PGTRB Unit 3

Poetry-For Detailed Study
Immortality Ode,
William wordsworth - 1770-1850
born at cocker mouth, Cumberland
2 elder brother 2 younger brother a sister Dorothy. while he was 8 his
mother died and the shock of the blow hi father died ater 6 years
(When he was 14)
Studied at Hawkshead and Combridge The French revolution was at
its height and he was fascinated by it.
fell in love with a French woman Annete Vallon who bore him a
daughter. The impracticability of marrying her plunged him in
pessimisim for a while. In Dorothy‘s (his sister) constant love and care
a new peace and happiness were coming over.
In 1795 he met Coleridge – who had the most profound influence over
him (next to Dorothy of coruse) They together published their
famous ―Lyrical Bollads‖ jointly in two editions 1798 and 1800.
wordsworth – was the one who actually contributed the vast majority
of the Lyrical Ballads. Coleridge‘s super natural tale of ―The Ancient
Mariner‖ was the major and outstanding contribution. Wordsworth
married Mary Hutchinson (a child-hood friend) – five children (two
died in infancy) Dorothy remained a member of his household.
he was recognized more widely after the publication of Coleridge‘s
‗Biographia Literaria‘ in 1817. After the death of Southey in 1843
(Wordsworth) he was made poet Laureate somewhat against his will.
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Immortality ode
Romantic Movement
English romantic movement began in 1798 with the publication of
Lyrical Ballads.
not a sudden outburst but the result of long and gradual growth &
development
Poets of the romantic school
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats etc.
The Elizabethans were the first romantics. Literature is essentially
romantic in spirit.
Decline of Romanticism
Romantic spirit suffered a total decline and eclipse during Augustan
age. Augustan Literature (A.L) was mainly intellectual and rational,
deficient in emotion and imagination A.L. dealt exclusively with the
artificial life of upper classes of the city of London form and diction
and theme – artificial. No feeling for nature.
PRE-ROMANTICS
― Return to Nature‖ played a very prominent part in the revival of
romanticism.
wanted to return to the free and invigorating life of the world of leaves
and flowers ‗The season‘ (170 lines) of Thomson that nature came to
her own for the first time and flourished is the poetry of Gray, Collins,
Burns, Cowper and Crabbe – (they are called Phe cursors of romantic
movement) show a genuine feeling for nature. Blake was the first to

introduce the romantic note of mysticism in English poetry. His
poems are ―extraordinary compositions, full of unearthly visions,
charming simplicity and baffling obscurity
Medieval Revival
Middle Ages were essentially romantic magic and mystery, love and
adventure. They stirred the imagination of the romantics.
The Lyricall Ballads
History of romanticism was taken with the publication of the Lyrical
Ballads in 1798. It was now for the first time wordsworth and
Coleridge emphasized the aims and Objectives of the new poetry.
Coleridge pointed out that he would treat of objects and incidents
super natural Wordsworth deal with subjects taken from ordinary
and commonplace life. Contribution of wordsworth to English
Romantic movement
1.The rejection of the Heroic couplet and introduction of a no. of new
metres
2.The rejection of (18th poetic diction.
3.The introduction of simplicity in theme and treatment
4.The democratisation of the subject matter of poetry
5.The revival of the love of wild and real nature
Other Romantic poets
Keats, Shelley and Byron belong to the second generation of romantic
poets.
began to compose mainly after 1815
Poets of 1st generation attained respectability and social acceptance in
their life time

Poets of 2nd generation remained outcast till the end. Their fame grew
only after their death.
Keats is a unique phenomenon in the history of romanticism . He
represants a unique balance of classicism and romanticism. Unlike
his Contemporarics he keeps aloof from the stirring events of the day.
He was the first to die but even in his youth and within the short
period of 4 years he attained such heights that the only poet who
merits comparison with him is Shakespeare. French and German
Influences The French Revolution (FR) and German Idealistic
Philosophy of Kant, Hegel and Nietze. The French Revolution and the
writings of the makers fired the imagination of English. romantics. ―
The Return to Nature and the democratic spirit were nourished and
fostered by the revolution. It is fed and strengthened by poets like
Byron and Shelley.
―The German Idealistic Philosophy reached English romantics largely
through Coleridge. Ace to the philosophy God, the supreme is
immanent through the universe. There is essential unity between
man, nature and God. This spirit, The divine is only reality. The rest
are only appearances, unreal and momentary.
Ode:- Intimations of immortality from Recollections of early
childhood. (208 lines)
The inspiration came to flow from his conversations with his sister
Dorothy
Poems were all evocations from his recollections of their childhood
when their parents were alive and dead.
The Title
Ode became stylized during the Latin period. The long title mary
seem a bit confusing. Once the subject matter is understood. title is
an exact one. ‗Intimations‘ means Occasional glimpses through
spiritual perception. ―of immortality‖ means of the spiritual world or
sphere as differenciated from the purely physical or intellectual
sphere
Starza:-
I. prfixed to 1st starza – 3 lines of an epigraph from ―The Rainbow‖.
childhood days – he lived the fullest spiritual life and hopes it will
continue thro recollection at least during his life as a man.
II. The beautiful objects of nature still appeal to him but he misses the
vision when he was a child.
III. Wordsworth has a very powerful memory for these incidents that
made ‗an emotional impact on him. This emotion could be evoked
through recollection.
IV. ―Whither is fled that visionary gleam?
Where is it now the glory and the dream?
with this end the 1st section of the poem written of 1802. The next
day he and his sister Dorothy walked over to see Coleridge. It inspires
Coleridge to write his own ode on the same subject. He does not feel
the joy of nature and the children and their celebration of spring.
Lapse of two years he comes to back to the poem and attempts
another explanation in stanzas V to VII – men‘s gradual alienation
from contact with the spirit of the universe.

V. Wordsworth presents one aspect of the alienation of man from his
original of spiritual perception.
― Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting‖
he uses the Greek or platonic that the soul comes from God to be
embodied in a child at birth.
Early childhood - had most one me morable experiences of earth
Youth - guided by the vision splendid
Man - it die away and fade into the light of common day.
Here he emphasis the element of time.
VI. The unforgetfulness of the spiritual world man is caught up in the
material world of natural
VII. As a child he begins to imitate the activities of his parent and
grown ups – using his own spiritual gift.
VIII. Address to the child
IX. Man must accept the position and try possible to retain the memory
of the earlier vision and recollection to develop the philosophic mind.
X. Growing maturity of man also brings wisdom which comes
through reflection and compassion for humanity.
XI. he again returns to his poetic faith already expressed in ―Tinton
Abbey‖.
Aspects of nature seemed to produce in Wordsworth as a young
boy and youth an unusual and even unique emotional reaction.
Wordsworth is a master of poet and may be considered as the 3rd
great English poet after Shakespeare and Milton
―To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often
lie too deep for tears‖
Partly written in 1803
Partly written in 1806
greatest and noblest of English poems.
Theme:-
Immortality of the human soul. Masterpiece of philosophical and
metaphysical poetry. Wordsworth‘s actual experiences. Child‘s
feelings of immortality is based upon his memories of heavenly life.
Poem:-
Begins with a sense of loss and ends with calm reflection and sense of
gain.
Epigraph – 1
st line
―The child is the father of the man‖
Tintern Abbey
- William Wordsworth
Full title of the poem
―Lines composed a few miles above ―Tintern abbey on revisiting the
bank of the river wye during a Tour July 13, 1798‖
Poet‘s first visit in - 1733
Second time in – 1798
The second visit made the poet conscious of his changed attitude to
Nature. His attitude to Nature has undergone mary changes. But his
love for nature remains unchanged.
1.When he was a boy – he was full of animal spirits. He wandered along
rivers streams and mountains jumping about.
2.When he was a young man he developed sensuous feeling for nature.
He was thrilled only by the external colours and forms of nature.
3.Old age – Wordsworth realized that youthful pursuits were
“thoughtless” He turned to tragedies of life.
Wordsworth pays a glorious tribute he his sister Dorothy
Wordsworth he tells her that nature will protect her and him from the
dreariness of daily life. He requests her not to forget their joint visit to
Wye. in future if she visits she will certainly reminded of her intimacy
with her brother. The river will be connecting link bet them.
T.A throws valuable light on Wordsworth‘s relationship with nature
and with his sister
sycamore – a kind of tree
T.A. can be regarded as an autobiography of Wordsworth‘s spiritual
development.
Ode to Dejection,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834)
The book pleased him - Arabian Night‘s Entertainments.
‗I look no pleasure in boyish sports‘
‗but read incessantly. So I became a dreamer and before I was 8 I
was a character‘

