ROMANTICISM

THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT

A new view of the universe:
Neoclassical view: a machine, a watch. God is the organizer of the universe; He is a
watch-maker. The image is one of mechanic perfection: everything moves according to
a pre-ordained plan. The poet is an external, sophisticated observer who is not part of
the landscape.
Romantic view: the universe is something essentially imperfect but living, full of
possibilities and in constant growth. Change is where everything is organically
interrelated. A lack of change is death. There is a dynamic image. The external reality is
transformed through the emotions of the poet. The poet is part of the picture; nature is
part of his soul.

A view of the human mind:

Neoclassical view: a passive image. It is a deceptive element. They are inspired by
Lockes theory that the mind is a tabula rasa or a blank slab when we are born. Through
sensorial knowledge we fill our mind. We acquire knowledge from outside sensations
and all experiences leave an impression. They put emphasis on universal ideas. Man is a
social creature and what is common to men is a representation of mankind.
Generalizations are possible through reason.
Romantic view: the mind is an active principle. It doesnt merely receive the impression
but it creates the world. The most important faculty is reason but imagination is a
creative and important force. There is an emphasis on the individual primacy of
intuition, emotion and imagination. These are what make us unique. There is an
emphasis on the individual vision or the subjective.

Man and society:

Neoclassical view: man is a social animal. Civilization is the perfect state of man.
Romantic view: a rejection of the constraints of society which imposes rues on the
nature of man and corrupts him. The Romantic ideal man is a man in a state of nature.
The typical models are the noble savage, the peasant, the innocent child, and the outcast.
There is a search for the ideal, a desire for freedom and a reaction against outdated
institutions. Shelley and Byron are both rebels and revolutionaries. Byron died fighting
in the Greek War of Independence.

Poetry:

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Neoclassical: poetry is an imitation of human life and tradition. It is a composition

governed by rules that have been tested by the masters of the past. Its function is to
delight but also to instruct. It is perceptive.
Romantic: poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. The source is internal,
not an external imitation of life. It is subjective and springs from the poets own self.
The Romantic manifesto is Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge. The poets are
egotistical and self-centered: they only want to speak about themselves and their own
feelings. The materials of poetry are not external people and events but the inner
feelings of the poet or the events after they have been transformed/ conditioned/ filtered
by the poets imagination.

Poetic composition:
There is a departure from the rules and the concept of art as the poetic craft.
They have the idea of the organic form where the poem shapes itself. The imagination
cannot be force into a rigid structure. The form of the poem comes from within and the
process is compared to that of the growth of a tree. Poetry is like life. Ars (neoclassical)
vs. ingenium (romantic).
The transition from one movement to another is a culmination of a long process:

The first half of the 18th century is the Age of Reason.

The second half of the 18th century is the Age of Sensibility with an emphasis on
emotion and sentiment. This coincides with the Preromantic Period.

A book that reflects these two periods is that by M.H. Abrams, The Mirror and the
Lamp, 1953. The mirror is the imitation and the lamp is the inner light of the soul.
Different types of literature in the Preromantic Period:

Sentimental literature: deals with the misfortunes and experiences of innocent

victims. It is didactic because the author teaches the reader to be more sensitive
and compassionate towards the misfortunes of others. Examples: Richardson,
Pamela or Clarissa; Fielding, Sterne. There is an emphasis on the emotional
behavior of the characters, not the action. The plot is thin and poor. It is
addressed to a female reading public. Most of the novels are considered a female
literary form and for this reason at the beginning they were considered of
secondary importance. They had connotations of low quality.
- These influenced or conditioned a new model of masculinity. They were
compassionate characters who devoted their life to affection and sentiment.
They were affected by the sentimental fashion. Examples: Goethe, The
Sorrows of Young Werther; Sterne, A Sentimental Journey; Mackenzie, The
Man of Feeling.
Gothic literature: interest in the supernatural, the demonic. In contrast with the
rationality of the Neoclassical Period.
Graveyard poets: a group of poets inspired by the ruins of abbeys, castles and
tombs. Death was inspiration as well as the brevity of life.
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Primitivism/ Exoticisim. Antiquarians.

