THE ROMANTIC AGE (1798 – 1837)

NATURE, IMAGINATION AND EGOTISM

WILLIAM WORDWORTH (1770 - 1850)
1. BIOGRAPHY AND MAIN WORS:

William Wordsworth was one of the founders of English Romanticism and one its most central
figures and important intellects. William Wordsworth was born in 1770 in Cockermouth, in the Lake
District, an area of supreme natural beauty which, together with Scotland and the Alpine scenery of
the Grand Tour, was to be a source of inspiration for a whole group of English Romantic poets, the
‘Lake Poets’. As a child, Wordsworth was allowed to wander freely in the countryside, and its
sights, sounds and smells provided the inspiration for his later poetry. After grammar school,
Wordworth went up to Cambridge, where he graduated in 1791. He left England in the same year
for a walking tour of France and the Alps with a college friend. During his travels he even wrote two
long “travel diaries”, An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches.

In France he was influenced by the ideals of the French Revolution. Wordsworth followed this
democratic ideals with enthusiasm (Wordsworth himself hoped to the creation of a new social
order). However, then he got disappointed by the terrifying result of it. In France he also fell in love
with a French girl, Annette Vallon, who bore him a daughter, Caroline. Lack of money forced him
to return to England, abandoning both his political beliefs and Annette. This combination of
personal guilt and divided political loyalties because of the declaration of war between England and
France brought him to the edge of a nervous breakdown. The despair (disperazione) of these
years was cured by contact with nature, which he rediscovered in a Dorset, where he went to live
with his sister Dorothy that remained his most faithful friend and the first supported of his poetry.
Dorothy also recorded their life together in her Journals. In the same year (1795) he met Samuel
Coleridge. They spent much time in each other’s company, writing, talking, planning, listening to
and correcting each other’s poems. The result of this remarkable friendship was a collection of
poems called Lyrical Ballads. We have two volumes of this collection: the first volume of this
collection was published anonymously in 1798, then the second edition was published in 1800.
This second edition also contains the Wordsworth’s famous “Preface”, which was to become the
“Manifesto of English Romanticism”.
In 1805 he finished his masterpiece, The Prelude, which is a long autobiographical poem in 14
books which was published only after his death. Before he died, he was also made Poet Laureate
(title for important poets). He continued to write poems until his death, in 1850.

 WORDSWORTH AND FRENCH REVOLUTION:

Wordsworth after completing college in 1791 went to France. At that time in France, the French
Revolution was at its peak. Wordsworth also felt attracted to it. The aim of the French Revolution
was to abolish the kingship and aristocracy and to give full authority to the common man.
Rousseau a well-known French writer and who is also known as “the father of Romanticism”
gave his complete support to this revolution. He also had a deep influence on Wordsworth.
Rousseau once said in an argument favouring the French Revolution that man is born free, but he
is chained (incatenato) everywhere. Time has come now to do away with the kingship and
aristocracy. It would be best for the man to give all the powers to the common man. Wordsworth
shared the same point of view with Rousseau. He supported the purpose of the French Revolution
with complete sincerity. He was deeply attached to the French Revolution. When England
prepared herself to fight against Napoleon he went to Church and prayed there sincerely for the
defeat of England, his own motherland.

Though, later in his life he changed his opinion about the French Revolution and became a
republican. But throughout his life, he was unable to remove the influence of the French Revolution
and Rousseau on his poetry. From Rousseau and the French Revolution Wordsworth learnt to
glorify the life of the common man. He also learnt to love and respect nature. The relation between
nature and man became the main theme of his poetry. In being the poet of nature, he also became
the poet of the common man.
 “PREFACE” TO LYRICAL BALLADS (1800)
Lyrical Ballads was written jointly by Wordsworth and Coleridge, it first appeared anonymously in
1798, then in a second volume in 1800. In this collection Wordsworth expressed his love of natural
and ordinary subjects, and his desire above all to communicate, to teach what he knew, and
Coleridge expressed his formidable intellect and his love of the exotic and fantastic. In fact, in this
collection we can found Wordsworth's poems based on ordinary language, and Coleridge's pomes
based on exotic or fantastic nature.
The second edition of Lyrical Ballads contained Wordsworth’s famous Preface. It is considered
the English Romantic manifesto: it expresses the crisis in the social and literary life of England.
The Preface exemplifies WORDSWORTH’S NEW CONCEPT OF POETRY: simple subjects
expressed in a simple language. In the introductory paragraphs of the “Preface to the Lyrical
Ballads,” Wordsworth declares that by publishing the first edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, he was
conducting an experiment to see if people would accept a new class of poetry. Since these poems
were well-received, Wordsworth decided to write the “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads” to explain why
he wrote such experimental poems. In the Preface, Wordsworth’s major ideas about poetry are
described and explained. They are:

1. ROMANTICISM VS NEOCLASSICISM: In the beginning of Wordsworth’s “Preface to

Lyrical Ballads,” he addresses to his predecessors and talks about poetry before his time.
The “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads” is a manifesto of the Romantic movement.
Wordsworth uses this essay to declare the principles of Romantic poetry, which was
different from the Neoclassical poetry. The Neoclassical poets emphasized intellectualism,
reason, formality over emotion. During the Pre-Romantic age, writers attempted to break
from the classical tradition through gestures like incorporating nature and melancholy, but
were, in Wordsworth’s eyes, unsuccessful. Wordsworth proposes something more
revolutionary in his “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads”: Wordsworth argues that it’s time for a
new kind of poetry, one that can make humanity feel emotionally alive and morally
sensitive. Wordsworth argues that the late-Neoclassical poets with their poetry and lofty
(elevata) poetry “they separate themselves from the sympathies of men, and they abandon
themselves in arbitrary capricious habits of expression in order to furnish food for fickle
tastes and fickle appetites of their own creation.” To Wordsworth, these poets constantly
and randomly change the style of their poetry to suit their own ever-changing tastes.
Wordsworth views this sort of ignorance and inconstancy as self-serving.