Before he was 10his father died. He was admitted is to Christ‘s
Hospital. There he got acquaintances with lamb.
1792 S.T. Coleridge won a Browne medal for a Greek Ode in Jesus
college, Cambridge .
1795 he married Sarah Fricker.
1796 S.T. Coleridge published his earliest poems – ‗Poems on
Various subjects‘
1797 – 1798 S.T. Coleridge wrote almost all his Best poetry.
The Ancient Mariner
The Nightingale
The 1st part of S.T. Coleridge (2nd part added to it in 1800)
Love fears in solitude
Frost at midnight Kublakhan
Influenced by the ideology French of Revolution marriage failure,
health broke, physical suffering clorve him the habit of taking
opium
Best Poems
‗The ancient Mariner‘
S.T. Coleridge and Mariner
Kublakhan - have profound influence on modern poetry.
Chirstable great poet, critic and philosopher in each of these
spheres he contributed original ideas and through them provided a
fresh impetus. His name in English Literacture is always associated
with wordsworth.
Two out standing Charateristics of Coleridge Poetry
1.Its pervading sense of mystery
2.The crystalline simplicity with which that mystery is expressed.
S.T. Coleridge was the 1st illustrated the value of suggestion in
creating a proper atmosphere of romance and wonder.
Ode to Dejection Coleridge (139 lines)
Writter in 1802
Ode to Dejection described as the poet‘s dirge to his own
imagination.
Ill health brought depression and lowering of animal spirits,
recourse to opium resulted not only in a deadening of natural
sensibilities but also in preventing resurrection of poetic powers.
The poem gives the fullest expression to found in his poetry of the
transcendental principle (of the free powers of the human mind and
soul)
S.T. Coleridge Unhappiness has sapped his creative powers. He
examines himself and his inner being and sees nothing but empty
lifeness depression.
The grief of S.T. Coleridge is due to his feeling that he had last the
power to create through the imagination.
Laments the circumstances that have brought about this spiritual
tragedy. Nature had given him abundant powers but his constant
Unhappiness destroyed these powers. He is painfully Conscious of
his loss.
He believes that imagination is the primary instrument of all
spiritual and creative powers. He lost not only his poetical gift but
what makes life worth living.
Nature Acc to S.T. Coleridge cannot by herself heal and soothe the
deep sorrow of the human heart. Neither can the heart feel the
beauty of nature Unless the heart is Stimulated by joy. Our own
imagination Kindled and excited by the deep power of joy. The poet
has lost this joy which can alone Unlock the treasures of nature
and with this joy he has lost his inestimable gift of imagination. S.T.
Coleridge wishes that the joy that he has lost for ever may ever
bless Sara Hutchinson (Wordsworth‘s sister – in – low, with whom
S.T. Coleridge though married, was in love)
It is in the joy of the soul that all things of external nature live. This
joy S.T. Coleridge has lost but he wishes that it may for ever belong
to his beloved friend, the blessed Lady of the poem.
Percy Bysshe Shelley – 1792 – 1822
Uncommon boy, violent in his likes and dislikes.
By nature he was revolutionary, fell in love with Harriet west Brook.
Marriage – failure – agreed to be separated. Shelley married Marry
Godwin in 1816. During these years he wrote Queen Mab and
Alaster
1819 – he composed the great lyric drama ‗ Promotheus Unbound‘.
Finest lyrics.
Ode to the west wind
To the skylark and The cloud.
Adonais appeared in 1821. As a poet he contributed to poetry a new
quality – a quality of ideality freedom and spiritual audacity .
Poet of future, he looks forward to a new world order, based on solid
foundations‘ of love, freedom and brotherhood.
Coleridge : Kubla Khan
Background.
S.T. Coleridge was not keeping good health in summer of 1797. In
his farm house he went into a deep sleep in his chair reading.
Purchas pilgrimage which described a palace built by kublakhan in
Xanadu.
On walking up after 3 hours, S.T. Coleridge took a pen and paper
started to write a beautiful poem about the palace and the garden.
Kublakhan is a dream or reverie Kublakhana a I Tartar king –
associated with desires. Hence Kublakhan wanted to create an
Eden and the fertile garden was enclosed with a wall.
Kublakhan deals with supernatural Elemant. Kublakhan the
famous emperor ordered that a palace fit for his pleasures should
be planned and built and to be situated on the banks of river Alph
area 10miles square.
Walls and towers huge, massive gardens and woods and orchards
were laid out with such art and care that flowers borne by the
plants and trees were like incense.
Sunny spots of green lawn amidst thick forests.
In one part of the layout of the palace and its environs a steep
chasm sloped down to a wooded area – where cidar trees grow
thickly.
This spot was suggestive of fear and romance, loliness and
enchantment
Poet think of the mortal woman longing for her demon. Lover as
sometimes belived of women who are under the sway of evil spirits.
Another peculiarity of the slope was that it bubbled a powerful
spring which shot up water with such force, tossed up huge
boulders and bits of rock along with foam of the current.
Underground spring flows 5 miles of Zig- Zag course and falls in to
a calm, dark and silent Ocean From the noise made by the flow of
the river, the emperor ofter heard prophetic voices foretelling wars
with his enemies.
The tall submits of the palace reflected on the surface of the river.
The remarkable of these domes was the one which was warm and
sunny at the top and cozy cold below.
Vision of the Abyssinian maid whom he had seen once singing to
the accompaniment of a dulcimen. Her music was so ravishing that
he could onlyreproduce it and refashion the palace of Kublakhan
but he would make all others who heard his song see the whole
wonderful fabric as he saw it in mind‘s eye. Then they would all
realize that he was a gifted child of spirit which would show him to
be not a mortal creature but one born and bred up in the elfin or
mysterious surroundings.
Kublakhan is drenched in dream imagery.
The essence of a dream is its inconsequence and illogicality is
realized only after waking up – entirely
1. Absorbed in dream – no objections to details.
2. Disconnected nature of the thing Seen or the impressions
evoked in our minds by it. Know nothing about the inside
except a mention of sunny dome and caves of ice.
The river is sacred the idea is
particularly Eastein Only they treat rivers sacred. Rivers do ofter
go Underground and then come up again.
This is given a supernatural magic turn.
3. The blending of the vision of the palace of Kublakhan with
another dream. He is sustained by the food of the gods and
drinks the milk of paradise.
Keats : Ode on a Grecian Urn,
Born in 1795, Keats died before he could complete 26 years of age.
F.R Leavis calls that the success was due not only to hard work but
also to his critical intelligence.
Leavis finds that ‗ode to Nightingale‘ has the structure of a fine and
complex organism‘
Maurice Buxton forman collected and published the Letters of John
Keats. (94th edition 1952) The letters established his intellectual
range which proved once for all the Keats was not a wild genius or a
simple soul inspired by the Muses.
In 1848, under the editorship of Richard Monckton miles, two
volumes of his life, letters and remains published, the reading public
realized that Keats ―had engaged in a life of thought, with unusual
ability, and seriously planned his contribution to the literature of his
age and country in the manner of a philosophic maturity‖.
1. In the first letter written to his friend ‗Benjamin Bailey‘ in 1817, he
speaks something that happened to increase his humility. He says
that ―men of genius are great as certain etheral chemicals operating
on the man of neutral character‖. He only knows of ―the holiness of
the heart‘s affection and truth of the imagination‖. Using poetic
symbolism keats says ―Imagination may be compared to Adam‘s
dream he awoke and found it truth‖.
This letter is important for this wish which expresses the essence of
his philosophy and gives a clue to an understanding of the famous
phrase ‗negative capability‘
2. The next letter written in February 1818 to John Taylor, Contains
Keat‘s axioms.
1. Poetry should express the reader‘s thoughts but in fine diction, 2.
Like the sun, the expressions of beauty, quite naturally, rise,
progress and set. The imagery used by the poet should shine
brightly. 3. ―If poetry comes not as naturally as the
leaves to a tree it had better not come at all‖.
3. The next letter written in 1818 to his friend Reynolds, contains his
important thoughts regarding expanding knowledge. ―An extensive
knowledge is needful and it helps by widening speculation, to ease
the burden of the mystery. To exaggerate his sensuousness and
conclude that he did not want a life of thoughts is a critical error.
Keats here made his position very clear in knowledge and sensation.
Speaking of Wordsworth‘s genius, he says that axioms in philosophy
are to be proved on our pulses is personal experience and faith. He
compares human life to a large mansion of many apartments.
(The Bible). Two of which Keats can describe.
1. The first is the infant thoughtless chamber where we remain as
long as we are without thoughts.
2. The doors of the second chamber remain wide open and after a
long interval we go near it pushed by thoughts. This chamber can be
called room of maiden thought.
We now feel ‗the burden of the mystery‘ (a phrase borrowed from
Wordsworth) Keats felt that the time had not come for him to go
exploring the areas of human misery.
4. In the next letter, to Richard Wodehouse written on 27 October
1818, Keats speaks of the poetical character. He uses a series of
Oxymorons and paradoxes to describe it being everything and also
nothing. A poet has no identity, he fills others and plays many roles
as such he is the most unpoetical of all God‘s creatures.
Keats ambition was to write a great epic but after writing the first
‗Hyperion‘, he stopped it was becoming Miltonic in its grand style.
Keats composed his ‗Ode to Autumn‖ after abonding the second
attempt at ‗Hyperion‘ the epic. The ode shows the relation between
Keats sensuousness and seriousness and his capacity for rapid
development.
Coleridge‘s contribution is the emphasis on imagination. Coleridge‘s
powerful use of imagination can be seen in his ―Kublakhan‖. Such
imaginative vision can be seen in Keat‘s odes. Besides his thoughts
on poetic diction and nature, Wordsworth paid it down almost as a
rule that poetry is the result of the overflow of poetic emotions
recollected in tranquility.
Keats did consider himself to be a critic and made no attempt to
evolve a theory. De Quincy‘s essay on the knocking at the Gate in
Macbeth‘ is a fine example of ‗affective fallacy‘. Keat‘s critical
intelligence which helped him to grow and reach maturity rapidly in
seen in the letters he wrote to his friends and relations.
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Was written in the spring of may 1819. Probably soon after the ‗Ode
to a Nightingale‘
It is ‗on‘ and not ‗to; a Grecian Urn – indicates to us that
meditation is conveyed directly to the reader and not addressed to
the urn
This Ode inspired by Elgin Marbles contrasts the Unsatisfying
human life with art, which is everlasting beautiful. What life loses
in reality art gains in permanence.
1
st stanza
Poem starts with an invocation ‗Thou still unravised bride of
quietness Thou foster child of silence and slow time‘.
The sight of the Urn and the sculptured images suggest the abstract
relations of art and life.
The Urn remains Unaffected by the ravages of time and conjures up
the images of the Virgin purity Time, the great destroyer has
preserved the Urn – like a foster child. He foster
– parent – preserves the Urn the work of art to posterity.

