LIFE AND CAREER

William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, in Cumberland, on April 7th, 1770. His father, John Wordsworth, was an attorney at law. When he was eight years, his mother Anne died and at the age of fourteen his father died. After the death of his mother in 1778, he was sent to the Grammar School at Hawkshead. In his Autobiographical Memoranda, he says,”Of my earliest days at school I have little to say, but they were very happy ones. The usher, by name Shaw, taught me Latin”. After his father’s death, his uncle bestowed a Cambridge education on the future poet Laureate. He was a pagon (worshipper of nature), and used to spend his holidays with nature in the company of his sister Dorothy and Mary Hutchinson, who afterwards (in 1802) became his wife. He took his B.A. degree on January 27th, 1791 and left Cambridge.

At Blois, France, in 1791, Wordsworth met and fell in love with Annette Vallon, a french girl belonging to a family with strong Royalist sympathies. He didn’t marry her, but she bore him a daughter, Caroline, in Dec. 1792. He returned to England before his daughter was born. The violent course of events in France rudely shattered his dreams of new world of Liberty and progress. War broke out between France and England. He was a stout Revolutionary but in 1843, after the death of Southey, he accepted the Laureateship and became a conservative.

The change of opinion in Wordsworth, from revolutionary to conservative, was always criticised by the literary men. Browning calls him ‘a lost leader’ in his poem, “The Lost Leader”. Shelley calls him “The Political Eunuch”. On St. George’s day (23 April) in 1850 his spirit passed away and he was buried in Grasmere Churchyard.

FEATURES IN HIS POETRY

PANTHEISM

Wordsworth is a romantic or nature poet. He is titled as “a pagon of nature”, “the high priest of nature” and “a worshipper of nature”. His philosophy supports the idea of accepting the nature as God. In the initial stage he only praises the outer beauty of nature, but when he feels the healing power of nature, he spritulizes nature and put it in the category of deities.

POETIC DICTION

Wordsworth’s “Lyrical Ballads (1798), is a collection of poems, in collaboration with Samuel Tylor Coleridge. His “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads” is a milestone in the journey of english criticism and it is considered as the unofficial manifesto of Romantic Age. His poetry was different from the 18th century poets, i.e. Pope, Dr. Johnson, Dryden, etc. These literary dictators had prescribed certain rules of poetry. They dealt with the life of fashionable, upper class London society, which lacked emotion, passion and imagination as it was artificial and unnatural.

Wordsworth believed that poetry cannot be confined to certain rules. He preferred ‘language of men’ and said, “there neither is, nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and Metrical composition”. In his openion, “All good Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquility”.

WORDSWORTH vs ST COLERIDGE

Wordsworth asserts (in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads) that the proper diction of poetry consists in the language or the real conversation of men under the influence of natural feelings. He maintains that the language of poetry is selection of the real language of men. Coleridge points out (in his Biographia Literaria, 1817) that this statement is imperfect at all his characters are not chosen from low and rustic life, eg the characters in poems like “Ruth”, “Michael”, “The brothers” etc. Coleridge argues that everyone’s language varies according to the extent of his knowledge, the activities of his faculties and the depth and quickness of his feelings. In Wordsworth’s words, “there neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition” but in Coleridge’s openion, “there is and there ought to be an essential difference between the languages of prose argues that of poetry”, the poetry use meter and meter requires a different arrangement of words. Though, their ideas vary, yet they both did well in their field.

ORCC THEORY

Wordsworth believed that a good poetry is never an immediate expression of powerful thoughts. A poet must meditate and ponder over the thoughts deeply. The four stages of composition are called ORCC theory:-

1. OBSERVATION : First of all, the poet observe or percept the objects, characters or incidents, which sets the powerful emotions in his mind.
2. RECOLLECTION : The poet recollects the emotions in loneliness and connect the ideas with heart and soul in order to give sensuous touch.
3. CONTEMPLATION : In this stage the poet again reminds the subject and purging the superfluities, with a new passion, becomes emotionally excited.
4. COMPOSITION : Finally the poet, with his language, meter, rhyme, emotions and art of expression writes the poem, that gives the first hand experience with sensory images and pleasure.

