Exposing the Self

Exposing the Self

      During the Romantic period, The Thorn (1789) and the Prelude (1799) by William Wordsworth, A Nocturnal Reverie (1713) by Anne Finch, and The Glow Worm (1783) by Charlotte Smith were a few literatures that expressed the self or “feeling” of the author through the descriptions of sight and experiences in poems.

        In A Nocturnal Reverie by Anne Finch, the author expresses the night bringing peace to the author by revealing the true beauty of dull and ugly objects that were seen during the day. She describes the night as being a reflection of herself and a sanctuary for her indiscretions. Finch writes, “In such a night, when every louder wind Is to its distant cavern safe confined;”(lines 1-2) expressing her feelings as though the night is a safe haven for the loud and obnoxious world of man during the day. Finch writes, “In perfect charms, and perfect virtue bright: When odors, which declined repelling day, Through temp’rate air uninterrupted stray…”(lines 20-22), explaining that in the night dull things are seen as peaceful and very charming with more value than what is seen during the day. Anne Finch elaborates on her thoughts on expressing her true self with objects in nature of the night. Finch expresses that nature is natural and peaceful, while human morals fraught during the day. Lesley Johnstone states, “Imitation of day is an agent of destruction mercifully counteracted by night’s cool healing peace and privacy” (Winchilsea's NOCTURNAL REVERIE), expressing that Finch describes her thoughts of the natural beauty of things (objects or nature) is distorted by the hostility of the world and calmed by the coolness and peace of the night. Anne Finch found peace in the night because it revealed the presence of silence and calmness, allowing her to express on the beauty and peace that she was experiencing.

       In The Glow Worm by Charlotte Smith, Smith describes the child as being very destructive while handling the glowworm and seeing the world as a state of, “new”. She also describes the feelings the child has while feeling the glowworm and the sense of imagination that the glowworm gave to the child. This could be a metaphor for the way nature effects the human imagination and the way that humans naturally are very curious about nature, like the fascination that the child had with the glowworm. Smith used the character of a child to express inexperience, innocence, and happiness. Smith writes, “And dreams that Fairy-lamps illume his bower: Yet with the morning shudders to behold His lucid treasure , rayless as dust!”( lines 11-13), expressing that nature becomes necessary for the imagination and intrigues people to exaggerate. The boy tries to claim the glowworm as his own, but Smith explains that nobody owns nature and people should try to preserve nature instead of claiming nature for their own. Smith writes, “So turn the world’s brightest joys to cold and blank disgust”(line 14), explaining that with nature/ imagination people and children were able to find joy and with the death of nature or the imagination, life would be “cold and blank disgust”. Smith has a way of being able to allow the reader to be able to have sympathy for the death of the glow-worm, just by vividly describing the joy it brought to the innocent child. The reader is able to feel sympathy for both the child and the glow-worm and manage to understand the beauty of the poem. Daniel Robinson states Smith’s poems as having, “a large degree in sympathy for the suffering expressed…a real or imagined comprehension of the poet’s personal misfortunes” (Elegiac Sonnets: Charlotte Smith's Formal Paradoxy ), inferring that Smith had a way of expressing her sadness on the reader and bestowing the same feeling as a instant reaction. This poem goes from a state of happy and new feeling to a sense of dark and cold, explaining the importance of imagination and what joy it brings to humanity.

http://www.english.uga.edu/~nhilton/450/ww/TheThorn.html

          In The Thorn by Wordsworth, Wordsworth gives vivid descriptions of a thorn and the surrounding areas around the thorn upon a hill in order to reveal the grief that is experienced by one of his characters, in order to reveal a message about how the imagination can take control of a person. Wordsworth writes,” There is a thorn; it looks old…It is a mass of knotted joints, A wretched thing forlorn…”(Lyrical Ballads, 103), expressing that the thorn was not a pleasant sight, intending for the reader to imagine for himself what had happened and feel the grief of the character.