2
nd stanza
Tempe - a beautiful valley between
Arcady - mountaineous country of development, ideal pastoral
country.
The power of the plastic art stimulates our imagination. The
imagined experience is superior to reality which loses its charm by
conditions of feeling.
Satiety and decay.
‗Heard melodies are sweet but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes play
on‘.
Melodies we hear in reality are sweet but these Unheard are sweeter
because they belong to the realms of the ideal. Ideal is more
permanent than the real. Things that are seen are temporal,
‗Unseen are eternal‘.
3
rd Stanza
The happy lover standing under the ever fresh tree will continue to
love the damsel arduously; will remain free from the anguish of real
life.
4
th Stanza
A perfect picture of a sacrificial holiday that evokes the curiosity of
the poet. The poet is now looking at the other side of the Urn.
5
th stanza
The beautiful shape and the figure on the urn speak of the
immutable law of beauty and its identification with truth.
‗Beauty is truth, truth beauty‘ – that is all ye know on earth, and all
ye need to know.
(To see things in their beauty is to see things in their truth –
Matthew Arnold) what the imagination seizes as Beauty must be
Truth. Such a perception of beauty always leads no joy.
‗A thing of beauty is a joy for ever‘.
Ode to Autumn.- John Keats 1795- 1821
Last but most pefect of romantic poets
Poetry known for its sensuousness and picturesqueness. To him ‗A
thing of beauty is a joy forever‘.
The Poem ‗To Autumn‖ – Known for its appeal to the sense of sight,
smell, sound, touch and taste.
1st stanza – gustatory images (grapes, apples, gourds and hazel
nuts)
2nd stanza - Visual image ( a winnower, a reaper, a gleaner and a
cider presser)
3rd stanza - music (grants, lambs, crickets, red breast and swallows)
It is different from other odes of Keats
No expression of personality
Of Keats three famous odes this is the best in poetic workmanship.
In form it is an ode.
The word ‗ode‘ emphasizes the musical element in the poem.
Functions of Autumn.
It is a season of mists and fruitfulness
Close friend of the maturing sun.
During this season flowers bloom and fruits ripen.
Autumn co – operates with the sun to load vine Geepers with
grapes, to bend trees with trees with apples, to fill the fruits with
ripeness.
1st stanza - gustatory images and visual image of bees overwhelmed
by surfeit of honey olfactory image of flowers with their smell
drowing the bees.
Sights of autumn.
2nd stanza - presents a familiar figures of occupation of autumn. A
winnower sitting on a granary – floor, a reaper sleeping on a half –
reeped farm, a gleaner carrying the gleaned sheaves of grain on her
head and crossing a brook and a cider presser sitting by its side for
the last drops of cider to ooze down.
Melodies of Autumn
It has its own songs. We can hear the humming of grats the
bleating of goats, the chirping of crickets, the whistling of the
redbreast and the twittering of swallows.
This ode does not end on a note of frustration as does‗Ode to
Nighting ale‘.It is impersonal unlike the other odes of keats.
In point of metre it stands apart from the other odes since it
employs a stanza of 11 lines
No romantic longing or ethical meaning.
In this odes Keats is in a tranquil mood, happy in fellowship with
trees, flowers, farmyard, men, Birds and insects.
Shelley : Ode to the West Wind
The west wind in southern Europe is known as the Roaring forties
(forties refers to the latitudes – 30-45 – over which the wind blow)
These winds brings rain because they blow in from over the Atlantic
Ocean bringing moisture.
It can be called both destroyer and preserver long 5 line – 14 line
stanzas 5 4 = 70 lines.
The long lines represent the long drafs of the howling wind through
the forest with Unexpected and Unusual pauses and silences. The
varying speed of the line again indicate varying speed of the wind its
lawless surges and falls.
Terza Rima (abc, bcb, cdc)
Theme : Examination of the future of the age. He sees as the age
one that is close to winter in its civilization and culture and
Herefore ripe for reform and change. The French Revolution was
one event seemed to herald such a change. Shelley‘s view of
Christianity as a religion was not complimentary. There was a
gradual change – an evolution both in democracy and in religion
during the (19th Shelley did not diffentiate between the material
and spiritual as we clearly do. To him it was true axiomatic that the
west wind is a manifestation of Nature but also manifestation of the
spirit).
Wind was to him the expression of truth not the expression of
poetic idea. There was not a doubt at all in his mind that the power
of the west wind was the power of the divine spirit that underlines
the Universe. This is the reason why Shelley is considered a master
at ‗myth making‘. He does not think of the relationship between
man and Universe as bet two conscious beings.
‗Myth is a form of poetry which transcends poetry in that it
proclaims a truth‘. Shelley is merely presenting truth as he sees it
in the form of myth Both ‗The skylark and the west wind‘ are
expression of this aspect of Shelley‘s relation to the natural world.
Shelley then is religious in very different way from the usual
concept of nature. He is a platonic theist one who believes that
there is deity, a spirit but the spirit is not merely anthropomorphic,
the spirit parvades all creation and can be perceived in all creation.
So all life to him was spiritual and inanimate creation how.
As Hopkins said
‗The world is filled with glory of God‘
But to Shelley
‗The world was filled with Love of God and the power of God‘
so Shelley may be passionately said ‗a religious poet to Shelley the
cycle of destruction, preservation and regenation embraces not
merely the vegetation but also the human and even the divine.
(OWW) – is also an expression of Shelley‘s Lyricism one of the finest
and riches lyrics> The poem opens in spring and ends in autumn
Life of human being is not steady like that nature also changes.
Destroyer - Carries Yellow, blue, geetic red leaves and seeds.
Preserver - Buries the seeds in the sand in the Autumn and it will
sprout in the spring.
(Important lines)
‗It I were a dead leaf thou mightiest bear.
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee.
‗Oh lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud‘
‗If winter comes can spring be far behind?‘
Adonais – 1822
-Shelley (pessimist, singer, of endless sorrow)
It is a pastoral elegy.
Written on the death of John keats.
Published in the year 1822 – a few months before Shelley‘s own
death.
Written in Spenserian stanzas and represents Shelley‘s apprection
on Keats .
Shelley uses the name ‗Adonais‘ for Keats for he found many
resemblances between the fate of Adonais – the Greek youth who
was killed by a wild boar in the prime of youth and that of Keats
poem two parts.
I
st part stanzas 1 to 37 : expression of the poet‘s grief and
indignation at the premature death of Keats.
IInd part stanzas 38 till the end : expression of joy and triumph for
the poet is not really dead. He is a part of the eternal.
This divisions is merely for the sake of convenience and the poem is
in reality a continuous whole. The two parts are being closely
interlinked.
The Protagonist (Shelley) cries for his friend (Keats) who is dead.
The first two lines of the poem are an imitation of Theocritus.
I weep for Adonais – he is dead!.
O, weep for Adonais, though our tears.
That met the frest which binds so dear a head!
The poet asks the readers to weep and the Goddess of Venus Urania
(Keats was a worshipper of Beauty and Love) represented as the
mother of the dead poet to weep with him at the sad loss. First he
asked the mother to cry – ‗Wake and weep‘ Then he exhorts her not
to cry. His (Keats) heart was full of pain and now he has gort peace.
‗a mute and Uncomplaining sleep‘ We have mourned the death of
great poets like Dante and Milton and now it is Keats. After Dante
and Homer he was the ‗third among the sons of light‘ physical death
is inevitable but some are lucky they are remembered even after
death because of their poems Admais is compared to a flower whose
petals are nipped before it can bloom.
In the fashion of the typical pastoral elegy, Shelley asks us to
mourn for Keats. His dreams, his thoughts are represented as his
flock of sheep. They mourn the death of their master. Keats poetry
had emotional Strength and warmth. The train of mournel includes
all the dreams and aspirations which would have become the
substances of his poems.
The early morning‘s dew is actually the tears shed by morning
to mourn Keats death. Echo too is dumb. All the seasons of Nature
are mourniy the death of Keats. No one who has this gift. Both
phoebus and narcissus loved Keats and now they are pale and sad.
Even spring seems like autumn. The nightingale mourns for her
companion the eagle mourns for her offspring. Everything that has
a birth dies but soon there is a rebith again.
The second movement of the poem – see the pain of life and final
realization that whatever death is, it is an escape from pain. Urania
decides to go in Scerch of Keats. She was dumb with sorrow and
proceeded to the place where Adonous was sleeping.
Urania Gies out ‗Leave me not wild and dear and comfortless As
silent lightening leaves the starless night‘. She imagines Adonais is
alive and rushes to embrace him, but embraces Death.
Adonais was killed by malicious envy. Let us not weep over Keats
death Keats is with immortal dead. ‗Dust to the dust‘ is the rule but
a pure spirit goes to heaven Death is preferable to life in this
World. Poem ends typical Shelleyean logic ‗The elegists rejects life
and dashes towards the immortal stars‘.
For Non-Detailed Study
Prelude - Book-I
- William Wordsworth
647 lines – (1798 – 1805) (1770 – 1850)
It is supposed to be the introductory part of a long poem designed as
―The Recluse‖ or ―views on man Nature and society. The title was
given by his wife.
The prelude is a period from childhood to the poet‘s prime tracing the
growth of his aesthetic seusibility.
Sub title – “The Growth of poet’s mind.
a spiritual autobiography
It is a poetical record of the poet‘s life from childhood to early middle
age.
14 books
1st 2 describe the poet‘s early love of nature and various formative
influences. At this stage he had begun to realize the wisdom of
nature. next 4 books describe Wordsworth‘s stay at Cambridge and
his experiences gained there and also in his tours undertaken during
vacations. At this time he learnt to admire the poets like Chaucer.
Spencer and Milton. At this time French Revolution made a deep and
lasting impression on him. VII to XI are darted to the description of
wordsworth‘s enthusim for great revolution
The 1st 45 lines constitute the introduction to the prelude Main theme
of ‗The prelude‘ is ‗The making of a poet‘
Book I and II - Deals with poet‘s early love of nature and gradual
growth of his awareness of it
III, IV, V - Student life at Cambridge
III - Concerns with his actual residence in college
V - Poet‘s attachment to books
VII - London life is reflected
VIII - Has a subtitle ―Love of nature leading to love of man‖ and
shows the relation bet man and Nature
IX, X, XI - Reveal the impact of French Revolution on the poet‘s
emotional and intellectual make - up
XII, XIII, XIV - show how imagination obsorbing all experiences and
transcending it, links mankind with divine.
Prelude - 645 lines
Wordsworth himself did not choose any title for poem. His family and
friends knew it only as ‗a poem to Coleridge‘ Coleridge also refers to it
as ‗The Recluse and in ‗The friend‘. Edwin Morgan says ―it is rightly
named ‗The prelude‘ because it is the prelude to an unwritten poem‖
Purpose of the poem two fold.
1.Self examination – to find out if he was really a poet who could write
something of perennial value.
2.self- expression
The opening lines of the poem express the deep sense of joy and relief
that Wordsworth felt after living the city of London for Racedown
(valley) where he and Dorothy Wordsworth came to settle in the
autumn of 1795 Wordsworth seems to have been influenced by the
(18th philosopher David Hartley‘s ―Theory of association‖ Acc to this
theory the character of a man develops during childhood and youth
as a direct result of his physical experiences and feelings of pleasure
and pain from such experience. In the end Wordsworth states that he
has succeeded in achieving at least one object i.e. his mind has been
refreshed and rejuvenated. It this mood persists, he will soon be able
to continue his tale of the later years. He feels contented that his path
is clear for his theme is single moreover he hopes that his humbler
Labour will be appreciated by his honored friend.
Auto biographical poem of 14 books.
Intended to form part of a vast philosophical work called ―The
Recluse‖ which was never completed
Commceed in 1799 and completed in 1805 but pub a year after the
poet‘s death in 1850
Complete record of wordsworth‘s development from his childhood
days to the period of his maturity. In this work the poet describes his
experience with a fullness, closeness and laborious anxiety.
The poem is at places dull and prosy but at times particulary when
the poet dwells on the formative influences of nature.
Composed in blank verse
Abercrombie says ―The prelude is much more than an autobiography‖
story of universal significance It is story of the mind , greatly
conscious of his own enigma, gradually establishing its secure
relationship with the world equally enigmatic. This is the modern
epic.
Adonais – 1822
-Shelley (pessimist, singer, of endless sorrow)
It is a pastoral elegy.
Written on the death of John keats.
Published in the year 1822 – a few months before Shelley‘s own
death.
Written in Spenserian stanzas and represents Shelley‘s apprection
on Keats .
Shelley uses the name ‗Adonais‘ for Keats for he found many
resemblances between the fate of Adonais – the Greek youth who
was killed by a wild boar in the prime of youth and that of Keats
poem two parts.
I
st part stanzas 1 to 37 : expression of the poet‘s grief and
indignation at the premature death of Keats.
IInd part stanzas 38 till the end : expression of joy and triumph for
the poet is not really dead. He is a part of the eternal.
This divisions is merely for the sake of convenience and the poem is
in reality a continuous whole. The two parts are being closely
interlinked.
The Protagonist (Shelley) cries for his friend (Keats) who is dead.
The first two lines of the poem are an imitation of Theocritus.
I weep for Adonais – he is dead!.
O, weep for Adonais, though our tears.
That met the frest which binds so dear a head!
The poet asks the readers to weep and the Goddess of Venus
Urania (Keats was a worshipper of Beauty and Love) represented as
the mother of the dead poet to weep with him at the sad loss. First
he asked the mother to cry – ‗Wake and weep‘ Then he exhorts her
not to cry. His (Keats) heart was full of pain and now he has gort
peace. ‗a mute and Uncomplaining sleep‘ We have mourned the
death of great poets like Dante and Milton and now it is Keats. After
Dante and Homer he was the ‗third among the sons of light‘
physical death is inevitable but some are lucky they are
remembered even after death because of their poems Admais is
compared to a flower whose petals are nipped before it can bloom.
In the fashion of the typical pastoral elegy, Shelley asks us to
mourn for Keats. His dreams, his thoughts are represented as his
flock of sheep. They mourn the death of their master. Keats poetry
had emotional Strength and warmth. The train of mournel includes
all the dreams and aspirations which would have become the
substances of his poems.
The early morning‘s dew is actually the tears shed by morning to
mourn Keats death. Echo too is dumb. All the seasons of Nature are
mourniy the death of Keats. No one who has this gift. Both phoebus
and narcissus loved Keats and now they are pale and sad. Even
spring seems like autumn. The nightingale mourns for her
companion the eagle mourns for her offspring. Everything that has
a birth dies but soon there is a rebith again.
The second movement of the poem – see the pain of life and final
realization that whatever death is, it is an escape from pain.
Urania decides to go in Scerch of Keats. She was dumb with sorrow
and proceeded to the place where Adonous was sleeping.
Urania Gies out
‗Leave me not wild and dear and comfortless As silent lightening
leaves the starless night‘.
She imagines Adonais is alive and rushes to embrace him, but
embraces Death.
Adonais was killed by malicious envy. Let us not weep over Keats
death Keats is with immortal dead. ‗Dust to the dust‘ is the rule but
a pure spirit goes to heaven Death is preferable to life in this
World. Poem ends typical Shelleyean logic ‗The elegists rejects life
and dashes towards the immortal stars‘.
Life reflects Eternity
Keats died at Rome. He was only 25 years old – tuberculosis is
Shelley is older than Keats .
Pastoral elegy is a form where the character came as shepherds.
Certain rules are followed. The grief is directly presented. It is
presented through different myths and characters.
The Origin of the pastoral is found in the works of Theorcritus –a
native of the Syracuse in Sicily. His successors were Bion and
Moschus. There is always a procession of mourners who come
oftering flowers.
‗Adonais‘ passes through various moods – grief, pity, anger and
symbolism to controll joy. A similar chain of emotions is seen in
Milton‘s ‗Lycidas‘ Both Milton and Shelley follow Theocritus with
their pastoral setting and direct expression of sorrow It is in no way
inferior to
Milton‘s ‗Lycida‘ (Milton‘s college friend Edward king)
Arnold‘s ‗Thyrsis‘ (Arnold‘s friend Arthur Hugh clough)
Tennyson‘s ‗In memoriam‘ (Tennyson‘s friend Arthur Henry Hallam)