- Primitivism/ Exoticism: a primitive/ innocent state of man that is
uncorrupted by the evils of society. A look for primitive states in geography
with exotic places and ancient cultures. Some are not necessarily remote in
time but in space. Oriental cultures or Orientalism.
- Antiquarians were a group of compilers or erudite scholars who felt an
interest in recovering and compiling all ballads, legends and folklore. They
wanted to collect, gather, and preserve an ancient heritage. The Celtic
Revival. A representative member was Sir Walter Scott.
SUMMARY

In literature, romanticism was a movement that championed imagination and emotions

as more powerful than reason and systematic thinking. What I feel about a person or
thing, a romantic poet might have said, is more important than what scientific
investigation, observation, and experience would say about that person or thing.
Intuitionthat voice within that makes judgments and decisions without the aid of
reasonwas a guiding force to the romantic poet. So was nature. Romanticism began in
the mid-1700's as a rebellion against the principles of classicism. Whereas classicism
espoused the literary ideals of ancient Greece and Romeobjectivity, emotional
restraint, and formal rules of composition that writers were expected to follow
romanticism promoted subjectivity, emotional effusiveness, and freedom of expression .
I want to write my way, the romantic poet might have said, not the way that writers
in ancient times decreed that I should write. In English literature, Wordsworth and his
friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, were pioneers in the development of the Romantic
Movement.
POEMS

1. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Expostulation and Reply
PUBLICATION: Bristol, England, in 1798, as part of a collection entitled Lyrical
Ballads
FORM: Iambic tetrameter and iambic trimester.
ANALYSIS:

Summary, Stanzas 1-3

Matthew asks a simple question: Why is William wasting his time
daydreaming?
After asking another question, Matthew presents the expostulation (an attempt to
reason with a person in order to turn him away from a course of action) Books
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contain wisdom (light) passed on (bequeathed) to people who would otherwise

be uneducated (forlorn and blind). Get up and read (drink) the ideas (spirit) that
wise men wrote and published (breathed) before they died.
Matthew continues the expostulation, telling William that Mother Earth has a
purpose for him, implying that he should act to fulfill it. After all, he is not the
first person on earth. He can take a step toward his goal by learning from books
written by those born before him.

Summary, Stanzas 4-5

William reports the poem's setting, reveals his feeling that life is going well,
identifies the man who spoke to him, and announces that he will reply.
A person sees, hears, and feels what is around him, whether he wants to or not.
In other words, nature speaks to him.

Summary, Stanzas 6-8

In additiona person's intuition, his God-given inner voicealso speaks to
him, feeding his mind as nature does. Thus, a man can learn passively, without
acting.
The poet now asks a question: Do you think that people must always seek
knowledge in books even though the totality of nature and intuition are forever
speaking to them? The implied answer is no.
Matthew thus should not ask why William is sitting on a stone, dreaming. For
William is listening to nature and intuitionand therefore learning in his own
way.

COMMENT:
Expostulation and Reply is a poem that expresses a principle of the Romantic
Movement (or romanticism)namely, that nature and human intuition impart a kind of
knowledge and wisdom not found in books and formal education. (A lyric poem
presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet rather than telling a story or
presenting a witty observation.)

The Tables Turned

PUBLICATION: Bristol, England, in 1798, as part of a collection entitled Lyrical
Ballads

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FORM: Ballad; eight four-line stanzas in interlocking rhymes (abab) written in iambic
tetrameter and trimester.

Summary, Stanzas 1-2

The speakerbegins by telling his friend to stop reading books; he'll become fat
from being sedentary. The speaker then asks why he chooses to be so serious
while outside there is a beautiful evening scene.

Summary, Stanzas 3-4

The speaker continues, telling his friend that books are dull and tedious. Rather
than reading, he should venture outside to where the linnet (a small finch) and
the throstle (a song bird) are singing beautiful music containing more wisdom
than any book. The two lines that follow (15 and 16) are probably the most
important in the poem: "Come forth into the light of things, / Let Nature be your
teacher." The speaker is telling his friend that Nature has more to teach than
books, and that he should go outside rather than seek refuge in dry pages.

