William Wordsworth Life and Poems
William Wordsworth Life and Poems
William Wordsworth Life and Poems
Selected Poetry
RL 5 Analyze how an authors
by William Wordsworth
choices concerning how to
structure specific parts of a text VIDEO TRAILER KEYWORD: HML12-798A
contribute to its overall structure
and meaning. RL 9 Demonstrate
knowledge of eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century foundational
Meet the Author
works of literature. L 3a Apply
an understanding of syntax
to the study of complex texts
when reading. L 4b Identify and
William Wordsworth 17701850
correctly use patterns of word William Wordsworth, along with his him. Distraught over his inability to help
changes that indicate different
meanings or parts of speech. friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped them and by the growing violence in France,
launch the English romantic movement Wordsworth fell into a deep depression.
in literature. Rebelling against the formal
did you know? diction and lofty subject matter favored by
Creative Partnership Wordsworths bleak
William Wordsworth . . . mood subsided in 1795 when he was
poets of the day, Wordsworth used simple
at first supported, but reunited with his beloved sister Dorothy,
language to celebrate subjects drawn
later denounced, the from whom he had been separated
mostly from nature and everyday life.
French Revolution. since childhood. Resolving not to be
refused to publish Childhood Turmoil As a child, Wordsworth parted again, he and Dorothy moved to
his autobiographical spent many happy hours exploring the Racedown, Dorset, where they met and
masterpiece, The countryside in northwestern Englands grew close to Coleridge. Speaking later
Prelude, during his Lake District. This idyllic period lasted of this friendship, Wordsworth would
lifetime. until he was seven, when his mothers death say, We were three persons with one
lost two of his five led to the breakup of the Wordsworth soul. Working together, Wordsworth
children to early deaths. household. Unable to raise five children and Coleridge produced Lyrical Ballads
on his own, John Wordsworth sent young (1798), the book that ushered in the
William away to school at Hawkshead, English romantic movement.
where he formed a passionate attachment
Britains Poet Laureate In 1799,
(background) Dove Cottage, to the surrounding countryside.
Wordsworth and his sister resettled in
Wordsworths Lake District
Love in a Time of War A walking tour the Lake District, with Coleridge
home
through revolutionary France in the summer residing nearby. Three years later,
of 1790 was the high point
p of Wordsworths Wordsworth married a childhood friend,
college years. Excited
Excite by the changes he Mary Hutchinson. Over the next two
saw, Wordsworth returned to France decades, he struggled to find readers
in 1791 and soon
soo fell in love with and critical acceptance for his work.
a young woman,
woma Annette Vallon. In the 1820s, his reputation gradually
Lacking money,
mone Wordsworth improved, and by the 1830s, he was
returned to England
En in 1792. Almost hugely popular. In 1843, his immense
immediately, war
w broke out between achievement as a poet was recognized
France and England,
Eng preventing with the poet laureateship.
Wordsworth from
fro seeing Annette
and the child she
s had recently borne
Author Online
Go to thinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HML12-798B
798
799
Five years have passed; five summers, with the length Analyze Visuals
Of five long winters! and again I hear What elements in this painting
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs help give it a sense of grandeur?
With a soft inland murmur. Once again
5 Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose 9 repose: lie at rest.
10 Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage ground, these orchard tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,
Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves 14 copses (kJpPsGz): thickets of small
Mid groves and copses. Once again I see trees.
15 These hedgerows, hardly hedgerows, little lines 16 pastoral (pBsPtEr-El): rural and
Of sportive wood run wild; these pastoral farms, serene.
115 Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend, 115 thou my dearest Friend:
My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch Wordsworths sister, Dorothy.
Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
Of past existencewilt thou then forget 149 past existence: the speakers
150 That on the banks of this delightful stream own past experience five years
before (see lines 116119).
We stood together; and that I, so long
A worshiper of Nature, hither came
Unwearied in that service; rather say
With warmer loveoh! with far deeper zeal
155 Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,
That after many wanderings, many years
Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!
Text Analysis
1. Make Inferences Compare the speakers youthful
experiences of the natural world with his present
experiences. In what ways has his understanding
of nature changed?
2. Draw Conclusions Describe the speakers attitude in
each of the following passages. Do you think that he
regrets his loss of youth? Explain your response.
The sounding cataract. . . dizzy raptures.
(lines 7685)
Nor perchance. . . . Of thy wild eyes. (lines 111119)
William Wordsworth
And all that mighty heart is lying still! 13 houses: possibly a pun on
the Houses of Parliament, near
Westminster Bridge.
Text Analysis
1. Examine Personification Find three examples of
personification, or figures of speech in which human
qualities are attributed to an object, animal, or idea. In
what ways do these examples enhance the description
of the scene?
2. Analyze Tone What is Wordsworths tone, or attitude,
toward the scene? Cite specific words and phrases to
support your response.