Adonais occupies a distinctive place among English elegies.
There is strain of high oratory thoughout ‗Adonais‘ which suggests
the influence of ‗Child Harold‘ The concluding lines ‗The soul of
Adonais, like a star, Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are‘
– Most sublime expressions of Shelley‘s philosophy of life and death
and of the immortality of the soul‘ Keats self chosen epitaph was
‗Here lieth one whose name was writ on water‘
Prose-For Detailed Study
Lamb : Essays of Elia
-Charles Lamb 1775 – 1834
Best beloved English Essayist
Youngest of 7 children – 3 survived
John – the elder, Charles and Sister Mary.
He was sent to ‗Blue Coat‘ – a charity School of Christ‘s hospital
where he remained from 1782 – 1789
In 1791 he was appointed as a clerk in the South –Sea House
His friendship with Coleridge, developed during 1795 -1796. He
joined him in writing Sonnets. His First Sonnets were addressed to
the Ann Simons (the Jerdfordshire maiden) due to an Un successful
love. The death of Coleridge in 1834 was a great blow to him. He
died on 29 th December 1834.
As an Essayist he is Unsurpassed
As a dramatic critic he is a pioneer.
Classic Poetry.
‗The old Familiar faces and Hester‘
First Book.
‗The Tale of Rosamond Gray‘
One of the most pathetic stories in English Literature
Best book.
‗Essays of Elia‘. Originally appeared in London Magazine Later 1803
it was published in a Collected form.
In 1833 he published his ‗Last Essays of Elia‘
Essays are intimate expression of the writer, his mind, his life and
that makes him an individual he resembles Montaigne.
Ficticions figure of Elia is his own shadow, the cousin Bridget is his
sister, and Alice in Ann Simmons . Essays are dateless
Shadow of facts
It is supposed to be written by Elia as a kind of rejoiner to an essay
called ‗Recollections of christ‘s Hospital‘ Written by Charles Lamb.
Lamb gave only one sided Picture, the present writter (Lamb
impersonates as Elia) would like to give his own impressions about
the place.
Lamb as a student enjoyed certain advantages which were denied to
others he had the luxury of tasting the food sent by his aunt Hetty.
Elia was a poor and friendless boy. The pangs of hunger nulified (no
effect)the pleasureof freedom.
‗Lamb escaped the serverity of the masters.
Elia and other flogged (bear with rod/whip) for oftences, which they
had not committed.
A boy collected the left over gag everyday. At first others thought
that he would eat them in the might and suspected that he had
been selling it to the beggars and stopped mixing with him.
Ultimately they discovered that he had been taking them to
destitute parents living in the Poor – House. The Governors praised
the boy and presented a silver medal and provided relief for the
family.1st day at School Elia saw a depressing sight of a boy in
fetters(chair for the ankle). The boy was punished for having run
away. Penalty for second oftence – confinement in a
dungeon. Penalty
for third oftence - Flogged severely (loss of respect cause to
feel ashamed)disgraced, humiliated in Front of everybody and
Expelled from school.
Rev. James Boyer – Upper master
Rev. Mathew field – Lower master – whom Elia was one
(Gentleman, Scholar and Christian, easy going)
Pupils remember LyricBoyer with fear mixed with gratitude and
filled with affection.
Dream children : - a lynic in prose
A reverie it a reverie of man who was intensely human and whose
life was a tragedy.
It is a highly moving with its account of his dead brother, non –
existent wife and children. In this he ties to give a concrete shape to
his Unfulfilled parental longings.
Imaginary marriage with Ann Simmons
Imaginary offsprings Alice and John
One evening Alice and John crept closer to the father to know
something about their grandmother Field. She lived in a great
house where the story of the children carved in wood upon the
chimney piece of the great hall. After her death the house came to
decay. She is the best dancer in the country. Hear Alice‘s little right
foot played an involuntary movement.
Then he told about the apparition of two infants which haunt the
place at midnight. Now John expanded his eyebrows and tried to
look courageous. The grandmother was very kind to them. Now
Lamb told the children about their Uncle John Lamb, a favourite of
Mrs. Field . fond of riding and hunting. When Lamb was a lame –
footed boy John used to carry him on his back Later John became
lame footed. When John died Lamb missed very much and
remembered his kindness. The pathetic story of John touched the
hearts of the innocent children. They cried and requested not to tell
them anything more about John but to tell them about their mother
Lamb told how for 7 long years he had courted the fair Alice
sometimes in hope and sometimes in despair suddenly he felt that
the eyes of the old Alice were gazing from the face of the little Alice
sitting before him. As he looked the children seemed to recede(go
back / away from the observer)so they were merely dreams. He VIP-PG-TRB –ENGLISH
COACHING CENTER –DHARMAPURI- 9600736379
woke up to fond himself in the bachelor chair and had fallen asleep
day dreaming.
Pathos is the key note of this essay.
Autobiographical description..
Christ's Hospital,
Shadow of facts
It is supposed to be written by Elia as a kind of rejoiner to an essay
called ‗Recollections of christ‘s Hospital‘ Written by Charles Lamb.
Lamb gave only one sided Picture, the present writter (Lamb
impersonates as Elia) would like to give his own impressions about
the place.
Lamb as a student enjoyed certain advantages which were denied to
others he had the luxury of tasting the food sent by his aunt Hetty.
Elia was a poor and friendless boy. The pangs of hunger nulified (no
effect)the pleasureof freedom.
‗Lamb escaped the serverity of the masters.
Elia and other flogged (bear with rod/whip) for oftences, which they
had not committed.
A boy collected the left over gag everyday. At first others thought
that he would eat them in the might and suspected that he had
been selling it to the beggars and stopped mixing with him.
Ultimately they discovered that he had been taking them to
destitute parents living in the Poor – House. The Governors praised
the boy and presented a silver medal and provided relief for the
family.1st day at School Elia saw a depressing sight of a boy in
fetters(chair for the ankle). The boy was punished for having run
away. Penalty for second oftence – confinement in a
dungeon. Penalty
for third oftence - Flogged severely (loss of respect cause to
feel ashamed)disgraced, humiliated in Front of everybody and
Expelled from school.
Rev. James Boyer – Upper master
Rev. Mathew field – Lower master – whom Elia was one
(Gentleman, Scholar and Christian, easy going)
Pupils remember LyricBoyer with fear mixed with gratitude and
filled with affection.
The South Sea House,
The south sea House
Lamb describes the location of south sea – House – where he
worked as a clerk for a short time.(1791)
Recalls his memory, the dignity of the building.
Brief sketches of some of the clerks s worked here, dedicated to
their service. To time to marry –most of them remained bachelors.
Each was a humorist in his own way. Having nothing in common
with others. This assorted group formed a sort of Noah‘s Ark.
1. Cashier Evans – a Welshman, looked irritable but was a sensible
man. He used to suspect
everyone about him a defaulter including himself
2. Thomas Tame (Welshman‘s deputy)
He used to look down condescendingly on
others. He had riches to support his pretensions.
3. John Tipp – the accountant
– thought that he was the best accountant in the world.
Playing the fiddle was his hobby. During working hours, he thought
only of his official duties.
Never took any risk in his life.
4. Henry man – a man of letters wel known for his wit, gibes and
jokes. His collected volumes of jokes thought enjoyable became
stale with the passing of time. Only their epigrammatic quality
remained alive.
Ode to Autumn(33lines) John Keats key note of the poem is
tanquality. The poet seems to be basking in the secenity of the
autumn season. Naturality – therefore the structure is simple and
clean.
3 stanzas show a gradual rise of thought
I
st stanza – autumn is viewed as a season of plenty.
2nd stanza - Personification of autumn.
3rd stanza - made to think with a tinge of melancholy of the cold,
bare trees ahead. But the sense of sadness is merged in the feeling
of the continuous life of nature
Dream children,
Dream children : - a lynic in prose
A reverie it a reverie of man who was intensely human and whose
life was a tragedy.
It is a highly moving with its account of his dead brother, non –
existent wife and children. In this he ties to give a concrete shape to
his Unfulfilled parental longings.
Imaginary marriage with Ann Simmons
Imaginary offsprings Alice and John
One evening Alice and John crept closer to the father to know
something about their grandmother Field. She lived in a great
house where the story of the children carved in wood upon the
chimney piece of the great hall. After her death the house came to
decay. She is the best dancer in the country. Hear Alice‘s little right
foot played an involuntary movement.
Then he told about the apparition of two infants which haunt the
place at midnight. Now John expanded his eyebrows and tried to
look courageous. The grandmother was very kind to them. Now
Lamb told the children about their Uncle John Lamb, a favourite of
Mrs. Field . fond of riding and hunting. When Lamb was a lame –
footed boy John used to carry him on his back Later John became
lame footed. When John died Lamb missed very much and
remembered his kindness. The pathetic story of John touched the
hearts of the innocent children. They cried and requested not to tell
them anything more about John but to tell them about their mother
Lamb told how for 7 long years he had courted the fair Alice
sometimes in hope and sometimes in despair suddenly he felt that
the eyes of the old Alice were gazing from the face of the little Alice
sitting before him. As he looked the children seemed to recede(go
back / away from the observer)so they were merely dreams. He
woke up to fond himself in the bachelor chair and had fallen asleep
day dreaming.
Pathos is the key note of this essay.