Wordsworth then begins to elaborate on the parts that surround the thorn and then mention the moss that consumes the thorn.  Nature plays an extravagant part in this poem, creating suspense and insight on how the characters are feeling due to the nature that surrounds them or are mentioned by the narrator. Wordsworth is using nature to elaborate on the sadness that one of the characters is feeling, thus causing great suspense for the reader because the reader is never certain about the apparent reason for the sadness and gloominess. Wordsworth then writes, “A beauteous heap, a hill of moss,…All lovely colours there you see…Which close beside the thorn you see”(104), expressing that there was some beauty to the hill that sat beside the thorn, which then again, intrigues the reader as to what actually happened. With the descriptions of nature, Wordsworth is able to allow the readers’ imagination to grow and decide for themselves what actually happened in the poem.  Sue Schopf states, “The state of agitation destroys the tranquility in the narrator’s mind and thus disrupts the accurate flow of the “memory””( Wordsworth's Exploration Of Geriatric Psychology: Another Look At The Narrator Of 'The Thorn') ,establishing that the reader is experiencing the same type of “agitation” that the narrator is in the poem, due to the growth of the imagination of both the narrator and the reader. Wordsworth explains that the “colours” were beautiful, giving the reader a sense of life within the nature that is being described. Wordsworth is trying to say that nature has both beauty and ugliness and that nature is an expression of feeling and interpretation. Wordsworth is expressing that nature has a distinct impact on how our imagination resembles things and how the reader can relate. I chose to put this picture in my paper because I found this picture on the Internet and I read that is was one of the landscapes that Wordsworth observed when creating The Thorn.

        In the Prelude by Wordsworth, many descriptions of nature are used to relate to create a feeling that engages the imagination and is then stored in the memory. Nature is not as prominent as in his earlier poems, but it is still used to inform the reader that nature is in everyday life, but not overpowering. Wordsworth describes the clouds and the cliffs to represent the sublime and the picturesque. Wordsworth writes, “With measured motion, like a living thing Strode after me. With trembling hands I turned, And through the silent water stole my way…”(4, lines 411-414), describing the site of the cliff, while rowing in the stolen boat. Wordsworth confesses that he has a guilty pleasure for his rebellion, by explaining that he stole and boat and was away from everyone like he wasn’t supposed to, blaming it on the imagination he had as a boy.

http://infosonic.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/cliffs-of-moher-ireland/

I chose this picture for my paper because it gives a since of how big and mighty the cliff must have looked to Wordsworth as a boy. Wordsworth relates the image of the cliff with the disruptions in his life and begins to feel guilty about his morals. He says in the quote that when he saw the cliff, he turned away and headed back to the willow tree, indicating that the cliff could have been a metaphor of guilt. His imagination grows as he spots the cliff in the beginning of the poem and with the guilt; his imagination began making him think about what he had done. His imagination begins connecting the images of nature together and forcing him to believe that everything was against him because of his evil doing (affects of the imagination). Wordsworth describes many scenes when he describes something very beautiful and then something very grotesque is described intentionally. Wordsworth could be implying that he believes that beauty and peace will suffer with the grotesque scenes at some point in life, resembling experience. Mark Smith states that the poem, “gives[s] its reader permanent access to suffering, not by making one perpectually able to sympathize …but by making temporarily visible the perpectual openness of experience” (Unrememberable" Sound In Wordsworth's 1799 Prelude ), suggesting that Wordsworth is trying to inform the reader that nature/peace is something to be disrupted because nature/peace is fractured and the background to many grotesque parts of a memory. Wordsworth begins describing that his memories are just glimpses in his life without the exact feeling he had when he was actually experiencing the event. Wordsworth describes that he cannot see the life or feeling he experienced in his memory; he just can see the memory itself and observe the state his mind had once been in before. Wordsworth writes, “Meanwhile my hope has been that I might fetch Reproaches from my former years, whose power May spur me on, in manhood now mature, To honorable toil”(14 lines 648-650), describing that he wanted to remember and feel the imagination that he had had as a boy because the imagination and the feeling cannot be alive again when all he has is the memory of the moment in time.