MAJOR WORKS

1. LYRICAL BALLADS (1798) : It was a collection of twenty-three poems by Wordsworth (19 poems) and S.T. Coleridge (4 poems). The word “lyrical” links the poems with the ancient rustic bards and lends an air of spontaneity, while “ballads” are an oral mode of storytelling used by the common people.
2. PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS (1800) : It is an essay, composed by William Wordsworth, for the second edition published in 1800 of the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads, and then greatly expanded in the third edition of 1802. It has come to be seen as a ‘de fecto menifesto’ of the Romantic movement.
3. TINTERN ABBEY : A nature lyric, dealing with the scenery around Tintern Abbey. It was included in “Lyrical Ballads (1798)”. It was addressed to his sister Dorothy.
4. ODE ON INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY : It is a recollection of poets childhood memories. Originally the poem was untitled and the title was given by the poet himself after the suggestion of Henry Crabb Robinson. Henry Vaughan’s ‘The Retreat’ seems to be the inspiration for this poem.
5. THE PRELUDE : It was a poem to Coleridge, with the subtitle, “Growth of a Poets Mind”. The poem, with 14 books, exhibits his philosophy of nature, who fostered the poet by beauty and by fear. It was completed in 1805 but published after his death in 1850, by his wife.
6. MICHAEL : A pastoral poem presenting the philosophy of nature. Michael, a good and noble man who live in the woods, is the chief character of the poem.
7. LONDON or TO MILTON : (in 1802) Wordsworth admires Milton not as a great poet but for his fearless character during Civil War. “Thy soul was like a star” is the famous line of this poem.
8. THE SOLITARY REAPER (1807) : A highland girl was all alone in the field, reaping and singing songs. Wordsworth listens her carefully and ask the passerbys to pass silently, without disturbing her. The poem may have been inspired by Thomas Wilkinson’s, ‘Tour in Scotland’.
9. THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US : It is sonnet which laments the negligence of nature by human-beings.
10. EXCURSION : It is part of The Recluse, a long poem published in 1814. It is an unfinished long poem, intended to be the second part of The Recluse, and meant to be included in The Prelude.
11. LUCY POEMS : A series of five poems addressed to a girl Lucy, written between 1798 and 1801.

• Strange fits of passion have I known
• I traveled among unknown men
• She dwelt among untrodden ways
• Three years she grew in sun and shower
• A slumber did my spirit seal

SOME OTHER WORKS

• The Thorn
• She was a Fantom on Delight
• Ode to Duty
• To the Cuckoo
• I wondered lonely as a Cloud
• Happy Warrior
• The Fountaino
• To a Skylark
• Sonnet on Sonnet

DAFFODILS

TEXT

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
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.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

INTRODUCTION

On April 15, 1802, Wordsworth and Dorothy paid a brief visit to their friends, the Clarksons, at Eusemere. On their way back to Grasmere, they saw the golden daffodils growing on the bank of the lake Ullswater at the border of Cumberland and Westmoreland in the Lake District. Both brother and sister were highly impressed by the merry dance of the daffodils. Dorothy recorded the Origin of the poem in her Journal for April 15, 1802. The poem was actually written two years later in 1804 and published in 1807, in “Poems, in Two Volumes”. The revised edition was published in 1815, in which, the second stanza was added (in the first edition, 1807, the poem had only three stanzas) and the word “Yellow”, in line four, was replaced by “Golden”.

Note that, “To Daffodils” poem was written by Robert Herrick.

THEME OF THE POEM

The central idea revolves around the beauty of Nature. Nature has the power to soothe, calm or cool the stressed mind. By just looking or being surrounded of nature, one can uplift one’s mind and spirit. The poem is the best example of “…emotions recollected in tranquility”.