Autobiographical description.
New Year's Eve
Intensely autobiographical.
He takes the readers to confidence and reveals his
prejudices(Opinion / like / dislike) preferences, likes, dislike, and
predilection.
He never regrets his Past. for eg; he has no regret that he wasted
seven years of his life undergoing the pangs of unrequited love for
Alice winterton. He feels it is better to have loved and lost than not
to have loved at all.
Does not bother much about his present identity. He is willing to
plead guilty to any charges of misconduct against him.
The elders used to observe all ceremonies and welcome the new
year as it symbolizes the death of the old year. The midnight chime
rouses feeling of joy others but to him only pensive thoughts of
death and Melancholic mood. He loves all earthly things, life that he
would not like death to put an end to the pleasures of his life
Lamb hates and curses death
Can not imagine the grave as a final resting place.
‗A living men is worth twendty dead men‘ concludes the essay by
quoting a poem of Cotton which celebrates life and defies death. He
hopes that this song will be like a tonic to the readers and restore
their spirits.
My First Acquaintance with Poets.
-William Hazlitt 1778 - 1830
Autobiographical Essay
An Essayist and critic
The turning point in his intellectual development was his meeting
with Coleridge in 1798.
He definitely lurked to lit and in 1805 pub his 1st book, ―Essay on the
principles of Human Action which was followed by various other
philosophical and political essays. In 1812 he became parliamentary
and dramatic reporter to the morning chronicle
In 1814 he was a contributor to the Edinburgh Review
In 1817 he published a volume of literary sketches ‗The round table‘.
His personalities shines like a mirror in the same in his essays like
‗my first acquaintarice with poets‖, on the pleasures of painting, on
the feeling of immortality in youth, on a sun dial, of persons one
would wish to have seen, Farewell to essay. writing, ongoing on a
journey, merry England, on the fear etc.
For Non-Detailed Study
Shelley : A Defence of Poetry (refer another materials}
Wordsworth : Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (1850)
With this view, Coleridge wrote „The Ancient mariner‟ and
planned to write „The dark ladie‟ and „Christabel‖ But
Wordsworth‟s contributions were greater in number. Hence arose
the controversy regarding the language of poetry and the nature of
poetry
Objection by Coleridge
Coleridge objects to the preface ―as erroneous in principle. He
wants to show where he agrees with Wordsworth and where he
disagrees with him. Therefore he proceeds to make an analysis of
poetry as he views it.
Philosophic definition of a poem and poetry:
The result of philosophy is the perception of unity. Coleridge begins
his critique of poetry by explaining ―ideas first of a poem and then
of poetry in kind and essence‖.
Prose and poetry:
A poem naturally partakes of the general object of prose as stated
by Coleridge and Wordsworth. But a poem has a form. Coleridge
says a poem uses the same medium as a prose composition, namely
words. Metre and rhyme do not arise from the nature of content or
matter of the poem. They are imposed on a poem to make it more
easily memorized
Aim of poetry
The objects of two different ways of writing the scientific and the
poetical. Each has an immediate object and an ultimate one. The
immediate object of science is truth. The immediate object of a
poem is pleasure. So there need not be a mere super-addition for
ornament‟s sake or to facilitate memory.
Metre, Organic to Poetry:
The communication of pleasure may be the immediate purpose of
work of art not meterically composed. Novels do not become poetry
suppose metre is added to them. The metrical form of poetry is thus
closely related to its language and content. The rhyme and metre
should bear an organic relation to the total work. poem‟s aim to
give pleasure – pleasure arising from the parts. and it increases the
pleasure of the whole.
Poem Defined:
Coleridge finally defines a poem ―A poem is that species of
composition which is opposed to works of science , by proposing for
its immediate pleasure, not truth‖. He further adds that a legitimate
poem is one whose parts mutually support and explain each other.
A more continuous and equal attention is to paid to the parts, and
this is possible only in poetry not in prose.
Role of Imagination:
Coleridge is a great Psychological critic. He distinguishes a „poem‟
and „poetry‟. Poetry is an activity of the poet‟s mind and a „poem‟
is a verbal expression of that activity. A poem is a harmony. This
supreme work is in all powerful imagination. the elements of life
representing (i) Sameness with difference (ii) The general with the
concrete (iii) the idea with the image (iv) the individual with the type
(v) the sense of novelty (familiar objects) (vi) more than usual
emotion (vii) good judgement.
Imagination blends and harmonizes the natural and the artificial
but at the same time it subordinates art to nature, the manner to
matter. Imagination is the soul.
He disagrees with Wordsworth who considers metre as a super
added charm. He also disagrees with him who says there is no
essential difference between the language of prose and poetry.
Chapter XVII
Wordsworth‟s language of poetry is the language of men in real life.
Coleridge objects 1) Rule is applicable only to certain classes of
poetry 2) Applicable to these classes only in a limited sense 3)When
practicable it is very dangerous.
Subject of the poem
Coleridge says that the choice of rustic life is unfavourable to the
formation of human diction.
Purified rustic language is not different from others.
Rustic language is influenced by world of Nature and it is not
intellectually capable.
According to Aristotle
1) Poetry is essentially ideal and 2) It should avoid all accidents 3)
The persons must be loathed with common attributes of class.
Conclusion
Coleridge concludes that Best parts of language are the products of
philosophers not shepherds.
Wordsworth language is the language of shepherds and Coleridge‟s
language is the language of philosophers
Jane Austen : Emma
Jane Austen 1775 - 1817
Wrote 6 novels in about 27 years
Sense and sensibility – 1811
Pride and prejudice – finest novel
Mansfield park and Emma – 1815
Northanger abbey and persuasion – 1798
Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was
an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among
the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read
writers in English literature. Her realism and biting social
commentary have gained her historical importance among scholars
and critics. Austen lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family
located on the lower fringes of the English landed gentry.
She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers
as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her
family was critical to her development as a professional writer.Her
artistic apprenticeship lasted from her teenage years into her
thirties. During this period, she experimented with various literary
forms, including the epistolary novel which she tried then
abandoned, and wrote and extensively revised three major novels
and began a fourth.
From 1811 until 1816, with the release of Sense and
Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814)
and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She
wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both
published posthumously in 1818, and began a third, which was
eventually titled Sanditon, but died before completing it.Austen's
works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th
century and are part of the transition to 19th-century realism.
Her plots, though fundamentally comic, highlight the
dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and
economic security. Her work brought her little personal fame and
only a few positive reviews during her lifetime, but the publication
in 1869 of her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced her to
a wider public, and by the 1940s she had become widely accepted
in academia as a great English writer. The second half of the 20th
century saw a proliferation of Austen scholarship and the
emergence of a Janeite fan culture.
Theme :
The heroine Emma woodhouse has wealth, social prestige,
good looks and intelligence. But her good fortune and the
admiration she elicits are in reality her greatest disadvantage. They
blind her to the need for self-knowledge and self criticism. In what
she imagines to be pure generosity of heart she sets about trying to
control the fate of her orphan friend of illegitimate birth and
insignificant character. Harriet Smith, imagine her to be the
daughter of an aristocrat and desering a marriage socially worthy
of her paternity. Later she also becomes involved with a young men.
Frank Churchill who unknown to her is secretly engaged to a girl
Jane Fairfax, who is superior to Emma in talent but much inferior
in worldly fortune
Plot Overview
Although convinced that she herself will never marry, Emma
Woodhouse, a precocious twenty-year-old resident of the village of
Highbury, imagines herself to be naturally gifted in conjuring love
matches. After self-declared success at matchmaking between her
governess and Mr. Weston, a village widower, Emma takes it upon
herself to find an eligible match for her new friend, Harriet Smith.
Though Harriet‘s parentage is unknown, Emma is convinced that
Harriet deserves to be a gentleman‘s wife and sets her friend‘s
sights on Mr. Elton, the village vicar. Meanwhile, Emma persuades
Harriet to reject the proposal of Robert Martin, a well-to-do farmer
for whom Harriet clearly has feelings.
Harriet becomes infatuated with Mr. Elton under Emma‘s
encouragement, but Emma‘s plans go awry when Elton makes it
clear that his affection is for Emma, not Harriet. Emma realizes that
her obsession with making a match for Harriet has blinded her to
the true nature of the situation. Mr. Knightley, Emma‘s brother-in-
law and treasured friend, watches Emma‘s matchmaking efforts
with a critical eye. He believes that Mr. Martin is a worthy young
man whom Harriet would be lucky to marry. He and Emma quarrel
over Emma‘s meddling, and, as usual, Mr. Knightley proves to be