        From all of the texts I have read this semester, I have found that most of them have used the descriptions of either object or nature in order to express an underlying message about the author and their thoughts/feelings. When I saw at the beginning, all the different kinds of books that we would be reading during this semester, I had no clue that they had this much in common. There are many different categories that I could have used in order to write my paper, but I found that I was most interested in this topic because of how different each poet decided to elaborate on their thoughts and feelings to the reader.

                                                                  Bibliography:

Johnstone, Lesley. "Winchilsea's NOCTURNAL REVERIE, Lines 25-28." Explicator 41.4 (1983): 20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Dec. 2012.

Schopf, Sue Weaver. "Wordsworth's Exploration Of Geriatric Psychology: Another Look At The Narrator Of 'The Thorn'." English Language Notes 19.1 (1981): 33. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Dec. 2012.

Smith, J. Mark. "Unrememberable" Sound In Wordsworth's 1799 Prelude." Studies In Romanticism 42.4 (2003): 501-518. Academic Search Complete. Web.

8 Dec. 2012

Robinson, Daniel. "Elegiac Sonnets: Charlotte Smith's Formal Paradoxy." Papers on Language and Literature 39.2 (2003): 185-220. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 9 Dec. 2012

Images:

http://www.english.uga.edu/~nhilton/450/ww/TheThorn.html

http://infosonic.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/cliffs-of-moher-ireland/

on bards

Thomas Gray's "The Bard" was a famous treatment of the "last minstrel" phenomena. Twelve years after Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel was published, John Martin produced a painting, The Bard, based on Gray's poem.

All of this works looks back to the efforts of antiquarians like Thomas Wharton to collect manuscripts of English poetry. Below is the title page of Wharton's important collection of medieval poetry (heavily edited for Romantic era audiences), Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1766). Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border does the same collecting and compiling work for Scottish poetry.

More about memory...

I wanted to share or rather elaborate more on some thoughts I had in class.
Nature as a backdrop seemed to be there because Wordsworth could easily go back to a memory by describing the nature he saw. He must have experienced the sublime and in the present, when writing the poem, wanted to familiarize himself with that same feeling. So in this case to think about the physical-nature-he might be able to capture what feeling he received from nature or in the presence of nature. I was actually thinking about this the other day when I felt like I don't really feel the same anymore because I don't contemplate as much or have nice feelings of melancholy (somewhat like the "guilty pleasures" we talked about in class). I wondered how could I feel like that again? Maybe if I start doing things I did back then like paint. I'm not sure what would work, but I know that when I have tried to explain this good melancholy feeling (maybe like the sublime who knows), I always start of by describing what I used to do around the time I experienced those feelings.

Recollecting Memories

The theme of nature is obviously present in Wordsworth's "The Prelude", but what about the theme of collecting? It seems that Wordsworth is recollecting childhood memories, experiences, etc. I think that by doing this, Wordsworth allows his adult self to realize the importance of these childhood memories-these memories have shaped who he is as an adult. Wordsworth really digs into the philosophical and psychological importance of these memories and relates them more specifically to society (and nature) at large. Throughout the poem, I think there are both fanciful and vitalistic views of life in "The Prelude" because Wordsworth's ideas become more developed as he gets older. I actually enjoyed the idea of recollecting memories, one because thats what this whole semester has been about-collecting, but also because don't we recollect memories in our everyday lives already?

More palpable-the poet

This section of collecting the poet is fulfilled with Wordsworth's prelude. Within his other works, Tintern Abbey and Lyrical Ballads, there is not such a strong emphasis on the speaker as the poet. Wordsworth love of nature is so evident in Prelude and another major difference is the poet's abundant use of "I" throughout the poem, which manifests the strong presence of the speaker.

