Lyrical Ballads, although far more conservative in form and scope than the (then almost unknown) work of Blake, nevertheless was in its own way a revolutionary book. These self-declared "experiments" borrowed from vernacular traditions such as the ballad, gaining a new kind of authenticity while rejecting the "gaudiness and inane phraseology" of other poets of the day. It is hard for us to feel this same quality today, as so much of what the Romantics accomplished and made new has since become a cliché; for me, this is embodied by Bullwinkle J. Moose's cartoon rendition of "I wandered lonely as a cloud" -- here the sublime meets the ridiculous, and the ridiculous wins.Nevertheless, there remain shards of untapped sublimity here and there in the poetic ruins of this endeavor -- the "Lucy" poems, "We are Seven," and "The Mad Mother" retain a sort of odd, folksy, haunting quality, and "Tintern Abbey" still summons forth the beauty and strangeness of its scene. And, above all, Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancyent Marinere" still stands aloof, untouched for the most part by the ravages of time, unless to seem and feel more authentically "ancient" than it was originally framed as being. "We were the first to ever burst / into that silent sea" -- rarely has the essence of the Romantic version of the natural sublime been more magnificiently cast.
The future of the two poets also revealed telling differences. Wordsworth, though his best years were behind him, whittled away at his lengthy and laborious Prelude, unpublished in his lifetime, while basking in the light of his role as an aging literary lion. As described by Thomas Carlyle in the 1840's, he sat aside, hidden behind the green glass filter he brought with him to the table, absently nibbling on raisins as the conversation raged on. Coleridge, alas, burned brighter and burned out sooner; after the last flickering flame of Kubla Khan, he retired to the home of his friend James Gilman and his wife, who took care to moderate his opiate addiction as best they could. They were remarkable hosts, even building an extension on the house to accommodate their poetical guest. No more brilliant poetry spilled from his pen, but a substantial and influential body of semi-autobiogaphical criticism, published as Biographia Literaria, was completed there before his death in 1834. Carlyle visited there as well, and his description is worth quoting:
Coleridge sat on the brow of Highgate Hill, in those years, looking down on London and its smoke-tumult, like a sage escaped from the inanity of life's battle ... The practical intellects of the world did not much heed him, or carelessly reckoned him a metaphysical dreamer: but to the rising spirits of the young generation he had this dusky sublime character; and sat there as a kind of Magus, girt in mystery and enigma; his Dodona oak-grove (Mr. Gilman's house at Highgate) whispering strange things, uncertain whether oracles or jargon ...
I found the poem "We are Seven" do be very sad, due to the poem being written by a little girl that seems to not comprehend the idea of death. Childhood innocence is highly present in this piece, considering the no matter what the little girl hears, she does not stop believing she still has seven siblings although two died. Some line I found specifically to show her innocence are,
ReplyDelete"But they are dead; those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!”
’Twas throwing words away; for still
The little Maid would have her will,
And said, “Nay, we are seven!”
(Wordsworth, Lines 65-69)
These lines really touched my heart, because the speaker is insisting to the little girl that her siblings are in heaven, but she will not believe it. It really makes you think about your own childhood innocence, and the times growing up as you were maturing that you made realizations.
Particularly, the “Foster-Mother’s Tale, A Dramatic Fragment” had me interpret that the Tale the Foster-mother told Maria, was a story about a young boy who was strongly connected to his environment and not so much with other people. However, he had the old Friar who cared for him and educated him. This is mentioned at the beginning where Leoni, her husband’s father, was a woods man and “found a baby wrapt in mosses, lined with thistle-beards, and such small licks of wool as to hang on brambles” (Wordsworth, lines 25-27). As he grew he showed signs that he appreciated nature more than the practice of religion, “A pretty boy, but most unreachable - and never learnt a prayer, nor told a bead, but knew the names of birds, and mocked their notes, and whistled, as he were a bird himself” (Wordsworth, lines 30-33). I feel though not necessarily unreligious, he rather appreciates God’s creation by witnessing it personally and would rather interact with them rather than pray in hope of a tomorrow. His “prayer” is to live in the moment and as a child, the world is vibrant and beautiful. However as he becomes an adult he still displays resentment to pray, though when giving his confessions to Lord Velez of the Chapel, he was punished and taken away from nature he loves so much, to cellar. Though he shows resilience and manages to escape the ideals of religious belief and begins to sail and behold the new lands he has yet to discover himself. However, at the end of this tale, it makes Me wonder if this is a reference to the first poem, “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere” as the Foster-mother stated, “that the poor mad youth… seized a boat, and all alone, set sail by silent moonlight” (Wordsworth, lines 77, 78-79).