the wiser of the pair. Elton, spurned by Emma and offended by her
insinuation that Harriet is his equal, leaves for the town of Bath
and marries a girl there almost immediately.
Emma is left to comfort Harriet and to wonder about the
character of a new visitor expected in Highbury—Mr. Weston‘s
son, Frank Churchill. Frank is set to visit his father in Highbury
after having been raised by his aunt and uncle in London, who have
taken him as their heir. Emma knows nothing about Frank, who
has long been deterred from visiting his father by his aunt‘s
illnesses and complaints. Mr. Knightley is immediately suspicious
of the young man, especially after Frank rushes back to London
merely to have his hair cut. Emma, however, finds Frank delightful
and notices that his charms are directed mainly toward her.
Though she plans to discourage these charms, she finds herself
flattered and engaged in a flirtation with the young man. Emma
greets
Jane Fairfax, another addition to the Highbury set, with less
enthusiasm. Jane is beautiful and accomplished, but Emma
dislikes her because of her reserve and, the narrator insinuates,
because she is jealous of Jane.
Suspicion, intrigue, and misunderstandings ensue. Mr.
Knightley defends Jane, saying that she deserves compassion
because, unlike Emma, she has no independent fortune and must
soon leave home to work as a governess. Mrs. Weston suspects that
the warmth of Mr. Knightley‘s defense comes from romantic
feelings, an implication Emma resists. Everyone assumes that
Frank and Emma are forming an attachment, though Emma soon
dismisses Frank as a potential suitor and imagines him as a match
for Harriet. At a village ball, Knightley earns Emma‘s approval by
offering to dance with Harriet, who has just been humiliated by Mr.
Elton and his new wife.
The next day, Frank saves Harriet from Gypsy beggars. When
Harriet tells Emma that she has fallen in love with a man above her
social station, Emma believes that she means Frank. Knightley
begins to suspect that Frank and Jane have a secret
understanding, and he attempts to warn Emma. Emma laughs at
Knightley‘s suggestion and loses Knightley‘s approval when she
flirts with Frank and insults Miss Bates, a kindhearted spinster and
Jane‘s aunt, at a picnic. When Knightley reprimands Emma, she
weeps.
News comes that Frank‘s aunt has died, and this event paves
the way for an unexpected revelation that slowly solves the
mysteries. Frank and Jane have been secretly engaged; his
attentions to Emma have been a screen to hide his true preference.
With his aunt‘s death and his uncle‘s approval, Frank can now
marry Jane, the woman he loves. Emma worries that Harriet will be
crushed, but she soon discovers that it is Knightley, not Frank, who
is the object of Harriet‘s affection. Harriet believes that Knightley
shares her feelings. Emma finds herself upset by Harriet‘s
revelation, and her distress forces her to realize that she is in love
with Knightley. Emma expects Knightley to tell her he loves Harriet,
but, to her delight, Knightley declares his love for Emma. Harriet is
soon comforted by a second proposal from Robert Martin, which she
accepts. The novel ends with the marriage of Harriet and Mr. Martin
and that of Emma and Mr. Knightley, resolving the question of who
loves whom after all.
Characters List
Emma Woodhouse - The protagonist of the novel. In the well-
known first sentence of the novel, the narrator describes Emma as
―handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy
disposition.‖ In some ways, the twenty-year-old Emma is mature for
her age. Because her mother is dead and her older sister married,
she is already the head of her father‘s household. She cares for her
father and oversees the social goings-on in the village of Highbury.
Emma‘s misplaced confidence in her abilities as a matchmaker and
her prudish fear of love constitute the central focus of the novel,
which traces Emma‘s mistakes and growing self-understanding.
Mr. George Knightley - Emma‘s brother-in-law and the
Woodhouses‘ trusted friend and advisor. Knightley is a respected
landowner in his late thirties. He lives at Donwell Abbey and leases
property to the Martins, a family of wealthy farmers whom he likes
and counsels. Knightley is the only character who is openly critical
of Emma, pointing out her flaws and foibles with frankness, out of
genuine concern and care for her. In this respect, he acts as a
stand-in for Austen‘s and the reader‘s judgments of Emma.
Mr. Woodhouse - Emma‘s father and the patriarch of Hartfield, the
Woodhouse estate. Though Mr. Woodhouse is nervous, frail, and
prone to hypochondria, he is also known for his friendliness and his
attachment to his daughter. He is very resistant to change, to the
point that he is unhappy to see his daughters or Emma‘s governess
marry. In this sense, he impedes Emma‘s growth and acceptance of
her adult destiny. He is often foolish and clearly not Emma‘s
intellectual equal, but she comforts and entertains him with insight
and affection.
Harriet Smith - A pretty but unremarkable seventeen-year-old
woman of uncertain parentage, who lives at the local boarding
school. Harriet becomes Emma‘s protégé and the object of her
matchmaking schemes.
Frank Churchill - Mr. Weston‘s son and Mrs. Weston‘s stepson.
Frank Churchill lives at Enscombe with his aunt and uncle, Mr.
and Mrs. Churchill. He is considered a potential suitor for Emma,
but she learns that though Frank is attractive, charming, and
clever, he is also irresponsible, deceitful, rash, and ultimately
unsuited to her.
Jane Fairfax - Miss Bates‘s niece, whose arrival in Highbury
irritates Emma. Jane rivals Emma in accomplishment and beauty;
she possesses a kind heart and a reserved temperament. Because
Jane lacks Emma‘s fortune, she must consider employment as a
governess, but her marriage to Frank Churchill saves her from that
fate.
Mrs. Weston - Formerly Miss Taylor, Emma‘s beloved governess
and companion. Known for her kind temperament and her devotion
to Emma, Mrs. Weston lives at Randalls with her husband, Frank
Churchill‘s father.
Mr. Weston - The widower and proprietor of Randalls, who has
just married Miss Taylor when the novel begins. Mr. Weston has a
son, Frank, from his first marriage to Miss Churchill (Frank was
raised by Miss Churchill‘s sister and brother-in-law). Mr. Weston is
warm, sociable, and perpetually optimistic.
Mr. Elton - The village vicar, a handsome and agreeable man
considered a welcome addition to any social gathering. When he
reveals his indifference to Harriet and his desire to marry Emma,
only to take a bride at Bath shortly thereafter, he comes to seem
proud, conceited, and superficial.
Mr. Robert Martin - A twenty-four-year-old farmer. Mr. Martin is
industrious and good-hearted, though he lacks the refinements of a
gentleman. He lives at Abbey-Mill Farm, a property owned by
Knightley, with his mother and sisters.
Miss Bates - Friend of Mr. Woodhouse and aunt of Jane Fairfax,
Miss Bates is a middle-aged spinster without beauty or cleverness
but with universal goodwill and a gentle temperament. Emma‘s
impatient treatment of her reveals the less attractive parts of
Emma‘s character.
Isabella Knightley - Emma‘s older sister, who lives in London with
her husband, Mr. John Knightley, and their five children. Isabella is
pretty, amiable, and completely devoted to her family, but slow and
diffident compared to Emma. Her domesticity provides a contrast to
the independent celibacy Emma imagines for herself.
Mr. John Knightley - Emma‘s brother-in-law, and Mr. George
Knightley‘s brother. As a lawyer, John Knightley is clear-minded
but somewhat sharp in temper, and Emma and her father are
sometimes displeased with his severity.
Mrs. Elton - Formerly Augusta Hawkins, Mrs. Elton hails from
Bristol and meets Mr. Elton in Bath. She is somewhat attractive
and accomplished; she has some fortune and a well-married sister,
but her vanity, superficiality, and vulgar overfamiliarity offset her
admirable qualities.
Mrs. Churchill - Mr. Weston‘s ailing former sister-in-law and
Frank Churchill‘s aunt and guardian. She is known to be
capricious, ill-tempered, and extremely possessive of Frank. Frank
is able to marry Jane Fairfax, as he desires, only after Mrs.
Churchill‘s death.
Colonel Campbell - A friend of Jane Fairfax‘s father who lives in
London and who takes charge of orphaned Jane when she is eight
years old. Colonel Campbell feels great affection for Jane but is
unable to provide her with an inheritance.
Mrs. Dixon - The Campbells‘ daughter and Jane‘s friend. Mrs.
Dixon lacks beauty and lives with her husband in Ireland.
Mr. Dixon - Husband to the Campbells‘ daughter. Emma suspects
that Mr. Dixon had a romance with Jane Fairfax before his
marriage.
Mrs. Goddard - Mistress of the local boarding school. Mrs.
Goddard introduces Harriet Smith to the Woodhouses.
Mrs. Bates - Mother to Miss Bates and friend of Mr. Woodhouse.
An elderly woman, Mrs. Bates is quiet, amiable, and somewhat
deaf.
Mr. Perry - An apothecary and associate of Emma‘s father. Mr.
Perry is highly esteemed by Mr. Woodhouse for his medical advice
even though he is not a proper physician, and Mr. Woodhouse
argues with his daughter Isabella over Perry‘s recommendations.
Elizabeth Martin - Mr. Martin‘s kind sister, with whom Harriet
was good friends before meeting Emma and turning down Mr.
Martin‘s marriage proposal. Harriet‘s feelings of guilt and her desire
to rekindle her relationship with Elizabeth pose a dilemma for
Emma, who finds the Martins pleasant, worthy people, but worries
that Harriet may be tempted to accept Mr. Martin‘s offer if she again
grows close with the family.
Mr. and Mrs. Cole - Tradespeople and longtime residents of
Highbury whose good fortune of the past several years has led them
to adopt a luxurious lifestyle that is only a notch below that of the
Woodhouses. Offended by their attempt to transcend their ―only
moderately genteel‖ social status, Emma has long been preparing to
turn down any dinner invitation from the Coles in order to teach
them their folly in thinking they can interact socially with the likes
of her family. Like the Martins, the Coles are the means through
which Emma demonstrates her class-consciousness.
SACRED HEART ENGLISH ACADEMY, SALEM – 07.