Going in circles

I felt like I was being pulled in circles. Wordsworth pulls you through the seasons not just of the years, but of his life. I don't know what I was expecting on Tuesday when I went through it the first time, but at a second glance, I was brought back to the start of this semester and the picturesque. Each of these little gems that he remembers has some construction that is falling apart. Lines 161-174 Wordsworth states that at 14, he was thinking of these picturesque images he had collected into his memory thus far, and that upon his death bed he should like to recall them again as his last looks on life. Quite powerful, considering all the things life has to offer, that his "soul would send a longing look to you." I think I liked this best of what Wordsworth we did read. It feel as almost if he's allowing the reader to discover the passion he found as a young boy.

Getting Back to Childhood

Writing the poem looking back on his childhood and the things he often did as a child bring back some sort of nostalgia for all of us, but it is not in that point of view at all. It is still grown up Wordsworth reflecting on and telling of his childhood entwined with nature. He always has this aspect of heavy reflection on himself and others in his poetry, but sometimes I think we can reflect best by reading the actions directly.I think it would have been interesting if Wordsworth had done something from his point of view as a child and tried to capture how he actually talked and acted when he was a child. When you hear a child saying something interesting or asking questions you've never thought of, I think it can really get people thinking about it more deeply. I know this has nothing to do with his intention for the poem, and I'm not sure if I'm making any sense at this point. I guess I can say I'm okay with Wordworth, but he's a bit too lofty for me, at least at times. I don't know what I'm typing anymore. Sorry.

Pieces of a Puzzle

I have to say that I've really enjoyed reading the Prelude. When we first read Wordsworth it  was a little much. Tintern Abbey was handful to read, but I found the Prelude to be exquisite. I agree with some of the other posts that it was a little hard to keep up with Wordsworth, given that he very sporadic in this, but the fluidity and imagery of the poem made it tolerable. Also I love when what I'm reading is so descriptive that I can easily picture it in my head, Wordsworth goes above and beyond this in the Prelude. The way he uses imagery painted a clear and vivid picture for me while reading; it's incredible. And not only does he do this, but the melody of his words is amazing. But as others have noted Wordsworth is very sporadic and jumps from here to there when recalling memories in his childhood. This effect caused me to feel like I was piecing a puzzle together, every verse representing a piece. I also loved how Wordsworth explored further into the way memories are affected by emotions and how over time these emotions change so in a way the memories change. I feel like he only touched upon this in Lyrical Ballads so as a reader I didn't get a strong sense of that, but I definitely felt it in the Prelude. Finally, I want to state that I love the way Wordsworth describes and uses nature in his poetry. The Prelude kind of reminded me of how Terrence Malick uses nature in his movies.Terrence Malick's The New World

Who let this kid run around naked in the forest?

I liked that Wordsworth started off "The Prelude" with himself as a little boy trekking through the woods and bathing naked in the stream.  It gives a child like wonder to the wilderness he is talking about in the first stanza.  He calls himself a "savage" which I thought was an interesting choice of word.  I don't think he meant it in a negative way.  I see it as more of a destructive child, like the child in Charlotte Smith's glow worm poem.  However, he was just trampling through the woods on his own without anyone else around.  This makes it seem like as a young boy he was running around taking what he felt like from nature without appreciating nature itself.

Infantine Desire

First off, I have to say that I'm really glad The Prelude was the last poem on the list for this class. Wordsworth really captured the road of nostalgia that we all face from time to time, and I found it even more interesting how we got to see a little more into his life through his own depiction of it rather than reading it from a biographical book. My favorite lines are the following from part two of the poem:

"And is there one, the wisest and the best
Of all mankind, who does not sometimes wish
For things which cannot be, who would not give,
If so he might, to duty and to truth
The eagerness of infantine desire?"

I'm sure we've all thought about going back in time to our childhood, but I don't think I've ever read this emotion in such a way. All I can say is this: Damn... Wordsworth is good.

Nostalgic Wordsworth

When Wordsworth talks about his mind being restored in his writings it just reminds me of Tintern Abbey and how he was searching for something to make him whole again. Wordsworth tends to rely on remembrance of days of his youth to get through the difficult times which I think makes his writing better  even though the time we live in is vastly different than his.

