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    William Wordsworth: The Manifesto of English Romanticism

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    Vincenzo Di Gioia
    William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet born in 1770 in England. In 1795 he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and their friendship was influential to the development of English Romantic poetry. Together they published Lyrical Ballads in 1798, which included Wordsworth's preface that set forth the principles of English Romanticism. Wordsworth believed poetry should represent ordinary people and nature, using simple language. He saw an intimate connection between humans and nature, with nature providing joy, morality, and shaping one's character through senses and memory. Some of his most famous works explored these themes, like Daffodils. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was another influential English Romantic poet born in 1772.

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    William Wordsworth: The Manifesto of English Romanticism

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    Vincenzo Di Gioia
    476 views4 pages
    William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet born in 1770 in England. In 1795 he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and their friendship was influential to the development of English Romantic poetry. Together they published Lyrical Ballads in 1798, which included Wordsworth's preface that set forth the principles of English Romanticism. Wordsworth believed poetry should represent ordinary people and nature, using simple language. He saw an intimate connection between humans and nature, with nature providing joy, morality, and shaping one's character through senses and memory. Some of his most famous works explored these themes, like Daffodils. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was another influential English Romantic poet born in 1772.

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    WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

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    William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet born in 1770 in England. In 1795 he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and their friendship was influential to the development of English Romantic poetry. Together they published Lyrical Ballads in 1798, which included Wordsworth's preface that set forth the principles of English Romanticism. Wordsworth believed poetry should represent ordinary people and nature, using simple language. He saw an intimate connection between humans and nature, with nature providing joy, morality, and shaping one's character through senses and memory. Some of his most famous works explored these themes, like Daffodils. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was another influential English Romantic poet born in 1772.

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    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    476 views4 pages

    William Wordsworth: The Manifesto of English Romanticism

    Uploaded by

    Vincenzo Di Gioia
    William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet born in 1770 in England. In 1795 he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and their friendship was influential to the development of English Romantic poetry. Together they published Lyrical Ballads in 1798, which included Wordsworth's preface that set forth the principles of English Romanticism. Wordsworth believed poetry should represent ordinary people and nature, using simple language. He saw an intimate connection between humans and nature, with nature providing joy, morality, and shaping one's character through senses and memory. Some of his most famous works explored these themes, like Daffodils. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was another influential English Romantic poet born in 1772.

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    of 4

    WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

    -Born in Cumberland in the English Lake District in 1770

    -1790 he had been in a walking tour of France and the Alps : this experience in the
    revolutionary France led him to believe in democratic ideals, but the destructive
    develepoments of the Revolution and the declaration of war between England and
    France (1793) caused him a nervous breakdown.

    -1795 he met SAMUEL COLERIDGE : their friendship has been fundamental to the
    development of English Romantic poetry. They produced a collection of poems
    called LYRICAL BALLADS in 1798. The second edition also contained Wordsworth’s
    famouse PREFACE, which became the Manifesto of English Romanticism.

    -he is also famous for his LUCY POEMS, a series of 5 poems.

    -1805 he finished his masterpiece THE PRELUDE, a long autobiographical poem in 14


    books.

    -1850 he died

    The Manifesto of English Romanticism


    -Wordsworth claims that POETRY is a SOLITARY ACT, whose origin lies in the
    ORDINARY and not in the EXTRAORDINARY.

    -while planning the LYIRICAL BALLADS with Coleridge they decided that he would
    deal with MAN, NATURE and EVERYDAY THINGS, while Coleridge should write about
    the SUPERNATURAL and MISTERY making them seem real

    -In his PREFACE Wordsworth explaines that poetry should deal with EVERYDAY
    SITUATIONS and ORDINARY PEOPLE, so the LANGUAGE has to be SIMPLE and NOT
    ELEVATED and ARTIFICIAL (“POETIC DICTION”) : that’s his strongest objection to
    18th century poetry.

    -POET is a MAN AMONG MEN, so has to write about what interests mankind
    THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE
    -Wordsworth shared rousseau's faith in the goodness of nature as well as in the
    excellence of the child.

    -in his poetry he focuses on the COMPLEX INTERACTION BETWEEN MAN AND
    NATURE : for ex. when a natural object is described, the main focus of interest is
    asctually the poet’s response to that object.

    -he believes that MAN AND NATURE ARE INSEPARABLE; man is an active participant
    of the natural world.

    -NATURE IS A SOURCE OF JOY AND PLEASURE, it comforts man and teaches him how
    to love and to act in a moral way.

    The importance of the senses and the memory


    -NATURE is also a WORLD OF SENSE AND PERCEPTIONS and he used especially the
    sensibility of the eye and ear. He belevies that our moral character develops during
    childhood as a result of the pleasure and pain caused by our physical experiences,
    while MEMORY is a MAJOR FORCE in the process of growth of the poet’s mind and
    moral character.

    DAFFODILS (1804)
    This is one of the Wordsworth’s most famous poem : here he conveys his love for
    nature. This poem is about the experience of a walk that the poet went for with his
    sister Dorothy, near their home in the Lake District.

    -FIRST STANZA : the poet was wandering alone as a cloud that floats over vales and
    hills when he suddenly saw a crowd of golden daffodils, beside the lake.

    -SECOND STANZA : the poet associates the flowers to the stars that shine and
    twinkle on the milky way, he saw 10 thousand of them along the bay, which of
    course is not possibile.

    -THIRD STANZA : the waves beside them danced but they were more sparkling then
    them in glee, so the poet felt really glad and pleased. He was enjoying the show
    without thinking about what wealth it had brought to him.
    -FOURTH STANZA : the result of this experience is that when the poet lies on the
    couch in pensive/thoughtful mood, the daffodils appear upon that inward eye and
    then his heart is filled with joy.

    Samuel Coleridge
    Life and works
    -born in Devonshire in 1772

    -recevied an excellent education in the CLASSICS and he was heavily influenced by


    French rivolutionary ideals, which made him an enthusiastic republican.

    -1795 met Wordsworth and an important COLLABORATION between the two poets
    started and most of Coleridge’s best poetry was written in these years : THE RIME
    OF THE ANCIENT MARINER (is the first poem of the collection LYRICAL BALLADS),
    CHRISTABEL, KUBLA KHAN.

    -in 1817 he produced BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA where he explained the dual task that
    he and Wordsworth had in the LYRICAL BALLADE (while planning the LYIRICAL
    BALLADS with Coleridge they decided that he would deal with MAN, NATURE and
    EVERYDAY THINGS, while Coleridge should write about the SUPERNATURAL and
    MISTERY making them seem real)

    The importance of nature


    -Coleridge didn’t view nature as a moral guide or a source of consolation and
    happiness, therefore in his view nature is not a friend. Furthermore he didn’t
    identify nature with the divine, in that form of pantheism which Wordsworth
    adopted, because of his Christian faith.

    -for Coleridge nature has an ESSENTIAL ROLE IN POETIC CREATIVITY because the
    poet has to find natural symbols that could REFLECT HIS EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS,
    so the poet is inspired by nature, he uses the shapes and colours of the nature to
    represent and symbolise his emotions and mental states.

    THE KILLING OF THE ALBATROSS


    This passage is full of suspense from the first line. An old, lonely Mariner, appears
    from nowhere and forces one in a group of three people, who were on their way to
    a wedding party, to listen to his story : it’s about a sea voyage, which soon turns out
    to be a voyage with no return because of the uncontrollable power of nature.

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