Summary, Stanzas 5-6

The speaker tells his friend that Mother Nature is full of wealth, and that she is
ready to bestow her fruits on our minds and hearts.
He also says that in nature wisdom comes from being happy and healthy, and
that a person can learn more about humanity and about good and evil from a tree
than from a sage.

Summary, Stanzas 7-8

The speaker suggests that even though nature brings humanity sweet traditions
of intelligence, we tend to ruin that knowledge by dissecting it. Instead, we
should reject traditional science and art and simply come into nature ready to
learn with "a heart / That watches and receives".

COMMENT:

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It certainly seems strange to find a poet telling his friend (and through his friend his
readers) to stop reading, and yet much of what Wordsworth is saying in "The Tables
Turned" fits perfectly with the Romantic Movement, which emphasizes the importance
of being a part of nature. For Wordsworth there is much more to be learned by
watching, listening to, and simply taking in one's surroundings than by studying books.
At the same time, there is a strong element of irony at play here. First of all,
Wordsworth is making these statements in a poem, which will become (as he knew it
would) a part of a book meant to be read. Even though he believes that nature is a great
teacher, he is not ready to throw away books altogether.
It is important to note the poem's title: "The Tables Turned." The title leads us to believe
that Wordsworth is reacting to the status quo, or to the way that people usually think,
which in this case is that books are the best way to learn. In order to make the strongest
statement possible, Wordsworth goes to the opposite extreme, even though his true
feelings probably lie somewhere in the middle.

LINES WRITTEN AT A SMALL DISTANCE FROM MY

HOUSE, AND SENT BY MY LITTLE BOY TO THE
PERSON TO WHOM THEY ARE ADDRESED
PUBLICATION: Bristol, England, in 1798, as part of a collection entitled Lyrical
Ballads

LINES WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING

* In this poem the speaker sits in the middle of nature, and yet is saddened at the
thought of the division between the rest of humanity and nature
PUBLICATION: Bristol, England, in 1798, as part of a collection entitled Lyrical
Ballads.
FORM: It is composed of only six four-line stanzas, and is written in iambs with an
abab rhyme scheme for each stanza Iambic tetrameters.
ANALYSIS:

Summary, Stanza 1
In this poem Wordsworth describes a bittersweet moment. The speaker reclines
in a beautiful grove surrounded by the "blended notes" of nature, and yet, even
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as he enjoys the scene, it inspires a melancholy mood and the speaker begins to
have dark thoughts about humanity.

Summary, Stanzas 2-4

Nature has connected itself to the speaker's soul, leading him to sadly consider
"What man has made of man." Even as he does this, however, he takes in the
beautiful scene that surrounds him.

Summary, Stanzas 5-6

At the end of the poem the speaker looks more closely at the seemingly jubilant
birds, plants, and other creatures of nature, trying to decide whether or not they
are really full of pleasure. He decides that they are. In the last stanza, he asks
whether, if it is true that nature is full of pleasure, he then has a good reason to
be sad about "what man has made of man".

COMMENTARY:
The simplicity of the poem is representative of the bulk of the rest of Wordsworth's
works (and of most Romantic poetry). The simple words and style of the Romantic
Movement came from a complete rejection of the flowery, lofty style that was popular
in previous years.
The connection with nature in this poem is very apparent. Wordsworth strengthens the
bond by placing the speaker in the middle of nature, all alone except for the plants and
animals around him. He also personifies nature, giving her the ability to make decisions,
to link herself to his soul, and to experience pleasure. Nature, in this poem, does
everything right; it is man who has failed by rejecting nature.
Another interesting aspect of this poem is the fact that the perfection of nature saddens
the speaker. Melancholy sets in almost immediately because of the striking contrast
between nature and humanity. The speaker seems to feel that it is his responsibility to
ponder the mistakes of humanity. This is especially evident in the question posed in the
last stanza.
The speaker suggests that man can simultaneously be a part of nature and rational, in
control of himself, and in control of his surroundings. The speaker is a thoughtful being,
a philosopher of sorts, and is certainly reasonable, and yet he is at peace with nature in a
way that would likely strike many of his contemporaries as odd.
*The Industrial revolution and its consequences on the moral and life of people should
be mentioned.
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PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS

* Here, Wordsworth argues that poetry should be written in the natural language of
common speech, rather than in the lofty and elaborate dictions that were then
considered poetic. He argues that poetry should offer access to the emotions
contained in memory. And he argues that the first principle of poetry should be
pleasure, that the chief duty of poetry is to provide pleasure through a rhythmic and
beautiful expression of feeling.
PUBLICATION: Bristol, England, in 1798, as part of a collection entitled Lyrical
Ballads.
FORM: Preface written in 30 pages.

INTRODUCTION:
Lyrical Ballads was a clear and intentional challenge to this literary tradition. In fact,
when Lyrical Ballads was originally published in 1798, critics were sharply divided on
whether the collection was innovative and brilliant or a complete failure. Eager to help
their readers and critics better understand the work, Wordsworth and Coleridge
reprinted the volume in 1800 with additional poems and a longer Preface that carefully
outlined their new theory of poetry.
The publication of Lyrical Ballads represents a landmark moment for English poetry; it
was unlike anything that had come before, and paved the way for everything that has
come after. According to the theory that poetry resulted from the spontaneous
overflow of emotions, as Wordsworth wrote in the preface, Wordsworth and Coleridge
made it their task to write in the simple language of common people, telling concrete
stories of their lives. According to this theory, poetry originated in emotion recollected
in a state of tranquility; the poet then surrendered to the emotion, so that the tranquility
dissolved, and the emotion remained in the poem. This explicit emphasis on feeling,
simplicity, and the pleasure of beauty over rhetoric, ornament, and formality changed
the course of English poetry, replacing the elaborate classical forms of Pope and Dryden
with a new Romantic sensibility. Wordsworths most important legacy, besides his
lovely, timeless poems, is his launching of the Romantic era, opening the gates for later
writers such as John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron in England, and
Emerson and Thoreau in America.
In addition to the literary conventions and Enlightenment ideals that Lyrical Ballads was
responding to, it's important to consider the economic, environmental, and social
changes that had taken place in the decades leading up to the collection's publication. In
1760, the production of increasingly advanced technology resulted in the Industrial
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Revolution, a period of fast economic growth that was defined by large factories in big
cities. The changes that occurred during the Industrial Revolution forced a large number
of people to move from the countryside to overcrowded cities, where they experienced
poverty, poor working conditions, and sickness. Coleridge and Wordsworth saw the
problems introduced by the Industrial Revolution as evidence of the failures of
Enlightenment philosophy and the Neoclassical poetry that came out of it. This context
is helpful to keep in mind when reading Lyrical Ballads, for many of its poems portray
the return to a more natural lifestyle as a remedy to the problems created by the
Industrial Revolution.
THEMES:
The Beneficial Influence of Nature
Wordsworth repeatedly emphasizes the importance of nature to an individuals
intellectual and spiritual development. People become selfish and immoral when they
distance themselves from nature by living in cities. Humanitys innate empathy and
nobility of spirit becomes corrupted by artificial social conventions as well as by the
squalor of city life. In contrast, people who spend a lot of time in nature, such as
laborers and farmers, retain the purity and nobility of their souls.
The Power of the Human Mind
Using memory and imagination, individuals could overcome difficulty and pain. The
transformative powers of the mind are available to all, regardless of an individuals class
or background. This democratic view emphasizes individuality and uniqueness.
Wordsworth explained the relationship between the mind and poetry. Poetry is emotion
recollected in tranquilitythat is, the mind transforms the raw emotion of experience
into poetry capable of giving pleasure.
The Splendor of Childhood
In Wordsworths poetry, childhood is a magical, magnificent time of innocence.
Children form an intense bond with nature, so much so that they appear to be a part of
the natural world, rather than a part of the human, social world. Their relationship to
nature is passionate and extreme: children feel joy at seeing a rainbow but great terror at
seeing desolation or decay. Through the power of the human mind, particularly memory,
adults can recollect the devoted connection to nature of their youth.
MOTIFS:
Wandering and Wanderers = Solitude to connect with Nature.
Memory = Recollection of emotions in tranquility.
Vision and Sight = Its which creates the memories and emotions.
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WE ARE SEVEN
* The speaker meets a young girl who had six brothers and sisters before two of them
died. She now lives at home with her mother. When the speaker asks her how many
siblings she has, she repeatedly tells him, "We are Seven," confusing the speaker, who
counts only five.
PUBLICATION: Bristol, England, in 1798, as part of a collection entitled Lyrical
Ballads, when Wordsworth was 28 years old. Wordsworth has noted that he wrote the
last line of this poem first, and that his good friend Samuel Coleridge wrote the first few
stanzas.
FORM: The poem is composed of sixteen four-line stanzas, and ends with one fiveline stanza. Each stanza has an abab rhyming pattern Iambic tetrameter and trimester.
ANALYSIS:

