Assignment-Wordsworth as Critic

Assignment  

Wordsworth as Critic

Name : Asha R. Dhedhi

Roll no : 02

Paper : Literary Theory and criticism

Semester.: M.A. Sem-1

Topic : Wordsworth as 

                            Critic

Submitted to : Smt. S.B.Gardi 

                       Department of English

Introduction

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

But to be young was very Heaven! 

O times,

In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways

Of custom, law, and statute, took at once

The attraction of a country in romance!

When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights . . 

(Prelude, XI,108–113)

These lines were written for French Revolution and hope for new reformation, the old word which rested on old set rules and the rise of a new world of equality, simplicity, with reasons and freedom.

William Wordsworth is a great poet who made collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and found a new age Called Romanticism, of new thoughts and new ideas. He was a poet during the Victorian era preceded by Robert Southey and Succeeded by Alfred Lord Tennyson. William Wordsworth belongs to the group of great poets but in his we can see revolt against the traditional way of writing called neoclassical age. His contribution to Criticism os very less and mainly lies in his Preface to The Lyrical Ballads (Edition-2) published in 1798 with his friend Coleridge.

Wordsworth poetry is based on some legacy and some rules and consistently these rules are followed almost all in his work. Even the language, themes and structures remain the same except for some minor changes. Wordsworth remains consistent on rules which he sets in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads.

"He believed that the first principle of poetry should be pleasure and so the chief duty of poetry is to provide pleasure through a rhythmic and beautiful expression of feeling."

Wordsworth says that poetry should give pleasure there is no need of extra formality and rhythms. Here Wordsworth shows turn towards the Romantic era by putting more force on feeling, emotion and expression of human chaotic world means portrayal of reality rather than any imagination and fancy world. In 1798 edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth and Coleridge made a new experiment with poems he wanted to give a new theme to poetry. Wordsworth rejected classical notions and he started making poetry on the ordinary people, women, farmers, lamen, workers and middle class people. Wordsworth used to write in simple, common language and avoid sophisticated use of ornamental language. Language should be true to traditional form. The poem depicts real characters from realistic worlds and situations.

Subject Matter of Poetry

According to Wordsworth, the common object for poetry is to choose incidents and situations from the life of common people. And to describe these kinds of situations use as far as possible simple language which is really used by man. Coloring the imagination with collaboration with nature and giving a charming look to poetry.

Humble And Rustic Life

Wordsworth chose a humble and rustic life because he believes that in that condition our emotions are in better soil in which they can be expressed without any restraints and in a plainer and in a very artistic way. In villages people are very near to nature and their passions are more incorporated with the nation and make beautiful combinations and create art is also beautiful.

Language (Style of Poetry)

The language should be like it is. The language which is adopted by man. Purified language or use of the beat part of the language with the best words sometimes may look exaggerated. Poets should convey their feelings in a simple and elaborated language which is really used by man. Wordsworth's views on language remain most revolutionary in his whole preface. He denied to use gaudiness and pointless words, there is no need for it. His views on language can be summed up like…

"There neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition."

Definition of Poetry

"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, poetry has its origin in emotions 

recollected in tranquility.”

According to Wordsworth poetry has its own origin in the internal mind of poets. It is an internal feeling of a poet. Poetry is a matter of passion and mood. It can't be produced by force. It is a natural flow, it smoothly sprang out from the poet's soul. It is also notable that Good poetry never can create immediately, never is it a sudden expression, it is a poet who with very long time and deeply ponders over it that's why it is  emotion recollected in tranquility.

Process of Poetic Composition

Poetry creation is no easy task. There are mainly four parts in poetry creation. These four stages play a very crucial part in converting emotions or experience to poetic composition.

1) Observation

First we observe something and then we make our own perception over some

object, Character or situation or incident. And this observation creates a powerful feeling in the poet's mind.

2) Recollection

After that recollection of those images. At    this stage memories make turns and remember the things which we had experienced days, months or years ago. Our unconscious mind tries to rememorize the things and we.again pass through the same experience.

3) Filtering

At this stage the poet purged his experience so can communicate with people and try to put out nonessential things.

4) Composition

Now the actual composition begins. Poets writes out his emotions on paper in the form of words for readers and he became the man speaking to man.

So, Poetry composition is a very long process and poets are habituated to see things in a poetic way.

What is a Poet?

Poet is a man speaking to all groups of people. He is endowed with more lively sensibility, enthusiasm and tenderness. Poet is not coming from any other planet. He differs in his degree from the common man.

Poet has a greater knowledge of human nature and behaviour through his minor observation. He also has a more comprehensive soul.