William Wordsworth
Text Analysis
1. Clarify Ideas Reread lines 14. What do you think the
speaker means by the phrase The world is too much
with us?
2. Make Inferences Why would the speaker rather be a
Pagan (line 10) than live in his present state? Support
your response with details from the poem.
William Wordsworth
from the
Grasmere Journals
Dorothy Wordsworth
Apr. 15.
It was a threatening misty morningbut mild. We [Dorothy and William]
set off after dinner from Eusemere.1 Mrs. Clarkson went a short way with
us but turned back. The wind was furious and we thought we must have
returned. We first rested in the large Boat-house, then under a furze Bush
opposite Mr. Clarksons. Saw the plough going in the field. The wind
seized our breath the Lake was rough. There was a Boat by itself floating
in the middle of the Bay below Water Millock. We rested again in the
Water Millock Lane. The hawthorns are black and green, the birches
here and there greenish but there is yet more of purple to be seen on the
Twigs. We got over into a field to avoid some cowspeople working, a
few primroses by the roadside, wood-sorrel flower, the anemone, scentless
violets, strawberries, and that starry yellow flower which Mrs. C. calls pile
wort. When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we saw a few
daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the lake had floated the
seeds ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went
along there were more and yet more and at last under the boughs of the
trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the
breadth of a country turnpike road.2 I never saw daffodils so beautiful they
grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their
heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed
and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed at the wind
that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever
changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here
and there a little knot and a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they
were so few as not to disturb the simplicity and unity and life of that one
busy highway. We rested again and again. The Bays were stormy, and we
heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like
the sea.
1. Eusemere: the home of Thomas and Catherine Clarkson, friends living near the
Wordsworths on the banks of Lake Ullswater in the Lake District.
2. breadth . . . road: width of one of the narrow, centuries-old English roads that pedestrians
once had to pay tolls to use.
Comprehension
1. Clarify The last poem begins: I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats RL 5 Analyze how an authors
choices concerning how to
on high oer vales and hills. What is the meaning of this statement? structure specific parts of a text
contribute to its overall structure
2. Summarize Reread lines 312 of the poem. In your own words, describe and meaning. RL 9 Demonstrate
the scene the speaker encounters. knowledge of eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century foundational
works of literature. L 3a Apply
3. Clarify In line 21, what does the phrase flash upon that inward eye mean? an understanding of syntax to
the study of complex texts when
Text Analysis reading.
4. Make Inferences About Setting In Tintern Abbey, why do you think the
speaker says so little about the ruined abbey named in the poems title?
5. Analyze Stylistic Elements In his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth
defines poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. Review
the list of Wordsworths stylistic elements on page 799. How do the stylistic
elements help him achieve this state in Tintern Abbey?
6. Examine Romantic Poetry Select one of the four poems in the lesson. For
each convention of romantic poetry listed on page 799, provide an example
from one of Wordsworths poems. What overall effect do these conventions
help create?
7. Draw Conclusions What connection does Wordsworth make between the
speakers memories of the past and their ability to experience peace in the
present? Cite evidence from all four poems to support your response.
8. Evaluate Sonnets Both Composed upon Westminster Bridge and The
World Is Too Much with Us are Petrarchan sonnets. For each poem, identify
the speakers situation or problem in the octave and his comments in the
sestet. Which sonnet provides a more satisfying resolution?
9. Compare Texts Review I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud and Dorothy Wordsworths
journal entry on page 809. How does Dorothys response to the daffodils compare
with her brothers? Explain any similarities in the images and feelings expressed.
Text Criticism
10. Critical Interpretations Some critics have argued that Wordsworth presents
an idealistic, and therefore unrealistic, portrait of childhood. Based on
Tintern Abbey, do you agree with this argument? Support your opinion
with details from the poem.
excerpt below, Wordsworth repeats the adjective dear and uses exclamation
points to express his affection for his sister Dorothy.
My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch
The language of my former heart, and read
My former pleasures in the shooting lights
Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while
May I behold in thee what I was once,
My dear, dear Sister! . . . (lines 116121)
PRACTICE Write your own sentences about a topic you feel strongly about, imitating
Wordsworths use of repetition and exclamation points to create emphasis.
example
Five years have passed; five summers, with the length / Of five long
winters!
One week has passed; seven slow days with seven slow nights! So many hours of
waiting in the hospital to see if his condition had improved.
1. These hedgerows, hardly hedgerows, little lines / Of sportive wood run wild;
2. In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, / Felt in the blood, and felt along
the heart;
3. How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee, / O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer
through the woods, / How often has my spirit turned to thee!
reading-writing connection
YOUR Expand your understanding of imagery by responding to this prompt.
Then, use the revising tips to improve your essay.
TURN