Summary, Stanzas 1-4

The speaker begins this poem by asking what a simple child who is full of life could
know about death. He then meets "a little cottage Girl" who is eight years old and has
thick curly hair. She is rustic and woodsy, but very beautiful, and she makes the speaker
happy. He asks her how many siblings she has, to which she replies that there are seven
including her.

Summary, Stanzas 5-6

The speaker then asks the child where her brothers and sisters are. She replies "Seven
are we," and tells him that two are in a town called Conway, two are at sea, and two lie
in the church-yard. She and her mother live near the graves

Summary, Stanzas 7-12

The speaker is confused and asks her how they can be seven, if two are in Conway and
two gone to sea. To this, the little girl simply replies, "Seven boys and girls are we; /
Two of us in the churchyard lie, / Beneath the churchyard tree." The speaker says that if
two are dead, then there are only five left, but the little girl tells him that their green
graves are nearby, and that she often goes to sew or eat supper there while singing to her
deceased siblings

Summary, Stanzas 13-15

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The little girl then explains that first her sister Jane died from sickness. She and her
brother John would play around her grave until he also died. Now he lies next to Jane

Summary, Stanzas 16-17

The man again asks how many siblings she has now that two are dead. She replies
quickly, "O Master! we are seven." The man tries to convince her saying, "But they are
dead," but he realizes that his words are wasted. The poem ends with the little girl
saying, "Nay, we are seven!"
COMMENTARY:
The poem is an interesting conversation between a man and a young girl. It is especially
intriguing because the conversation could have been less than five lines, and yet it is 69
lines long. The reason for this is that the man cannot accept that the young girl still feels
she is one of seven siblings even after two of her siblings have died, and even though
she now lives at home alone with her mother.
The speaker begins the poem with the question of what a child should know of death.
Near the beginning it seems as if the little girl understands very little. She seems almost
to be in denial about the deaths of her siblings, especially because she continues to
spend time with them and sing to them. By the end of the poem, however, the reader is
left with the feeling that perhaps the little girl understands more about life and death
than the man to whom she is speaking. She refuses to become incapacitated by grief, or
to cast the deceased out of her life. Instead she accepts that things change, and continues
living as happily as she can.

LUCY GREY OR SOLITUDE

* The poem Lucy Gray was written by William Wordsworth based upon a real account
of death of a little girl narrated to him by his sister Dorothy.
PUBLICATION: was written by Sir William Wordsworth in 1799 and published in the
second edition of Lyrical Ballad, collection of poems by William Wordsworth and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1800.
FORM: 64 lines written in blank verses.
ANALYSIS:

Summary, Stanzas 1-3

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In the poem the poet portraits imagery of a little solitary girl who lived in a house in
valley with her father and mother. As she did not have any friend, her most of time was
spent in playing alone or helping her parents. Wordsworth further progress by adding
that one can get a chance to see a fawn or a rabbit while passing through those valleys
(which are usually hard to trace) but you will never be able to see the innocent face of
Lucy Gray.

