical Ballads w/ Preface (drafted in consultation w/ Coleridge)
-believed he wrote the Preface himself
-authored by one person but theorized by 2 people

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8
Q

1810

A

quarrels w/ Coleridge (renews friendship in 1830)

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9
Q

1843

A

elected poet Laureate of Great Britain
- huge advocate for working class, democracy

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10
Q

1850

A

passes away
- The Prelude published (first written in 1799, then expanded in 1805, and revised until 1840s)

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11
Q

Lyrical Ballads

A
  • founding text of British Romanticism
  • preface: manifesto regarding poetry, the poet, and the imagination
  • begins w/ Coleridge’s Rime of Ancient Mariner
  • ends w/ “Tintern Abbey”
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12
Q

Lyrical Ballads a new type of poetry

A

“Several of my friends…theory upon which the poems were written” (304)
- defensive tone of genre/style => both knew they were doing something different
- gives reader a chance to theorize
- reinventing poetry in general

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13
Q

defending the merits of Lyrical Ballads

A

“They who have been accustomed…prevents him from performing it” (305)
- he and Coleridge have failed to live up to politics
- neoclassical: “neo” = new

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14
Q

lyric

A

a poem in which the speaker expresses his or her thoughts using first person perspective rather than an explicit dramatic or narrative plot
- foregrounds emotions and sentiment
- almost like a dramatic monologue in the poems

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15
Q

ballad

A

a song or poem that narrates a story, usually in sparse, informal language
- descended from folk tradition: typically anonymous and passed down orally
- using ballads in literature

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16
Q

depicting “common life”

A

“The principal object…associate ideas in a state of excitement” (305-06)
- defamiliarizing with the common => how we associate ideas in the state of excitement
- more elevated, religious the better => show off how well read you are

“Low and rustic…permanent forms of nature”
- folks more connected to nature
- rise in industrialization/urbanization
- lose rustic simplicity of the working class/common folk => reclaim and preserve history in these elementary feelings

“The language…unelaborated expressions”
- what do you lose when you go higher up in society? => more like you’re watching a play than living your own life, more artificial and stilted, lack empathy/sympathy on behalf of other people, isolating themselves w/ people who fit their like-minds

“Accordingly…of their own creation”
- people who are narcissistic and sealed from the world => removes you from common folk
- somehow more philosophical to gain from poems => how emotions and human mind works

“I have said that poetry..in a state of enjoyment” (314)
- poetry is spontaneous, can’t predict where it goes or the emotions that come up
- have to recollect it in tranquility => have to distance from original effect
- poetry recreating sense of overpowering feeling => poet has ability to make you feel something artificial

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17
Q

The purpose of Lyrical Ballads

A

“This purpose will be found…simple affections of our nature” (306-07)
- “fluxes and refluxes of the mind” = mind is not always rational and logical in the way we want it to be
- understanding marks romantic poets apart from society => mythologize romanticism

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18
Q

the poet known for emotions

A

“I ask what is meant by the word…without immediate external excitement” (310)
- tortured poet who can think and feel a lot
- can people cultivate this quality in themselves? => Marianne
- closed off from society so they have a sense of how humans work
- nostalgic, fantasy of nature may not have existed => made it a destination readers can go, can relate to them but can’t be them

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19
Q

Expostulation and Reply

A
20
Q

Reading and idleness

A

“Why, William, on that old grey stone…and dream your time away?” (lines 1-4)
- romantic idea of young boy dreaming his time away: what is the value? => in his creativity, squandering time. art isn’t necessarily about time
- child sits alone, isolated from people in society => he’s not thinking his time away but succumbing to his imagination

“One morning thus…in a wise passiveness” (lines 13-24)
- how Marianne feels with the world
- tension b/twn human will and body’s own atonomy => human will doesn’t make a difference: out body will feel with or without us