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Unit-III - MODERN LITERATURE (1798 - 1832)
Poetry (For Detailed Study)
Wordsworth: Immortality Ode, Tintern Abbey
Wordsworth
William Wordsworth and his Poetry (1770-1850)
William Wordsworth stands for two dominant ideas in poetry, the poetry of nature and the
poetry of simplicity.
As a young man he was infected by the Revolutionary fever, and left his university of
Cambridge to go to France and assist the new French Republic.
He narrowly escaped death at the hands of the people he wished to assist, and was compelled
to seek safety in England.
After some wandering in the country he at length settled down in the Lake District of
England, near which, at Cockers mouth, he had been born.
He is one among the Lake School of poets: William Wordswoth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
Robert Southey, De Quincey, Christopher North, and Dorothy Wordsworth, Charles Lamb,
Charles Lloyd, Hartley Coleridge, John Wilson, and Thomas De Quincey.
In 1842 he was awarded a State pension, and on the death of Robert Southey (1843) he was
appointed Poet Laureate.
Wordsworth’s theory of poetical style, as set out in the preface to The Lyrical Ballads
(1799). He expounds his doctrine: “Humble and rustic life was generally to be chosen
because in that condition the essential passions of the heart find a better soil … and speak a
plainer and more emphatic language.”
o His choice of subjects was humble and rustic life.
o His style was to be the language really used by men.
o E.g. “Lucy Gray” and “We are Seven”
o Exception: “Ode on the Intimations of Immortality” (elevated style)
He wrote The Lyrical Ballads (1799), in collaboration with his friend Coleridge. This book
contains some of the most famous pieces, including The Idiot Boy and Tintern Abbey.
Wordsworth published Poems, in 1807. It contains the majority of his best shorter poems,
such as
Lucy Gray, Ruth, and Nutting.
The Excursion (1814), is the first portion of an enormous blank-verse poem, the subject
of
Which was to be his own education and mental development. The complete poem was to
be called The Recluse.
In 1805 he had written the Prelude to this, but this part was not published till after his
death. The entire scheme was not completed.
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Though much of the poem is dull and heavy, it contains many magnificent passages upon his
observation of nature and the effect this had upon his growing consciousness.
During the later years his poems are many, but the really good ones are few. Perhaps the best
in is Yarrow Revisited (1835)
Four stages in Wordsworth’s Poetic Development
Wordsworth’s poetic career consists of four periods.
.
First Period :
o Wordsworth’s early years were spent in solitude among the hills. The “ceaseless
music” of Derwent filled his soul and gave him an unconscious foretaste of the calm
– “That Nature breaths among the hills and groves.”
o In the Book I of The Prelude Wordsworth describes his feelings and impressions
of his childhood.
o He begins the Second Book of The Prelude with a description of the tumultuous joy
and eagerness of boyhood in its sports among a rich and varied scenery. During his
boyish days, nature was.
Second Period :
o Then followed the period of senses, when the young poet drank in the beauty of
nature with the passion of a lover.
Third Period:
o This stage of “dizzy joys” and “aching raptures” came to an end with his experience
of human sorrow and suffering in France. He had kept watch over “human mortality”
and in his eyes nature now took on a “sober colouring”. He heard “the still, sad music
of humanity,” and his love of nature became linked with the love of man. He found
strength and force and beauty in the character of humble people. He saw into the
depths of human souls
Fourth Period:
o The final stage was the period of the soul, when the poet’s love of nature became
reflective, mystical and spiritual. He felt in Nature “a presence” that disturbed him
with “the joy of elevated thoughts,”
o He now felt God in nature and its creations
o His Pantheism or Mysticism.
Immortality Ode
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood (also known
as Ode, Immortality Ode or Great Ode)
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The Ode was begun in March, 1802, discontinued at the end of the fourth section, and
finally completed in March, 1804.
In the intervening period Wordsworth wrote the short poem My Heart Leaps up
When I Behold, and Resolution and Independence.
The epigraph of the poem is taken from My Heart Leaps up When I Behold. Implicit
in it is the idea of growth, and of the continuity of man.
The theme of the poem is the immortality of the human soul of which one is aware
in childhood but which fades from one’s mind with growing years. The child’s
knowledge of immortality is based upon the memories of his life in heaven before his
birth. This view forms the core of the poem.
The long title of the poem clearly expresses the theme: our knowledge of the soul’s
immortality is based on our memories of childhood when we still remembered
our life in heaven.
It was completed in 1804 and published in Poems, in Two Volumes (1807).
The poem was completed in two parts, with the first four stanzas written among a
series of poems composed in 1802 about childhood.
The first part of the poem was completed on 27 March 1802 and a copy was provided
to Wordsworth's friend and fellow poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who responded
with his own poem, Dejection: An Ode, in April.
The fourth stanza of the ode ends with a question, and Wordsworth was finally able to
answer it with 7 additional stanzas completed in early 1804.
It was first printed as Ode in 1807, and it was not until 1815 that it was edited and
reworked to the version that is currently known, Ode: Intimations of Immortality.
The poem is an irregular Pindaric ode in 11 stanzas that combines aspects of
Coleridge's Conversation poems, the religious sentiments of the Bible and the
works of Saint Augustine, and aspects of the elegiac and apocalyptic traditions.
The ode contains 11 stanzas split into three movements:
o The first movement is four stanzas long and discusses the narrator's inability to see
the divine glory of nature, the problem of the poem.
o The first four stanzas also discuss death, and the loss of youth and innocence.
o The second movement is four stanzas long and has a negative response to the
problem. It describes how age causes man to lose sight of the divine
o The third movement is three stanzas long and contains a positive response to the
problem. The ode begins by contrasting the narrator's view of the world as a child and
as a man, with what was once a life interconnected to the divine fading away. It
express hope that the memory of the divine allow us to sympathize with our fellow
man.
o The poem relies on the concept of Pre-existence, the idea that the soul existed
before the body, to connect children with the ability to witness the divine within
nature.
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o As children mature, they become more worldly and lose this divine vision, and the
ode reveals Wordsworth's understanding of psychological development that is
also found in his poems The Prelude and Tintern Abbey.
o Wordsworth's praise of the child as the "best philosopher" was criticised by
Coleridge and became the source of later critical discussion.
Modern critics sometimes have referred to Wordsworth's poem as the "Great Ode"
Contemporary reviews of the poem were mixed, with many reviewers attacking the work or,
like Lord Byron, dismissing the work without analysis.
The critics felt that Wordsworth's subject matter was too "low" and some felt that the
emphasis on childhood was misplaced. Among the Romantic poets, most praised various
aspects of the poem however. By the Victorian period, most reviews of the ode were positive
with only John Ruskin taking a strong negative stance against the poem.
The ode contains 11 stanzas.
The ode begins by contrasting the narrator's view of the world as a child and as a man, with
what was once a life interconnected to the divine fading away.
In the second and third stanzas, the narrator describes his surroundings and various
aspects of nature that he is no longer able to feel. He feels as if he is separated from the
rest of nature until he experiences a moment that brings about feelings of joy that are able to
overcome his despair.
The joy in stanza III slowly fades again in stanza IV as the narrator feels like there is
"something that is gone". As the stanza ends, the narrator asks two different questions to end
the first movement of the poem. Though they appear to be similar, one asks where the visions
are now ("Where is it now") while the other doesn't ("Whither is fled"), and they leave open
the possibility that the visions could return.
The second movement begins in stanza V by answering the question of stanza IV by
describing a Platonic system of pre-existence. The narrator explains how humans start in
an ideal world that slowly fades into a shadowy life. Before the light fades away as the
child matures, the narrator emphasizes the greatness of the child experiencing the
feelings.
By the beginning of stanza VIII, the child is described as a great individual, and the
stanza is written in the form of a prayer that praises the attributes of children.
The end of stanza VIII brings about the end of a second movement within the poem. The
glories of nature are only described as existing in the past, and the child's understanding
of morality is already causing them to lose what they once had.
The questions in Stanza IV are answered with words of despair in the second movement,
but the third movement is filled with joy.
Third Movement begins in Stanza IX. It contains a mixture of affirmation of life and
faith as it seemingly avoids discussing what is lost. The stanza describes how a child is able
to see what others do not see because children do not comprehend mortality, and the
imagination allows an adult to intimate immortality and bond with his fellow man.
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The children on the shore represent the adult narrator's recollection of childhood, and the
recollection allows for an intimation of returning to that mental state.
In stanza XI, the imagination allows one to know that there are limits to the world, but it
also allows for a return to a state of sympathy with the world lacking any questions or
concerns.
The poem concludes with an affirmation that, though changed by time, the narrator is
able to be the same person he once was.
The poem is mainly autobiographical and reminiscent of the poet’s past life. The radiance
and glory of Nature, which he declares as having seen in his childhood, was a part of his own
personal experience, while he also felt the unreality of the outward objects to which he refers
in the ninth stanza.
The ode is Wordsworth’s pictorial gift or image-making power may be noticed in this poem.
He gives vivid pictures of the rainbow, the rose, the moon shining in a cloudless sky, the star-