Poet is a man who is more passionate and volition. He rejoices more than any other man in his spirit of life. His participation in life is more than an ordinary man. He is habitually impelled to 

Create situations, volitions, passions, emotions where they themselves do not exist.

He has the quality to describe those events in a better way which can give pleasure and delight. He presented absent things as they were present now. He can sharply remember the passions which produced real events while the common man only felt it at that time only. From this practice he has power and Readiness in expressions. He expresses it in his own choice, from the structure in his own mind.

The Function of Poetry

According to Wordsworth poetry is the finest spirit to get knowledge. Poetry is a tool to get knowledge about the betterment of life. We can put poetry above all science in knowledge. Poetry can help us to achieve higher position. It cultivates us, educates us, enlightens us.

Poetry is like a Morning star which throws its radiance through the darkness and lightens the place. Poet is a teacher and poetry is his only medium through which he teaches us morals and lifelong lessons.

"Poetry is the instrument for the propagation of moral thoughts."

Wordsworth's poetry not simply delight us but parallel also gives deep moral lessons for life. It teaches us great philosophical truths about life and religion. Wordsworth believed that…

"A poetry of revolt again moral ideas is A poetry of revolt against life,

A poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry Indifference to life."

Theory of Poetic Diction

In the edition of 1798 in Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth and Coleridge state that it was an experiment in style and subject matter.  Wordsworth explains the poetical concept in this way...

"The majority of the poems are to be considered as an experiments.They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to the purpose of poetic pleasure."

Wordsworth rejected the classical norms and said that poetry should be composed in formal style. Put more force on democratic themes like life of ordinary men, women farmers and people.In Preface Wordsworth choosed to write poetry in ordinary language. She is against writing poetry in a highly crafted way. According to Wordsworth poetry should be true to the traditional type and it depicts the reality of real situations. He said that the principle object of poetry is to choose subject and incidents from common life. He quoted that…

"A selection of language which is really used by man. And to throw a certain colouring of imagination."

Three fundamental concept of Wordsworth Poetic Diction

When we analyze Wordsworth's views on Poetic Diction then three main principles come to our attention which are…

• Language of poetry should be a language which is really used by man. But all the words which are used by humans cannot be displayed in poems so poets make use of refined and filtered words.
• Language of poetry is language which provides vivid sensation of human feelings. A poet gives certain colour to his imagination and presents the poem from his own perspective in his own poetic composition.
• Wordsworth doesn't make any difference between words which are used in prose and in metrical composition. Words of prose and poetry are not elaborated so words which are used in prose can also be used in poetry and vice versa. It is all about selecting the right words at the right place to interpret our emotions and feelings.

Examples of Wordsworth's Poetry

Metaphysical poetry makes focus on Simple and Ordinary people, use of day to day language and puts more emphasis on nature. These three features are described by Wordsworth in the preface of Lyrical Ballads' collaboration with Coleridge.

A focus on simple, obscure people, use of everyday language and an emphasis on nature as an antidote to the corrupting influences of society are three main features of Wordsworth's poems in Lyrical Ballads, the book of poetry he produced with William Coleridge that is usually credited as beginning the Romantic movement in England. Wordsworth reacted against Neoclassical poetry, popular in the eighteenth century, which emphasized heroic figures, heroic themes and heroic couplets.

In his poem "Lucy Gray," Wordsworth depicts  the life of an obscure cottage child who disappears one day but whose spirit is later seen by other cottagers dancing on the moors. In "The Solitary Reaper," Wordsworth's narrator becomes transfixed by the haunting song of a peasant woman harvesting grain in the Scottish Highlands. In the Lucy poems  the narrator describes his love for an ordinary cottage-dwelling woman from the English Lake District who dies at a very young age.

Wordsworth uses simple, sober and everyday language in "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," in which he describes how he is lifted with joy by the sight of thousands of daffodils waving in the wind by a lake. He has an emotional response to this natural scene and remembers it with great pleasure many times in the winter months. He uses words like line and bay, glance and dance, that anyone could understand:

They stretched in never-ending line 

Along the margin of a bay: 

Ten thousand saw I at a glance, 

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 

He also states that nature is worth more than wealth,  The theme of nature versus material pursuits also used in his poems.Simple people, with simple behaviour and simple use of  language and deep love for nature is very artistically described in Wordsworth poetry.

Conclusion

To sum up, In his preface to Lyrical ballads Wordsworth set some rules to write poetry which revolt against the classical tradition. He put more emphasis on language and themes which are deeply connected with rural life. Wordsworth poetry shows return to nature and use Ordinary language for the poetry. According to Wordsworth there is not any noteworthy difference between language which is used in prose or in poetry. Choose the right words at the right place which make poems more pleasant and sensitive.