Summary, Stanzas 4-9

Now Wordsworth takes us back to the sad incident. It was an afternoon and Lucy was at
home with her father. Her mother had gone to the town. Her father took his hook and
started to pile bundle and instructed Lucy to take the lantern and bring her mother safe
before evening because they were anticipation storm. She left for the town but against
expected time, the storm arose earlier and Lucy lost the way. She searched for the way
back to home but could never find. Her mother came back home. Worried her parents
explored the entire valley whole night to catch a sight of Lucy but she was nowhere
found.

Summary, Stanzas 10-16

At the break of the day her parents found patterns of Lucys small feet in the snow. They
started following those footprints which led them to bridge of the wood which was only
a furlong far from their house and after that prints disappeared. It was indication that
Lucy had died. Her parents lament for her. The dearest child of the nature was gone. But
it is still in belief that Lucy is alive and sings her solitary song in the valley.

COMMENTARY:
In his poem, "Lucy Gray," William Wordsworth examines the dire, often heartbreaking,
consequences of human interference in the dynamic, ever misunderstood realm of
nature.
Wordsworth, in showing the helplessness of both child and parent, demonstrates the
futility of man's ceaseless warring against nature and the dominance of primitive
forces. At the very outset of the poem, Lucy sets out to show her mother through the
snow before a winter storm rolls in. Her sole mission is to navigate a path through the
dark, winter-clogged landscape, only the artificially manifested light of the lantern to
illuminate her path. She is forced to subject this primeval world to a sensible, labeled
world of order by the need of her familial unit, which, through their very existence, is at
war with the archaic forces of the natural world. This imposition represents the
arrogant, over-reaching attempt to pacify the surrounding environment, the brutal, yet
unbiased, force of nature.
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Another aspect of "Lucy Gray" that expresses Wordsworth's disdain of human

interference in nature is the circumstances under which the reader is lead to believe
Lucy perishes. She does not simply freeze in the wilds, overcome by the sheer force of
nature. The child is lead astray by the bulky creations of men. The next morning, the
parents track Lucy's footprints through the snow. They led them across and open field
and to a bridge. Not deep within the churning bowels of nature do Lucy's tracks
disappear but on this man-made creation: "They followed from the snowy bank / Those
footmarks, one by one, / Into the middle of the plank; / And further there were none!
(53-56). The child meets her end far from the desolate wilds of unadulterated nature but
in following the appropriate path. After wandering from hill to hill, through the heart of
wilderness, Lucy falls from the bridge. Wordsworth depicts Lucy's footprints
disappearing from the planks of the bridge instead of merely vanishing into the river
from the bank. By doing so, Wordsworth shows the disarming foolishness of claiming
victory over nature. Had Lucy walked to edge of the river, she would have
acknowledged the adamant natural barrier and turned away but, instead, she was lulled
by the structure and order of the bridge and attempts to cross in the midst of a terrible
storm. Lucy mocks the barrier of nature, this river, and puts her faith, and safety, solely
in the ordered hands of civilization.
Finally, in the last two stanzas of the poem, Wordsworth soothes his reader with the slim
possibility of Lucy's survival. The girl, however, does not live on in the civil confines
of a familial unit or the rigorous confines of community. She lives on through nature.
In death the child has become what she, unlike her parents, never showed any fear of.
In the first half of the poem, the child is overjoyed to go freely into nature, she is glad to
go out alone. Now, the child "sings a solitary song" and lives on through the same
natural world others professed as her enemy (59). Instead of showing the grief and
sorrow of her family, the models of ordered life and society, Wordsworth leaves the
child in nature. The child is let go from the shackles of order and structureshe is free
to be nature.