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Agustin Custer
The poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is a romantic poem written around 1804. I found the poem is quite happy and inspiring. It was full of love and passion from Wordsworth. This poem features how the spontaneous emotions of the poet’s heart sparked by the energetic dance of daffodils. Wordsworth and his sister came across a host of daffodils around Glencoyne Bay in the Lake District. Wordsworth wrote this poem to express his love for nature and what inspired him to write a lyrical ballad about his love for the beauty of nature in full motion. In the poem, these daffodils have a long-lasting effect on the speaker, firstly in the immediate impression they make and secondly in the way that the image of them comes back to the speaker's mind later on. This romantic poem is what brings together key ideas about imagination, humanity, and the natural world.
ReplyDeleteI looked into “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” by William Wordsworth because the title caught my interest. I think one of the things that scares people about poetry is its levity. Oftentimes, poetry feels like some larger animal, relatively untouchable, as it is written with language that goes over the heads of the average person.
ReplyDeleteI felt that this title opened up access to the poem as a whole and made it seem more relatable. Titles are difficult to come up with. Sometimes, words are even harder. The lyrical ballads as poems begin to appeal to people, perhaps, because they capture more people-esque experiences. You do not need to be a brilliant academic to sit and relate to a poem about “someone” who is “somewhere” pondering different types of “something.”
This is one of those poems that end up staying in your mind because it starts to create a specific image in your mind. Are “lyrical ballads” setup to be read the way song lyrics are?
I was really drawn to the last two stanzas of " I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" because of the emotion behind the narrator. In the second to last stanza, Woodsworth writes "A poet could not but be gay,/
ReplyDeleteIn such a jocund company" which is opposite of the stereotype of most poets/narrators. Poetry often comes from feelings of melancholy or confusion, and the narrator is often troubled. There are of course, joyous poems written in moments of great light, but the thought that a poem's narrator had to be excited because of the stars and their shimmer stood out to me. The final stanza was more along my expectations of what poetry usually is--
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.
The narrator is feeling down, laying, wallowing even, but then finds a moment of light in the dimness. The daffodils are a moment of joy, of light, until one watches the Bullwinkle video. Here, he is happily picking the flowers, excited to see so many beautiful things. However, he is imprisoned for his actions and sees that though the daffodils may be pretty, they are expensive, and he must consider what beauty is truly worth to him. Or, maybe this is me reading much too far into a funny sketch. But I think that poetry often calls for us to read a bit too deeply, read into ourselves to make sense of what is otherwise profound and out of reach.
When I started reading William Wordsworth’s The Prelude, I had the idea that the “Introduction,” at least on the first page of the photocopied book, was a sonnet. Upon further inspection, I was incorrect as the first page had fifteen lines. Then it shattered my hope for an irregularity as it continued further into the next pages. There is also no rhyme scheme, but the poem is in iambic pentameter most of the time from my understanding.
ReplyDeleteAs I continued reading the poems, I got to “Childhood and School-Time” and had to stop at page eighteen. I know the “her” is talking about a boat, but why does he use such sexual language when rowing the boat? I had to stop and be like “wait, what?” A majority of it may have gone over my head if he hadn’t used the term “lustily,” which caused me to look back and see the phrase “troubled pleasure.” Then it turns back to a darker mood after that.
- Spock Nardone
Spock, great comment! I hadn't meant for anyone to feel obliged to read the "Prelude" -- it's fascinating but a bit plodding -- but glad you have given it a shot. The form is known as "blank verse," and was at the time thought appropriate for high seriousness; a version of it was used by Virgil for his heroic works.
DeleteWhile reading this I'm getting a sense of sorrow from the main voice in this story. It seems to be someone who is a bit confused on the things going on in their surroundings or having a difficult time grasping it all in. Poetry isn't exactly my strong suit because I often have to catch myself rereading in order to get a full understanding of what the author is trying to convey.
ReplyDeleteThe poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is a romantic poem written around 1804. I found the poem to be very engaging and soulful. The alignment with nature makes the poem strong and inspiring to generation now and the ones to come.
ReplyDeleteLyrical Ballads 1798 by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge has a common theme throughout the ballads: death. Death signifies human mortality and the tumultuous relationship many romantics had with God. Part of that relationship was guilt. In the “Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, the Wedding Guest feels such guilt that he killed the Albatross. This is highlighted in the line: “Instead of the Cross, the Albatross about my neck was hung” (Lyrical Ballads 1798). Even though the Wedding Guest saved himself and the Marinere, he still felt guilty. The Wedding Guest also felt guilty that all the crew died except for him. The writer references seven days, seven nights, the same length of days it took God to create the earth and all living things; the Wedding Guest says he saw the curse in the dead man’s eye and yet he could not die. Is it possible the poem has some sort of Biblical allusion to Genesis? In “We are Seven", the little girl is not accepting of the death of her two siblings as she continues to eat her meals and play around their graves. This is another example of death and not being able to get away from it. She is at some level feeling responsible for them and their happiness as “I sit and sing to them” (Lyrical Ballads 1798). The poems are so morbid which is a common tone amongst the romantic literary era but also have a touch of realism as they explore the human condition in a more sinister and realistic way.
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