light falling on waters, the children collecting fresh flowers, the babe leaping on his mother’s
arm, etc. Wordsworth was a keen worshipper of Nature.
The ode is not written in the language Wordsworth regularly used in his poetry. Its tone is
high and stately. Wordsworth thought his subject so important that he treated it in what was
for him an unusual manner, and for it he fashioned his own high style.
Although the ode contains a metaphysical doctrine, yet there is in it a deep and sincere
personal emotion which gives it a lyrical character.
The sober close of this great ode has been compared to the close of a splendid evening. In
other words, the reflective mood of the poet deepens in the last stanza.
Tintern Abbey
In the summer of 1798 Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, walking from Alfoxden to
Bristol, visited the beautiful ruins of Tintern Abbey, located on the Wye River in
Monmouthshire, Wordsworth had been there in 1793, and in this poem he records his
impression after a five-year absence.
The poem sums up Wordsworth’s creed of the ministering power of nature (especially
through the function of memory) and the development of his appreciation of nature from
childhood to maturity,
Tintern Abbey is a key poem to any understanding of Wordsworth’s nature philosophy.
The title, Lines Written (or Composed) a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the
Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798, is often abbreviated simply to Tintern Abbey,
although that building does not appear within the poem.
It was written by William Wordsworth after a walking tour with his sister in this section of
the Welsh Borders. The description of his encounters with the countryside on the banks of
the River Wye grows into an outline of his general philosophy. There has been considerable
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debate about why evidence of the human presence in the landscape has been downplayed and
in what way the poem fits within the 18th century loco-descriptive genre.
The poem has its roots in Wordsworth’s personal history. He had previously visited the area
as a troubled twenty-three-year-old in August 1793.
The poem is written in tightly-structured decasyllabic blank verse and comprises verse-
paragraphs rather than stanzas.
Categorizing the poem is difficult, as it contains some elements of the ode and of the
dramatic monologue.
In the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth noted: "I have not ventured to call
this Poem an Ode but it was written with a hope that in the transitions, and the
impassioned music of the versification, would be found the principle requisites of that
species of composition."
The apostrophe at its beginning is reminiscent of the 18th century landscape-poem, but it is
now agreed that the best designation of the work would be the conversation poem, which is
an organic development of the loco-descriptive.
The silent listener in this case is Wordsworth's sister Dorothy, who is addressed in the
poem’s final section.
Transcending the nature poetry written before that date, it employs a much more intellectual
and philosophical engagement with the subject that verges on Pantheism.
Wordsworth has expressed his intense faith in nature.
There is Wordsworth’s realization of God in nature. He got sensuous delight in it and it is all
in all to him.
Tintern Abbey impressed him most when he had first visited this place. He has again come
to the same place where there are lofty cliffs, the plots of cottage ground, orchards groves
and copses. He is glad to see again hedgerows, sportive wood, pastoral farms and green
doors. This lonely place, the banks of the river and rolling waters from their mountain
springs present a beautiful panoramic light. The solitary place remands the poet of vagrant
dwellers and hermits’ cave.
The poem is in five sections.
The first section establishes the setting for the meditation. But it emphasizes the passage
of time: five years have passed, five summers, five long winters… But when the poet is
back to this place of natural beauty and serenity, it is still essentially the same.
The poem opens with a slow, dragging rhythm and the repetition of the word ‘five’ all
designed to emphasize the weight of time which has separated the poet from this scene.
The following lines develop a clear, visual picture of the scent. The view presented is a blend
of wildness and order. He can see the entirely natural cliffs and waterfalls; he can see the
hedges around the fields of the people; and he can see wreaths of smoke probably coming
from some hermits making fire in their cave hermitages. These images evoke not only a pure
nature as one might expect, they evoke a life of the common people in harmony with the
nature.
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The second section begins with the meditation. The poet now realizes that these
‘beauteous’ forms have always been with him, deep-seated in his mind, wherever he went.
This vision has been “Felt in the blood, and felt alone the heart” that is. It has affected his
whole being. They were not absent from his mind like form the mind of a man born blind. In
hours of weariness, frustration and anxiety, these things of nature used to make him feel
sweet sensations in his very blood, and he used to feel it at the level of the impulse (heart)
rather than in his waking consciousness and through reasoning. From this point onward
Wordsworth begins to consider the sublime of nature, and his mystical awareness becomes
clear. Wordsworth’s idea was that human beings are naturally uncorrupted.
The poet studies nature with open eyes and imaginative mind. He has been the lover of
nature form the core of his heart, and with purer mind. He feels a sensation of love for nature
in his blood. He feels high pleasure and deep power of joy in natural objects. The beatings of
his heart are full of the fire of nature’s love. He concentrates attention to Sylvan Wye – a
majestic and worth seeing river. He is reminded of the pictures of the past visit and
ponders over his future years. On his first visit to this place he bounded over the mountains
by the sides of the deep rivers and the lovely streams. In the past the soundings haunted him
like a passion. The tall rock, the mountain and the deep and gloomy wood were then to him
like an appetite. But that time is gone now. In nature he finds the sad music of humanity.
The third section contains a kind of doubt; the poet is probably reflecting the reader’s
possible doubts so that he can go on to justify how he is right and what he means. He doubts,
for just a moment, whether this thought about the influence of the nature is vain, but he can’t
go on. He exclaims: “yet, oh! How often, amid the joyless daylight, fretful and unprofitable
fever of the world have I turned to thee (nature)” for inspiration and peace of mind. He
thanks the ‘Sylvan Wye’ for the everlasting influence it has imprinted on his mind; his
spirit has very often turned to this river for inspiration when he was losing the peace of mind
or the path and meaning of life. The river here becomes the symbol of spirituality.
Though the poet has become serious and perplexed in the fourth section the nature gives
him courage and spirit enough to stand there with a sense of delight and pleasure. This
is so typical of Wordsworth that it seems he can’t write poetry without recounting his
personal experiences, especially those of his childhood. Here he also begins from the earliest
of his days! It was first the coarse pleasures in his ‘boyish days’, which have all gone by
now. “That time is past and all its aching joys are now no more, and all its dizzy raptures”.
But the poet does not mourn for them; he doesn’t even grumble about their loss. Clearly, he
has gained something in return: “other gifts have followed; for such loss… for I have learnt
to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes the still, sad
music of humanity”. This is a philosophic statement about maturing, about the development
of personality, and of the poetic or philosophic mind as well. So now the poet is able to feel a
joy of elevated thought, a sense sublime, and far more deeply interfused. He feels a sense of
sublime and the working of a supreme power in the light of the setting sun, in round oceans
and in the blue sky. He is of opinion that a motion and a spirit impel all thinking things.
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Therefore Wordsworth claims that he is a lover of the meadows and of all which we see from
this green earth.
Nature is a nurse, a guide and the guardian of his heart and soul. The poet comes to one
important conclusion: for all the formative influences, he is now consciously in love with the
nature. He has become a thoughtful lover of the meadows, the woods and the mountains.
Though his ears and eyes seem to create the other half of all these sensations, the nature is
the actual source of these sublime thoughts.
The fifth and last section continues with the same meditation from where the poet
addresses his younger sister Dorothy, whom he blesses and gives advice about what he
has learnt. He says that he can hear the voice of his own youth when he hears her speak, the
language of his former heart; he can also “read my former pleasure in the soothing lights
of thy wild eyes’. He is excited to look at his own youthful image in her. He says that nature
has never betrayed his heart and that is why they had been living from joy to joy.
Nature can impress the mind with quietness and beauty, and feed it lofty thoughts, that
no evil tongues of the human society can corrupt their hearts with any amount of
contact with it.
The poet then begins to address the moon in his reverie, and to ask the nature to bestow
his sister with their blessings. Let the moon shine on her solitary walk, and let the mountain
winds blow their breeze on her. When the present youthful ecstasies are over, as they did
with him, let her mind become the palace of the lovely forms and thought about the
nature, so that she can enjoy and understand life and overcome the vexations of living
in a harsh human society. The conclusion to the poem takes us almost cyclically, back to a
physical view of the ‘steep woods’, ‘lofty cliffs’ and ‘green pastoral landscape’ in which the
meditation of the poem is happening.
The poet has expressed his honest and natural feelings to Nature’s Superiority.

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Poetry-For Detailed Study

VIP-PG-TRB –ENGLISH COACHING CENTER –DHARMAPURI- 9600736379

VIP-PG-TRB –ENGLISH COACHING CENTER –DHARMAPURI- 9600736379

VIP-PG-TRB –ENGLISH COACHING CENTER –DHARMAPURI- 9600736379

VIP-PG-TRB –ENGLISH COACHING CENTER –DHARMAPURI- 9600736379

VIP-PG-TRB –ENGLISH COACHING CENTER –DHARMAPURI- 9600736379

VIP-PG-TRB –ENGLISH COACHING CENTER –DHARMAPURI- 9600736379

VIP-PG-TRB –ENGLISH COACHING CENTER –DHARMAPURI- 9600736379

VIP-PG-TRB –ENGLISH COACHING CENTER –DHARMAPURI- 9600736379

SACRED HEART ENGLISH ACADEMY, SALEM – 07.

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