Wordsworth vs. Kerouac

Another post mentioned how The Prelude reminded them a lot of Kerouac. Though I didn't realize it until I read it, I think I feel the same way, particularly regarding Kerouac's poetry and not necessarily his prose. I think the flow in The Prelude has more to do with this than anything: it's a little jumpy on the subject and frequently only focuses on one matter for a few lines or less. This reminds me mostly of Kerouac's "American Haikus," where he takes his everyday observations, sets them in a few lines (though not in the traditional haiku form) and alternates many of the little poems with brief jazz rifts.

A few examples of this proceed as follows:

"In my medicine cabinet,
The winter fly has died of old age."

"Bee, why are you staring at me?
I am not a flower!"

"Beautiful young girls running up the library steps with shorts on."

Obviously, the style varies significantly, but I like how both poets seem to delve further into the little happenings around them and find more meaning and appreciation in them than most would. It's the kind of thing that makes me sit back and want to read/listen to poetry for the rest of the evening.

Are Wordsworth's words worth remembering?

When I first read Wordsworth I was a bit skeptical about his style of writing not so much about nature but the fact that it revolved around a memory. At first I thought: maybe he was trying to make something he experienced worth experiencing and therefore decided to write about particular moments in his life to make them sound more interesting than they were. Reading The Prelude I still got the sense of this around line 70:


"I believe
[First Part]
That there are spirits which, when they would form
A favored being, from his very dawn
Of infancy do open out the clouds
As at the touch of lightning, seeking him
With gentle visitation-quiet powers,
Retired, and seldom recognized, yet kind,
And to the very meanest not unknown-
With me, though rarely, in my boyish days
They communed."

So these "spirits" that he talked about he felt that they would rarely communicate with him when he was young. If this were true than that is amazing that at such a young age he witnessed or experienced such awesome and rare gift. Correct me if I'm wrong but when he says spirits I think of something only he could see like a ghost or something he imagined. If that is the case and he "rarely" communicated with them than it does actually sound like the story could be somewhat made up to make his past worth experiencing.

Back to Our Roots

While reading Wordsworth's Prelude, I get the feeling that I'm getting back to what got me interested in Romantic literature in the first place - the focus on nature and its effects on the speaker, more than anything. I really liked how Wordsworth focused on small details quite often - things that normally aren't exactly significant, even when there is a focus on nature in a poem. But that focus is somewhat fleeting, for there is more of a mention of civilization and the town than nature itself, and the little bits of nature still seemed to stick out to me. I'm not sure of how Wordsworth managed this or if it was intentional at all, but I must say that I certainly enjoy it.

There is something about Wordsworth that I really enjoy. I don't know if it's his style, or his command over the thematic elements he explores, but I find myself relaxed when I read him. Which I think is quite odd, because his lack of rhyme style and seemingly sporadic shifts through time in The Prelude would indicate something that takes a little more effort to enjoy. Or in essence, a clear rhyme scheme (at least for me, ordinarily) is a definitive structure and it sort of gives me certain guidelines to follow in a poem. Normally, free verse stresses me out. But not with Wordsworth.

This poem coincides nicely with an element of our course that we explored earlier in the semester. In The Prelude, Wordsworth gives credit to Nature for the fruition of mentality of mankind. In the beginning, Wordsworth says that Nature stimulates and focuses thought, as evidenced by the stream that leads to his dreams. This sort of implies that Nature has control over mankind, yet that is not the case in the poem. 

My favorite lines of the poem are lines 122-129. The way Wordsworth describes "mighty forms that do not live like living men" is so powerful. It kind of reminds me of the way Schopenhauer describes the relationship of intelligence and will, how man uses intelligence and rationality to explain certain phenomenon, like a grid that organizes something wild. And all of this occurs because of that cliff. Man divides and affects Nature, but Nature will always recover. Man owes Nature so much, but does not truly belong. Something I'm curious about: what does the cliff represent in the poem? It stops the narrator multiple times and it seems to be the physical barrier between man and the limitless sky. Is it that Nature is okay in certain aspects, like the trees and what gives man inspiration, but somethings are not accepted? Like man's blatant ignorance of some aspects of Nature ruin the other elements?

