Essay On William Wordsworth
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William Wordsworth Essay
William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. He grew up
surrounded by beautiful scenery. He was very close to his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth. ("William
Wordsworth Biography." NotableBiographies.com N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb 2012.
<http://www.notablebiographies.com/We–Z/Wordsworth–William.html>.) His sister led the way for
him to love nature by showing him its beauty. His mom died when he was eight years old and then
his father died when he was thirteen years old. He was separated from his sister when he moved in
with his uncles. After he graduated from grade school his uncles sent him to college. While he was
in college he went on a one year walking tour of Europe. After the tour he went to France
which
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That is why his wife called it The Prelude. He spent the last forty–five years of his life revising and
editing it. He didn't spend his time on just The Prelude, He also worked on and edited other poems
causing him to print out various editions of the same poem.
During the time that he was editing The Prelude and working on his other poems, he was appointed
as Head Laureate and married Mary Hutchinson. Together, they had five children two of which died
in 1812. As he grew older, his works began to shift from passionate lyrics to lyrics that were more
conservative. He died on April 23, 1850. His wife then published The Prelude which is considered
to be the "crowning achievement of English romanticism." (Andrews, H.. "
William Wordsworth
."
Academy of American poets. Academy of American Poets, 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2012.) When he was
young he would spend much of his time playing outdoors with his sister. Dorothy would often
comment on the beauty of the surrounding landscape. It was because of his sister that he grew to
love nature. His love for nature led him to write the first romantic poetry of that time period and
started the Romantic Movement in England. Many of his poems were written about the nature that
he encountered in his daily life. Others were of experiences in which he felt great emotion. One of
these poems is It is a Beauteous Evening Calm and Free. In this poem it is believed that he is talking
about
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William Wordsworth
Wordsworth's Use of Literary Devices Related to Nature William Wordsworth's frequent references
to nature in his poetry shows that he paid close attention to the details of the physical environment
around him. His poetry relates to nature by focusing primarily on the relationship between inner life
with the outer world. William Wordsworth uses literary devices such as personification, similes, and
the impressions nature makes on him to show the importance of the relationship that man should
have with nature. Personification is used to make it easier for his readers to relate themselves to
nature. The use of similes demonstrates the importance of experiencing nature as if it were oneself
because it allows one to experience nature on a
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In this poem, he extends that idea to show peaceful reflections on nature enable one to enjoy the
"bliss of solitude" and experience true happiness.
Another example of simile used by Wordsworth comes from "Tintern Abbey":
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;
...
Their colours and their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a feeling and a love. (The Poems 359)
In this poem, Wordsworth uses a simile by indicate he is "like a roe". He imagines himself
wandering through the mountains experiencing nature on a different level–like a deer would–
without a goal but rather, wandering wherever nature leads, This demonstrates how nature can have
different effects through the use of imagination if we are willing to pause our actions from day to
day and take time to contemplate on our surroundings. Deep contemplation clears the mind and
allows one to imagine a journey through nature–not just through nature, but as a living part of
nature. Through this experience nature became "An appetite; a feeling and a love" for him. His total
immersion in nature leads to him becoming one with nature, thus showing the value of an intimate
relationship between man and nature. Impression, the personal effect of some experience, real or
imagined, is a third
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William Wordsworth Essay
William Wordsworth William Wordsworth is considered to be the greatest among all of the English
Romantic poets. Although he did not always get the recognition that he rightfully deserved in the
early part of his career, only through trials and tribulations did he reach the pinnacle of the literary
world. "Wordsworth said of "the Prelude" that it was "a thing unprecedented in the literary history
that a man should talk so much about himself": " I had nothing to do but describe what I had felt and
thought" and " therefore could not easily be bewildered.""(Sinatra, 1) Wordsworth's innovative
concept of nature and his frank exploration of his feelings and philosophical ideas created his own
original poetic theory. Asserting himself as
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The revolution stirred deep into his soul, changing him forever, to the point that his poems reflect
these things. As a poetic spokesman he told of the voice of the common man, and their rights as
human beings. "(Frank N. Magil et al, 2200) Returning to England, Wordsworth briefly found
congeniality in a circle of other young freethinkers. To his content, they were radical philosophers,
one of whom was William Godwin, the author of "Political Justice". "However this was short lived,
soon after William found himself settling in with his talented sister Dorothy Wordsworth. It was
during this time, Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge who soon would change his life forever.
Both men were intellectual free thinkers, and with mutual stimulation and constant companionship
they published joint a small volume which would become a milestone in English literature."( Frank
N. Magill et al, 2200–2201) This was the Lyrical Ballads; and although at first it did not receive
recognition, it would become sufficiently justified in its second printing in 1800. Lyrical Ballads
consisted of pieces from Wordsworth's "Tinern Abbey" and a group of shorter, ballad like
compositions celebrating the common man. In 1803 during a trip to Scotland, the two found a
conflict among them, to the result of this their friendship was broken, and too shattered to be ever
mended. In 1802 Wordsworth ironically married his childhood
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Essay on Wordsworth's Poetry
The Romantic thinking was influenced by the ideas upon poet and poetry sustained by three of the
greatest writers of the age: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Byshe Shelley.