  • “impress” => children’s minds are blank states that are impressed by surroundings
  • “wise passiveness” => how to let things be impressed upon us but have to be wise about it
    • something about wise passiveness that children can teach us => children can teach us something that we, ourselves, lose
21
Q

The Tables Turned

A

“Up, up…that watches and receives”
- more wisdom to be gained in nature than in books
- “leaves” = pages of a book
- “ a heart that watches and receives” = the wise passivity
- if you want to study the world, go into the world => “may teach you more of man, or more evil and of good”
- nature can teach you how to be receptive to the world, how to be impressed upon => humans fail to teach that

22
Q

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the wye during a tour AND Composed upon Westminister Bridge

A
  • both poems about the relationship b/twn city/country or urban/natural environment
  • romantic poet as a visionary => able to keep in mind the past and peer into the heart of life
23
Q

What’s the relationship b/twn nature and the imagination? How can nature prompt of inspire us?

A

when you look at nature => inspire emotions

24
Q

“Tintern Abbey”

A
  • refers to the ruins of a medieval abbey
  • passage of time and role of nostalgia
  • the ruins of the abbey similar to the poet’s imagination and memory?
25
Q

Lines 1-22

A

“Five years have past…the Hermit sits alone”
- present tense takes over: the past has taken over present
- power/sovereignty that nature has that keeps going
- no rhyme scheme => more about the vibe, not much narrative happening (literally painting a scene)
- romantic poet cut off from society, something about solitude and nature => communion is w/ nature, animals, landscape

26
Q

remembering the country while in the city

A

“These beauteous forms…we see into the life of things” (lines 22-48)
- “the breath of this corporeal frame” => draws distinction b/twn living soul and body => transcending our corporeal bodies and becoming a living soul (soul not tied to entity) => harmony w/ nature
- “sensations sweet, felt in the blood, and felt along the heart” => merging body and soul
- romanticizing and remembering nature, trying to get back to nature

27
Q

pastoral

A
  • literary genre depicting a romanticized and idealized country life, typically characterized by fertility, abundance, leisure, and livestock
  • environment is far removed fr. urban contemporary sphere - a nostalgic fantasy of the past
  • where family, livestock, farms are in union together (harmony)
  • Wordsworth engaging pastoral
28
Q

nature as pastoral innocence and childlike freedom

A

“And now..and all its dizzy raptures” (lines 58-85)
- roe = deer
- compared himself to deer => innocence, some kind of affinity (running around in nature) => also thinking back in time when he was running around like a deer
- what does it imply about being an adult? => deer are scared away really easily so he has a fragile relationship w/ nature, losing quality of innocence the older you get
- adult’s fantasy of childhood
- more similar to animals as a child and learn to be human the older you get b/c children are closer to nature/the natural world than adults are; they don’t think when doing anything and they do what they want (uninhibited like animals)

29
Q

nature and sociability

A

“for art thou with me here…is full of blessings” (lines 114-134)
- mentioning his sister suddenly => retreats to nature to feel communion w/ other things (like sister)
- femininity of nature
- ends w/ some kind of claim/hypothesis of the world

30
Q

petrarchan sonnet

A
  • 14 line poem comprised of an octet (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines)
  • octet rhyme schem: ABBA ABBA
  • sestet rhyme scheme: CD CD CD
30
Q

Rhyme scheme in Tintern Abbey

A
  • no rhyme scheme => laying groundwork
  • meant to show nature can be a simile to human form “sprawling” => bouncing all over the place, hard to pin down
  • putting artificial convention onto nature and see which part of nature sink into Petrarchan sonnet form
31
Q

Composed upon Westminister Bridge

A

“Earth has not any thing…And all that mighty heart is lying still”
- poet has capacity to peer into things
- personification of London => catalog of things that fall on deaf ears

“never did sun more beautifully steep..the river glideth at his own sweet will”
- personifies river => will is usually motive but river doesn’t have that
- to see what the poet sees => poet got there before us and we have to catch up