I agree with a post further down. Wordsworth's recollection of his memories is a perfect example of collecting the self/poet. Retrospect of memory is what ultimately leads to self identity (something that Locke and Hume expound upon in their epistemological accounts).

I don't know why I see so many similarities between philosophy and elements of this class. Sorry!

The Prelude as (Re)collection

In this course we focused on how items are collected both literary and not, and in The Prelude Wordsworth re-collects his own memories. These were "items" that were already his (collected by means of experience) but through reflection of his former years he was able to revisit his memories and collect them once more (as a conscious re-collection of memories). His former years had passed and he was reflecting on the progression of his work as a poet. It coincides with what our final project is about because there is a kind of satisfaction that is experienced when one is able to reflect on their accomplishments and the realization of the hard work that was put into, in this case, this class.

the nostalgia of childhood

I LOVED THIS GAME!!!! 

reflecting on childhood makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Nature

Wordsworth captured nature really well through out The Prelude and you can't help but feel nostalgia while reading it. I like that it he wrote it over a long time period because you get a feel for his life journey. I felt that it was a personal piece of his, and that he was taking us on a trip through his life. This poem described the creation of a poet.

Nature

I enjoyed this poem and enjoyed the nostalgic feeling that it created. It felt like we were taken on a journey through Wordsworth's life and I enjoyed that. This work was relatable and easy made me reflect on childhood memories. I felt that this poem helps us see the creation of a poet. 


Isn't he so pensive in this picture?! Or is he playing with his chin hair...hmmm....

Amped Up Diary

The concept of The Prelude is particularly interesting since it was written over such a wide span of time, it is able to document so many different phases in Wordsworth's life. He began writing it when he was only 28 years old and continued to work on it until the end of his life. Over the course of a person's life, their way of thinking, likes and dislikes change numerous times. To continuously document this change in such a poetic way is a truly inspired idea. Many people keep journals or diaries, and this is also interesting to look back on, but Wordsworth truly took the idea of a diary to the next level. He delved deep into his mind and memory to create an astounding epic poem. It is a documentation of growth and development, almost like a scientific study but instead of focusing on the physical, it is a focus on a person's poetical emotions and view of the world.

I know Wordsworth was a devout fan of Milton and even makes a reference to him in The Prelude, but I have read that people find The Prelude and Paradise Lost to be similar. I know they are both epic poems written in blank verse, but to me the two seem so different that I can't quite be sure how to compare them. 

I few notable lines.

I really enjoyed these lines.

Oft from the neighboring lake the splitting ice,
While it sank down towards the water, sent
Among the meadows and the hills its long
And frequent yelling, imitative some
Of wolves that howl along the Bothnic main.

The description is nice, and the comparison to howling makes the passage stick with you.


A girl who bore a pitcher on her head
And seemed with difficult steps to force her way
Against the blowing wind. It was in truth
An ordinary sight, but I should need
Colors and words that are unknown to man
To paint the visionary dreariness
Which, while I looked all round for my lost guide,
Did at that time invest the naked pool,
The beacon on the lonely eminence,
The woman and her garments vexed and tossed
By the strong wind.


How many times does a poet say they are at a loss for words? It reminds us of the reason why we value those with a gift for writing, they put to words those experiences that escape us. That's why every now and then a line of prose or poetry can blow your skull open, because it put to words some indescribable phenomenon, revealing it for the first time in a way that can be shared amongst each other.

I feel like I'm starting to sound like Wordsworth in the preface, so I'll stop.

