Theme of the Poetry: Wordsworth

Theme of the Poetry: Wordsworth

                                               

v Introduction

               William Wordsworth was a Romantic Age poet. And we also called that he was a dominant figure of the Romantic Age. He was a Romantic poet with high quality. And here we will discuss about his themes of poetry. But when we start about this topic we firstly have to know something about his life.

               Let’s have a glance on the life of Wordsworth & his works in detail.

v His Life

               William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 at Cockermouth, Cumberland. Out warmly his long and uneventful life divides itself naturally in to four periods.

1.    His childhood and youth, in the Cumberland Hills, form 1770 to 1787.

2.    A period of uncertainly, of storm and stress, including his university life at Cambridge, his travels abroad, and his revolutionary experience, from 1787 to 1797.

3.    A short but significant period of finding himself and his work, form 1797 to 1799.

4.    A long period of retirement in the northern lake region, where he was born, and where for a full half century he lived so close to nature that her influence is reflected in all his poetry. When one has outlined these four periods he was told almost all that can be told of a life which is marked, not by events, but largely by spiritual experiences.

               William Wordsworth passed away on April 27, 1850.

v His work

               To analyse the works of William Wordsworth, it is necessary to discuss about them, which were more readable. Therefore let’s illustrate his works in details.

v His Famous works:

1.    Prelude.

2.    Lyrical Ballad.

3.    Upon the west minister bridge.

4.    Daffodils.

5.    The Rainbow.

               William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge both were very close friends. And their joint publications were “Lyrical Ballads”. And it was published in 1798. And it was the major part in English literature to establish the Romantic Age. In this edition 23 poems were published, in which 19 were written by Wordsworth and rest of the poem belonged to Coleridge. In this edition Wordsworth & Coleridge state that the poems in the collection were intended as a deliberate experiment in style and subject matter.

               Wordsworth elaborated on this idea in the “Preface” to the 1800 and 1802 editions which outline this main idea of a new theory of poetry. This “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” is considered a central work of Romantic literary theory.

               In this “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” Wordsworth discusses about the elements of a new type of poetry and in this he used the language of man and avoid the concepts of the poetic diction of 18^th century poetry and create a new kind of poetry and use the language of men.

               Wordsworth gives his famous definition of poetry as,

“The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;

   It takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility”.

                   Let’s see what according to Wordsworth should be the theme of poetry in detail.

According to Wordsworth: The Themes of Poetry

               William Wordsworth is known as a nature poet. Because his most poems are about nature. His best poem in my sight is “Daffodils”. In this poem his point of view about nature is very clear and he defined everything clearly. He used nature elements beautifully.

               Here we talk about “The Theme of poetry with the help of Preface to Lyrical Ballad”. His enormous poetic legacy rests on a large number of poems written by him. But the themes that run through Wordsworth’s poetry remained consistent throughout. Even the language and imagery he used to embody those themes remained remarkably consistent. They remained consistent to the canons Wordsworth had set out the “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”.

               In the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads (1802), he wrote Preface to defend himself from the negative reviews. Wordsworth argued that poetry should be written in the real and simple language of common men rather than very high and beautiful that was then considered “Poetic”. Because of using real and simple language in poetry so that common men can understand the meaning of poetry easily and know about the poetry. And the help of this the common men get interest to read the poetry.

               Wordsworth 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. All human sympathy he asserted is based on a subtle pleasure principle that is the naked and native dignity of man”.

                Wordsworth’s poetic creed initiated the Romantic era emphasizing feeling, instinct and pleasure above formality and mannerism. More than any poet before him, Wordsworth gave expression to inchoate human emotion.

               In the “Advertisement” to the 1798 edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth and Coleridge state that the poem in the collection were intended as a deliberate experiment in style and subject matter. Wordsworth elaborated on this idea in the “Preface” to the 1800 and 1802 edition which outline his main ideas of new theory of poetry. Wordsworth explained his poetical concept.

“The majority of the following poems are to be considered as 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”.

               To use a real and simple language experiment was not enough of the focus on simple, uneducated country people as the subject of poetry was a signal of sift to modern literature. One of the main themes of “Lyrical Ballads” is the return to the original state of nature, in which man led a purer and more innocent existence. With the help of this Wordsworth tries to say that his intention of using real and simple language and using nature in poem is just not of understand but it more than is that man was essentially good and was corrupted by the influence of society. With the help of this idea that nature using in poetry with the real and simple common men language used to understand the purity of nature and people came out in corrupted society and understood how the nature playing beautifully role in their life. And knows more about the detail of nature and knows the role of nature in this society and nature is nothing for but surrounded by them.

               In the “Preface” Wordsworth also emphasizes his commitment writing in the ordinary language of people, not a highly crafted poetical one. True to traditional ballad form, the poems depict realistic characters in realistic situations, and so contain a strong narrative element.

               Let’s see the major themes of Wordsworth’s poetry.

1.    Nature.

2.    Memory.

3.    Morality.

4.    Transcendence and Connectivity.

5.    Religion.

6.    The power of the human mind.

7.    The splendor of childhood.

               These are the major themes of Wordsworth’s poetry. With the help of this he wrote many beautiful poems. Let’s see one of his major themes in detail and with the help of this we understand the theme of poetry using by Wordsworth.

Ø Nature

               As we discussed earlier that Wordsworth was a romantic and nature poet. In his most of poems he used nature very beautifully. In this poem nature plays a role and nature is a character. In his most of poem he used nature mostly and characterized very well, so he called nature poet.

“Come forth into the light of things

 Let nature be your Teacher”

               No discussion on Wordsworth would be complete without mention of nature. Throughout Wordsworth’s work nature provides the ultimate good influence on the human mind.

               Above all we may say that he was the priest of Nature.

               Let us short review Wordsworth views on the theme and subject matter of poetry.

Ø Object

               The main object in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life and describe them, throughout, as far as possible in a selection of language really used by men.

Ø Language

               In this poems Wordsworth use the language of common men. He used the real and simple language in these poems, so the common men can understand the real meaning of these poems.

v Definition of Poetry

               For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling; and though this be the true, poems to which any value can be attached were never produced on any variety of subjects but by a man who being possessed more than usual organic sensibility, had also thought long and deeply.

v To wind up

               Ultimately, we may clarify that the themes of poetry should be about Nature as well as rustic life. Further, he discusses that the language of poetry must be easy & simple so that the readers can understand very well at the first reading.