32
Q

The Prelude: Book First

A
  • autobiographical epic Wordsworth wrote in 3 phases
  • 1798-99: first two books
  • 1805: thirteen books total
  • 1850: published posthumously; 14 books total
33
Q

Epic

A
  • a long verse narrative on a serious subject, typically narrated in a formal and elevated style
  • portrays a heroic or divine figure whose actions determine the fate of a community, nation, or human race
  • depicts extraordinary events that often involve supernatural creatures or feats
34
Q

Settling on a fitting subject

A

“I settle on some British theme…and hear their tales” (lines 179-184)
- “among the shepherds” = biblical
- “romantic tale by Milton” = romantic means literary genre (pick up where Milton left off)
- what British identity means to him

35
Q

More on the Prelude

A
  • in contrast, to national, political, or religious topics, Wordsworth settles upon an intimate one (himself)
  • Prelude depicts human subjectivity as complex as the founding of Rome (The Aeneid) or the fall of man (Paradise Lost)
  • What is The Prelude a prelude to? => revise idea of the epic, an autobiographical epic
    • treating his childhood, mind, as significant as the poem he revises
36
Q

Autobiography

A

1782: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions

37
Q

Bildungsroman

A

a coming of age story
- represent how we go from child to adult
- invention of modern childhood => cultural construction of childhood represents poet
- poet unconsciously write => imaginative
- cultural attitudes w/ children are romantic

38
Q

Derwent River as a poem

A

“Was it for this…along the margin of our Terrace Walk” (lines 272-289)
- focus on river => wild, dangerous, beautiful to observe (romantic)
- mimic the river in his writing => free verse, no rhyme or reason to it, just writing in prose
- river is ever moving and goes where ever it wants => syntax represents river

39
Q

enjambment

A

the continuation of a sentence beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza without pause
- a kind of tension, poetic recollection of childhood => see river as overspilling, traveling over the boundaries
- flow of sentences mimic how he sees river

40
Q

roaming and exploring

A

“Fair seed-time had my soul…as silent as the turf they trod” (lines 305-332)
-“wander” = lack of destination in travel, no motivation, aimless, not fixed in mind, exploring => connection b/twn wandering and how poet’s mind thinks (emotionally he’s still wandering)
- more dangerous than the strolls in S&S => psychological drive that’s propelling him to go into nature
- “desire that overpowers reason” => emotion recollected in tranquility, how emotion and relation can relate to one another

41
Q

invocation

A
  • an appeal made by a poet to a muse or deity for help in composing a poem
  • traditional in classical poetry
  • poet is the conduit through which divine/religious/supernatural deities express themselves
42
Q

Lines 1-32

A

“Oh there is blessing in this gentle breeze…point me out my course”
- kicked out of Eden and whole world lay before you => Wordsworth reclaims he’s Adam
- breeze is a messenger => deity he’s appealing to
- Aelian harp is a metaphor for romantic poet => played on
- sees effects of wind but can’t see wind itself
- wind shuffling things around, he doesn’t know where to go

43
Q

inspiration

A
  • creative provocation
  • the drawing in of breath => breeze is a creative muse of deity that inspires Wordsworth, incorporation of natural world into body
  • turn to wind as metaphor for inspiration => replicating natural phenomenon into writing
44
Q

Lines 41-54

A

“For I…the holy life of music and of verse”
- when there’s wind, usually storm comes => wind is metaphor for a change that’s coming
- “Tempest” = storm coming
- something violent and destructive
- something about human perception and learning how to read the signs and be attentive

45
Q

Prelude on Imagination

A
  • imagination is not a passive blank slate on which we are impressed but an active force that co-creates the universe via perception
  • Wordsworth’s interest in memory, the past, and creativity - an early precursor of Freud and psychoanalysis => human mind is something wild, something illogical
46
Q

“The mind of man”

A

“The mind of Man is framed…am worthy of myself” (lines 351-361)
- contradictory of human subjectivity => can entertain these contradictory emotions

British Romantic Lit (8 decks)

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