Wordsworth, William - Opere (2)

William Wordsworth

Life

• French Revolution => enthusiasm for the democratic ideals.
• The brutal developments of the revolution => disillusionment (healed only by the contact with nature).
• Coleridge's friendship => crucial development of the English Romantic poetry => “Lyrical Ballads”.

Manifesto of English Romanticism

In his preface he says that:

• Subject should deal with every day situation.
• Language should be simple.

W's choice lies in the fact that in humble rural life man is nearer to his own purer passions. Therefore the poet is not a man in an ivory tower, but a man among men, writing about what interests mankind.

Man and nature

• W shares Rousseau's faith in the goodness of nature as well as in the excellence of the child.
• Interest in the relationship between the natural world and the human consciousness.
• Man and nature are inseparable.
• Nature is something that includes both inanimate and human nature.
• Nature teaches man to love and to act in a moral way.

The senses and memory

• Nature means also the world of sense perceptions.
• Sensations lead to simple thoughts, which later combine into complex and organized ideas.
• Memory is a major force in the process of growth of poet's mind and moral character.

Recollection in tranquility

• Imagination (intuition) is a supreme gift.
• All genuine poetry “takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”