MY HEART LIPS UP
* In this very short poem, the speaker suggests that children are actually above adults
because of their close proximity to God and heaven, having recently lived there.
Because of this connection, children are also closer to nature.
PUBLICATION: Written on March 26, 1802 and published in 1807 as an epigraph to
"Ode: Intimations of Immortality".
FORM:
ANALYSIS:
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"My heart leaps up when I behold / A Rainbow in the sky." the speaker begins by
declaring that he is moved by nature, and especially by nature's beauty
"So was it when my life began; / So is it now I am a man."He goes on to say that he
has always felt the impact of nature, even when he was an infant.
"So be it when I shall grow old, / Or let me die!" The speaker is so certain of his
connection with nature that he says it will be constant until he becomes an old man, or
else he would rather die.
"The Child is father of the Man."In the next line he declares that children are superior
to men because of their proximity to nature.
And I could wish my days to be / Bound each to each by natural piety." For this
reason, he wishes to bind himself to his childhood self.

COMMENTARY:
The speaker explains his connection to nature, stating that it has been strong throughout
his life. He even goes so far as to say that if he ever loses his connection he would
prefer to die.
The seventh line of the poem is the key line: "The Child is father of the Man." This line
is often quoted because of its ability to express a complicated idea in so few words. The
speaker believes that children are closer to heaven and God, and through God, nature,
because they have recently come from the arms of God. The speaker understands the
importance of staying connected to one's own childhood, stating: "I could wish my days
to be / Bound each to each by natural piety."
Wordsworth chooses the word "piety" to express the bond he wishes to attain (and
maintain) with his childhood self, because it best emphasizes the importance of the
bond. His readers would have been accustomed to the idea of piety in the religious
sense, and would thus have been able to translate the meaning behind the word to an
understanding of the power of the bond Wordsworth hopes to attain.
The format of "My heart leaps up when I behold" gives the poem a somewhat staccato
feeling and forces the reader to pause at important points in the poem. For instance, the
two short lines of the poem are both quite significant. First, "A rainbow in the sky"
harkens back to God's promise to Noah signifying their bond, and foreshadows the
speaker's wish to be "Bound...by natural piety." The sixth line, "Or let me die!" shows
the strength of the speaker's convictions.
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THE LAST OF THE FLOCK

* The poem describes a farmer gaining then losing his sheep, below the surface, the
message is that life without nature and purity can be both more difficult and more
serious.
PUBLICATION: Bristol, England, in 1798, as part of a collection entitled Lyrical
Ballads.
FORM: 10 stanzas written in
ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY:
The poem is constructed to begin and end at relatively the same point, thus meaning that
it is a cyclic poem. This, in itself, have a variety of different meanings. Firstly it could
be attributed to the Fatalistic view that fate is inevitable and cannot be escaped.
Secondly, and more plausibly, is that it represents the difficulty of breaking away from
traditional human attributes, which is a key point in values and attitudes of the
Romantic Era, of which Wordsworth was a part of. The poem is constructed so that
stanzas 1-5 show the farmer gaining his flock of sheep and stanzas 6-10 show the
farmer losing the afore mentioned sheep, thus creating a sense of balance within the
poem which is symbolized perfectly by the ancient Taoist symbol of the the Ying Yang.
The sheep in the poem represent both nature and innocence, ideas that humans associate
with the word \'pure\'. In the Romantic Era, God and Nature were the two key ideas that
thinking revolved around. According to the Christian faith, God created the world, and
by extension, nature, all of which are said to be pure. Although God also created the
first human, it was thought, during this period, that humans and everything touched or
created by humanity was tainted and impure. Thus, the sheep represent purity at its most
potent. The gaining of sheep represents the farmer gaining purity and it is shown in the
poem that it results in lighter, more care-free feelings, \"And now I care not if we die,
And perish all of poverty.\"
The loss of sheep has the exact reverse effect. Far from being care-free, the loss of
nature and purity drives the farmer to a state of near madness, \"To wicked deeds I was
inclined, And wicked fancies crossed my mind; And every man I chanced to see,
I thought he knew some ill of me:\"

Ana Mara Alcntara Madroal

PS II Romanticism

Pgina 15