VOCABULARY

• Wander : to walk around without any perticular purpose or direction
• Float : to move slowly on the surface of water or in air
• Daffodil : a type of yellow flower
• Vale : valley
• Fluttering : a quick or light movement
• Toss : to move head, left right or back forth
• Outdo : surpass
• Glee : feeling of happiness
• Gay : happy and enjoyful
• Jocund : cheerful
• Gaze : to look at something steadily
• Pensive : in a depressed or sad mood
• Wealth : here wealth means the perennial/everlasting sourse of pleasure in vacant time.
• Solitude : a state of being pleasantly alone
• Inward eye : memory, visualisation, imagination

EXPLANATION

STANZA ONE

Once the poet, alone, was aimlessly walking by the side of the Ullswater lake. In his solitary, idle drifting, he could be compared to a cloud floating in the sky over hills and valleys. All at once, he saw a large number of golden daffodils, growing under the trees on the bank of the Ullswater. A light-breeze (pleasant air) was blowing and the daffodils fluttered and danced merrily (happily) in the breeze. The sight of the daffodils is beautiful and the poet is enjoying the sight.

STANZA TWO

The flowers grew along the bank of the lake in a line that expended as far as the poet’s eyes could see. They looked like a continuous line of stars shining in the milky way, in the sky. The comparison with the stars indicate that the beauty of the scene is heavenly. The flowers were so numerous/countless that the poet imagined he could have seen at least ten thousand of them at a glance. They were tossing their heads in a merry dance.

STANZA THREE

The waves in the lake were dancing too, with joy. But the daffodils excelled the dancing waves in their happiness. It was quite natural for a poet to feel happy in such a delightful and cheerful company. The beautiful sight filled him with an ecstasy of delight and he kept gazing at the flowers for a long time, literally sipping their beauty. At that time, he did not however realise how valuable this scene would prove to him in the years to come.

STANZA FOUR

Finally, whenever the poet lay on his couch in a sad, reflective or sorrowful mood, the scene of daffodils would flash in his imagination. In a side remark, he acknowledges that one of the greatest blessings that solitude/loneliness can offer is that all distractions being absent/washed away, old memories can be easily and vividly revived. The memory of the daffodils would immediately fill his heart with pleasure and his heart begins to dance along with the flowers. This sight is now permanent and sticked to his imagination.

STRUCTURE OF THE POEM

The poem ‘Daffodils’ consists four stanzas with six lines each. It has total twenty four lines. The simple rhyme scheme ABABCC is used. The last two lines (rhyming couplets) of each stanza gives the feeling of Shakespearean sonnet, which make each stanza independent. The meter used here is Iambic Tetrameter.

FIGURES OF SPEECH

• SIMILE : In the line,”I wandered lonely as a cloud”, the poet compares himself with the clouds and in “Continuous as the stars that shine/……Along the margin of the bay”, the flowers are compared with the shining stars in the milky way of the sky.
• PERSONIFICATION : Throughout the poem, it is used heavily. The Daffodils and the waves are personified, attributing the human activities, i.e. dancing and emotions, i.e happiness, Glee. “Heart” is attributed, the dancing quality.
• ALLITERATION : In the lines, ‘Beside the lake, beneath the trees,/And dances with the daffodils’, the repetition of consonant sounds, /b/ and /d/ can be seen. The use of /g/ sound in, “I gazed and gazed” and the use of /w/ sound in, “What wealth the show to me had brought.”
• HYPERBOLE : In the line, “When all at once I saw a crowd” and “Ten thousand saw I at a glance”, “never ending line”, the number of the daffodils is exaggerated.
• METAPHOR : In the line, “What wealth the show to me had brought”, “wealth” refers to happiness. “A crowd”- large number of people; “a host” – large number of angels. “Inward eye”- imagination.
• ONOMATOPOIEA : “Fluttering”.

NOTE:

• What is the bliss of solitude? – the inward eye. (…that inward eye which is bliss of solitude) line 21-22.
• The scene of the dancing daffodils was so enchanting that the poet forget everything.
• The probable causes that make the dancing daffodils effective to the poet are…1. The dance of Daffodils (most effective cause)…2. The large number of daffodils….3. Their golden color…4. Their superiority in dance to the sparkling waves.
• What causes the sprightly dance of the daffodils? – Breeze.
• The speaker, didn’t include his sister in the poem, he is all alone wandering.
• It was a sunny day when the poet saw the dancing daffodils. (Stanza 3, sparkling waves…).