Concetti Chiave
- The author's beginnings were deeply influenced by radical ideas and the French Revolution, leading to a disillusionment with its later developments.
- He defined English Romanticism ideals, emphasizing poetry as the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" and emotions recollected in tranquility.
- His poetry focuses on common subjects like wanderers, children, and natural scenes, using straightforward language to connect with readers.
- The author teaches that a connection with nature enhances consciousness and emotions, embodying a pantheistic view where man is part of nature.
- The poetic process involves transforming sensory experiences and emotions into poems, allowing readers to share in those emotions.
What are the Beginning and Inspirations?
This author was inspired by radical ideas and was also a supporter of the french revolution.
He studied at a grammar school and he graduated at Cambridge in 1791, exactly during the development of the french revolution.
He traveled then in France, but he was disappointed in seeing that french revolution became a dictation (terror by Robespierre) so he came back to UK. When he came back he went living in Dorset with the sister, then moved again to lake district, where he wrote the lyrical ballads after meeting Coleridge, which preface is the manifest of romantic movement.
He was very appreciated for his conservatism.
He has been the first poet ever to define the ideals and the values of the English romanticism.
Declaration of poetry: poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, the result of the "emotions recollected in tranquility".
Themes and Subjects
In his poetry he uses common and easy language and adds new sets of human subjects at the center of his works:
Lonely wanderers
Rustics
Poor country-people
Children
And natural subjects:
Wild flowers
Rainbows
Natural scenes
Vision and Teachings
He is able to "see into the life of things", and uses common language to describe pure emotions and subjects in a big variety of verse form.
-He teaches people how to see things.-
Man in relation with nature develops his consciousness: feelings, that can be developed only with nature.
He has a pantheistic vision: man belongs to nature
!!Nature is the seat of the spirit of the universe!!
Perception and Poetic Process
Nature is linked to senses perception. Man can perceive nature through senses.
process:
Object
Poet
Sensory experience
Emotion
Memory
Recollection in tranquility
Kindred emotion
Poem
Reader
Same emotion (point 4)
The poem Daffodils is the cloud of Wordsworth's poetry.
Domande da interrogazione
- What inspired the author and how did his experiences influence his work?
- What is the author's vision regarding nature and its relationship with man?
The author was inspired by radical ideas and the French Revolution, which he initially supported. However, he became disillusioned with the revolution's turn to dictatorship under Robespierre. This experience, along with his education at Cambridge and travels in France, influenced his conservative appreciation and his role in defining English Romanticism.
The author holds a pantheistic vision, believing that man belongs to nature and that nature is the seat of the spirit of the universe. He teaches that man's consciousness and feelings develop in relation to nature, emphasizing that sensory perception of nature leads to emotional and poetic experiences.