I Liked It

A long time ago, when I was a kid (because I’m like forty years old), my best friend and I would walk barefoot through alleyways after a rain. We squashed the mud through our toes and didn’t worry about broken glass or sharp rocks cutting our feet. We were pretty much savages. We called the alleyways the wasteland, and made up comic book plots as we covered ground. Lightening struck a telephone pole once. I was no more than forty feet from it. This is a true story.

Wordsworth’s Prelude reminds me of these memories. Brace yourself for the startling revelation that I actually really liked the poem, A LOT. At times it reminded me of Kerouac, with its kind of schmaltzy romancing of youth, the kind of stuff I really liked a few years back. And like most things that remind me of Kerouac, I was also reminded of Thomas Wolfe, especially You Can’t Go Home Again.

On a philosophical note, I really like how Wordsworth presented the reciprocity between the environment and morality. We see this most in the development of Wordsworth’s sense of humanity in natural settings—I know I feel like some part of my morality was undoubtedly forged walking through those alleyways as a kid. In fact, my friend and I have a tacit understanding of West Texas as a place unequivocally tied to our sense of moral integrity.  

Red Dirt. Oil Fields. And Gas Stations 4 life. 

Collecting Memories

I also thought The Prelude was very similar to Tintern Abbey in that it seemed to collect events and memories of the poet's life. The recollection and celebration of Wordsworth's young life is interesting to think about and obviously shapes the way that he writes as a poet. The idea that Wordsworth uses his memories that are connected to physical object that he experienced in childhood can bring an entirely new perspective to his works.

What if?

It seems to me that Wordsworth's "Prelude" and the never-realized "Recluse," was supposed to be the culmination of everything we've studied in class this semester. In his (seemingly) ultimate project, Wordsworth desired to recall himself as a poet in terms of nature, history, and his own sense of being. The publication history in itself is fascinating. In the 1850 introduction, he claims that he wanted "to compose a philosophical Poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society, and to be entitled the Recluse; as having for its principal subject, the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement." This project shadowed Wordsworth since he was in his 20s, and still was never fully finished. It's hard to imagine what the completed work would have been like. Yet we are only left a fraction of the bigger picture. While that fraction is a somewhat culmination of what we have discussed all year round, we readers can definitely tell that bigger plans were at work. 

Final thoughts on the "Prelude"

As a few people have mentioned in the blog, memory is a major theme in Wordsworth's prelude. Particularly the connection between memory and nature. Wordsworth makes every little instance in his life sound so much more poetic and profound than I think most people could. The description of him sailing in the shepherd's boat at night sounded like something magical that would be in Harry Potter. Wordsworth's memories were a strange mixture of fantasy and reality, although even the fantastic parts sounded real. Real in the sense that when you're a child everything seems a lot more magical.Strange things that a logical adult would never think to be possible seem real to kids. Wordsworth also talks about the personal growth of his mind in this poem, and his discovery of solitude and his realization that he needs solitude and can find that solitude in nature. My thoughts on this poem are a little jumbled and messy because this poem (and most, if not all of Wordsworth's poetry) didn't really take the form of a typical narrative, but was much more free-flowing.

And, if you haven't yet: FILL OUT THE SETE EVALS! I want my extra credit! ;)

Have you ever seen nature look so beautiful?

When I think about what we've read of Wordsworth's I can't help but think of some of the amazing places I've been lucky enough to go. I adore the country of Ireland and have been lucky enough to go several times...it is my Spring Break destination. I thought I had seen nature at it's most beautiful...that is until I visited the Emerald Isle for the first time.

I totally took this! It's ok to be jealous!!!! 

The fist time I stood at the Cliffs of Moher and looked off the edge of a continent it took my breath away. I can totally understand why Wordsworth felt the way he did about nature. I have seen the majesty of what nature has to offer and I am in awe. In Northern Ireland there is a formation called the Giant's Causeway which is 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption.

This is at the Giant's Causeway...just not the impressive part

Don't let the science fool you! This was created by Benandonner running away from Finn MacCool!