In the Preface of the second edition of Lyrical Ballads Wordworth sustained that the poet "is a man
speaking to men– a man (it is true) endued with more sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness,
who has greater knowledge of human nature, and more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be
the common among mankind"; a man who can delight other men in the spirit of life."
The poetry has a purpose: "Not that I mean to say that I always began to write with a distinct
purpose formally conceived, but I also believe that my habits have so formed
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The emotion which the poet recollects reduces in him the necessary state or mood or tention in
which Wordsworth sees the prerequisite of poetic composition and at the same time an essential
constituent of the poem. In dicussing this question, however, Wordsworth makes no reference to the
part played by imagination and fancy in the process, though at the beginning of the Preface he
speaks of the colouring of imagination cast on the incidents and situations described in his poems.
The theory of poetic composit on developed by Wordsworth in the Preface, including his view on
the language of poetry, was explicity aimed at exploding the traditional, neoclassic, concept of
poetic diction, that is, of the view that the very nature of poetry demands a linguistic expression
sharply differentiated from prose style not only through meter and rhyme, but also a special lexis,
syntactic arrangement and imagery. It was therefore, like his creation itself, part of the revolution
which he had set about to effect the English poetry and critical thought. At the same Preface was
meant to defend his own poetic practice and forestall criticism of the often prosaic language he had
used in some of his poems in the collection. It is that very practice that Wordsworth adduces as
evidence that rhyme and meter are not in themselves sufficient to create a significant
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Essay about William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was born April 7, 1770, at Cockermouth in Cumberland, England. His poetry,
and especially his poems on solitude, must have been heavily influenced by the death of his mother
and the splitting up of his family when he was only eight (Kilvert 1). At that time, fate sent him to
live in Hawkshead, England, where his teacher started him writing poetry. Wordsworth got his
higher education at Cambridge, his memories of which play a part in his later poetry (Noyes 201).
Fate again stepped in when, as a young man, he received an inheritance, which gave him the
freedom to study literature. One might guess that this is when he first became part of the Romantic
movement
, (Pinion, 21).
The poetry of
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Martha was in love with Stephen, who betrayed her by marrying another woman. Martha was
pregnant by Stephen, and the rumor was that she had murdered her baby. The reader feels all her
pain when she cries, "Oh misery! oh misery! Oh woe is me! oh misery!" These words express her
heartbreak at losing Stephen; her anguish at finding herself pregnant; her shame at being an unwed
mother; her guilt and regret for murdering her baby; her grief over the baby's death; and her
knowledge that her life is ruined. The thorn is a powerful symbol of all this misery. Just as the
thorns, Martha's appearance makes it seem as if she, too, could never have been young. She, too, is
"A wretched thing forlorn." By contrast, what seems to be the infant's grave lies in a beautiful
mound of color. Of coarse, the child is innocent and its beauty is forever filled with color; but
Martha's only color is her "scarlet cloak" of shame.
The power of imagination is the theme of
http://library.utoronto.ca/www/utel/rp/poems/wordswor43.html "Most Sweet It Is With Uplifted
Eyes." The title, itself, is full of meaning–– when we walk with our eyes "uplifted," we are not
looking at the real world around us, but are "dreaming" on the stars. While the real world may be
beautiful, it may also be very ugly and painful. However, imagination gives us the power to block
out what is bad and to create a special world. We can look inside
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William Wordsworth Essay
William Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With Us" is a Romantic Sonnet that can be broken
into two parts. The speaker tells us in the first part that we have lost our connection with nature, and
that that connection was one of our most important relationships. The speaker the goes on to tell us
that that he is willing to sacrifice everything to recover this relationship, and begins on line 9. In
romantic poems, the speaker tries to convince us of our flaws, in this case our skewed relationship
with nature, and convince us to change our ways. The speaker in Wordsworth's poem is no different
in this respect, and utilizes shock to grab our attention and really get us to notice just how serious he
believes this problem is. Although he uses
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Wordsworth, however, shows both sides of nature. He does show nature as gentle when he talks
about "sleeping flowers" (7) and when he talks about the "Sea that bares her bosom to the moon"
(5). He talks about nature as frightening and dangerous when he says that "The winds that will be
howling at all hours" (6). This shows not only the fury of nature, but when contrasted with more
gentle images, the speaker shows the versatility and inclemency that comes with nature. This helps
the audience to trust the speaker more, because he is being honest about nature, and adds to the
future shock of his embracing it. Another way involves the structure of the poem. Being an Italian
sonnet, the poem is supposed to break into two different sections, the first being eight lines and the
second being six. While Wordsworth does break his poem into two parts, he does it midway through
the ninth line. Although this may not mean much too us, but scholars and other well read people of
his day would notice this immediately. He does this because a main theme of this poem is to break
away from the rules governing society, and he is clearly doing that with the structure of the poem.
The other two uses deal with the language and content of the poem. The other also occurs on line 9
where the speaker curses in the middle of the line proclaiming "Great God!" Cursing like this was
seldom heard in public back then, and was certainly not common in poetry
. This is done again to try
to get the
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