I think that everyone should have at least one experience in their lives that could lead them to having a Wordsworth moment. When I am having a particularly bad day I can not only look at images...but place myself there in memory. And though the experience itself was amazing, my ability to return there over and over is more amazing.

Childhood and Nature

“To more than infant softness, giving me, /Among the fretful dwelling of mankind. /A knowledge, a dim earnest of the calm/Which nature breathes among the field and groves?” (11-15).

Wordsworth begins the poem discussing childhood and the memories connected with it. In the quote above he seems to say that children, who are full of innocence, see the good in the things that occur but even when things go bad and are "fretful" nature is a place to escape that will help. The power of memory and the effect nature can have on it remains a strong theme for Wordsworth (think Tintern Abbey).

The power of not only remembering but of making the memory is quite important to Wordsworth. In this work he is remembering his childhood in the Lake District of England.

"And ye that are familiars of the lakes/And of the standing pools, I may not think/A vulgar hope was yours when ye employed/Such ministry"
As when he recalled the hill above Tintern Abbey here he is using his memory of the lake to make his life/situation better. Can nature really help ease the trials of life? Can a memory of some place you've been make a grey day better? I guess it all depends on where you've been and if you've any memories that are that strong.

Tintern Abbey 2.0

So while reading Prelude, I was struck with the same feeling that I did when I read "Tintern Abbey" for the first time.  I couldn't really place exactly what the feeling was until I got to line 298 that reads "There are in our existence spots of time / Which with distinct preeminence retain/ a fructifying virtue"  (298-290) and then read the footnote for line 294 that informs the reader that "Tintern Abbey" had been written six months prior.    "Tintern" focused more on trying to relive the experience in times of need, yet "Prelude" is more about the act of remembering and the memory itself.  I am a firm believer in the thought that the memory is more important than the actual experience because that is what you will refer back to for the rest of your life, and I feel like this poem better explains that thought.  I also really enjoyed the lines "It was in truth/ An ordinary sight, but I should need/ Colours and words that are unknown to man/ To pain the visionary dreariness" (319-322).  I've talked about it before in class, but everyone should have those awesome moments.  I don't mean "awesome" in the way that we use the word now, but in the way it was used during this time: something that induced awe.  If you were able to describe that experience then I feel that the value would be udnermined.  Those kinds of experiences shouldn't be shared.  They should be private, and I feel like that is what Wordsworth is trying to describe in this section of the poem.  Although I always walk away with more Wordsworth insight after we break it down better in class.

Wordsworth train of thought

While reading the Prelude, I found myself very scatter brained. I do like the fact that Wordsworth explains the feelings that we have during an experience are connected to the objects in which our memory holds on to. Wordsworth says, " Far other feelings were attached- with forms that yet exist with independent life, and, like their archetypes, know no decay." He talks about certain memories he has in his life that he began to connect those feelings with the objects around him to remind him of how he felt and the obstacles he had throughout his life. Wordsworth elaborates that there is times in our lives that have virtue, even bad memories. Our moods change by our good and bad experiences, but the imagination lightens the bad experiences. He begins to talk about how, "The mind of a man is fashioned and built up even as a strain of music", signifying that he believed that the mind is made up with parts and experiences like music, meaning that there is a rhythm to the way that people think. He also mentions again how Nature is what makes our mind at peace and harmony.

Connections to Nature

Wordsworth has a very dramatic way of describing his walks through the woods. I agree with Desdemona that this poem has a lot to do with how much a person can be connected to nature through memories. I think Wordsworth appreciated nature and felt like he was strongly connected to the land, a thought that is similar to the way most native Americans felt. This is the idea I get from reading the poem. On the other side, there seems to be the idea of a disconnect between nature and certain (presumably most) men. Nature and the natural elements that are mentioned in the Prelude, take on  their own personality. Like many of the romantic poets, Wordsworth uses this poem as a reflection on solitude. There is also a mystical, mysterious element to this poem, especially on page 4. The poem was interesting, but there was a lot I didn't understand, particularly at the very end of part 2. Wordsworth in Family Guy