2. THE SUBJECT AND LANGUAGE OF POEMS: Unlike his predecessors such as Dryden,
Pope, and Johnson, he gets away from the pompous and complicated style of heroic
couplet. He believes that the language of poetry should be the language of everyday
speech, of common people. So, his poems negate the complex language and figures of
speech of neoclassicism. The choice of ordinary subjects (humble and rustic life,
unspoiled by industrialization) and ordinary language (common one, the one used by
men, purified, and polished by its defects) is a way of creating a ‘democratic’ kind of poetry
accessible to all men. He criticized those poets who don’t use a simple language because
they think that if is something is written in a more obscure and complex way then it is more
sophisticated. According to Wordsworth this is not a merit, this is a fault.

3. POETRY AND EMOTIONS: “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”

He states that poetry originating from ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’. Feelings and
emotions have no boundaries, they can be expressed in a genuine and freeway. For
Wordsworth, poetry is a form of knowledge based on sensation. In the poem, sensation is
transformed in emotions. The process of poetry-making derives not directly from the
emotions, but from a recollection of them in a situation of tranquillity, thanks to the re-
creative capacity of the memory. (The recollection in tranquillity is the ability of the poet to
recreate an emotion with his words. The poet can understand the nature in a different way
and the ordinary things become wonders, the nature is full of symbols).

POETRY ITSELF IS REDEFINED AS "THE SPONTANEOUS OVERFLOW OF POWERFUL

FEELING: IT TAKES ITS ORIGIN FROM EMOTION RECOLLECTED IN TRANQUILITY."
In the Preface three important questions appear:
 WHO IS THE POET?
According to Wordsworth’s opinion, the poet is “a man speaking to men”, a man who had a deeper
understanding of nature, feelings, human life, and a more comprehensive soul. An ordinary man
who possesses more imagination than other men, who is more easily affected by what he
experiences and is able to communicate his experiences to other men. The poet’s task is to keep
the reader’s interest alive and focus what is special in the ordinary. So, the poet is supposed to
start from something real and then to go beyond it using imagination (just like Blake). Through
imagination the poet, who is a prophet, can discover unknown aspects that other people cannot
really see. The risk was to be too trivial (banali), but it never happened to them.

1. A poet is a person who has a higher sensibility in contrast to common human beings.
2. The imaginative power of a poet is greatly higher than that of other ordinary human
beings. It allows him to expand his range of emotions.
3. The poet, thus, has the gifts of imagination, sensibility, fancy, observation, and judgment.

 TO WHOM DOES HE ADDRESSES HIMSELF?

Wordsworth relates that his principal goal in writing the poems in the Lyrical Ballads was to portray
common life in an interesting and honest way, and to appeal to readers’ emotions by generating “a
state of excitement.” He chose to represent common life because in that situation, people are
generally more self-aware and more honest. The feelings that arise in that condition are simpler,
more understandable, and more durable. Wordsworth’s decision to use common life and language
in his poetry implies that upper-class life and lofty language are insufficient for poetic expression.
Throughout the preface, Wordsworth seems to equate cosmopolitanism with corruption.

 WHAT LANGUAGE IS TO BE EXPECTED FROM HIM?

The language of the peasantry is pure, as common people are in constant communication with
nature and far away from “social vanity.” The late-Neoclassical poets believe that the lofty poetry
they write bring them honour. Wordsworth doesn't agree with these poets and their lofty language:
“they separate themselves from the sympathies of men”. Wordsworth uses common language
because it’s realistic, and, thus, relatable. In the Preface of the Lyrical Ballds, he claims to be "a
man that talks to men" and that the less elaborate language, the simpler is the "more philosophic"
since it can also transmit very elaborate, essential, and profound messages in a direct and
immediate way, understandable to all and suitable for rural issues and linked to the element of
nature.

Most of Wordsworth’s poems in Lyrical Ballads deal with nature. Wordsworth also speaks of nature
as a peaceful and reassuring element. He represents stillness and peace. We could say that he
distinguishes nature on three levels:

 NATURE AS THE COUNTRYSIDE: as opposed to opposed to urbanized and polluted town where
there is noise and confusion. The rural scene is usually silent and solitary but by no means desolate;
it is a source of great pleasure for man. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1798) reflects these ideas
even in its title.
 NATURE AS SOURCE OF INSPIRATION AND POSITIVE FEELINGS: Nature is not a power
external to man; men are part of it. Our best feelings are inspired by nature and in nature we can
discover moral and spiritual values. Nature becomes an extension of ourselves, we seem to find
ourselves in it.
 NATURE AS A LIFE-FORCE: as a whole pantheistic vibrant with life (Organic Living Whole), as an
image of God, a nature that is an active force that arouses joy and happiness.

The Romantics believe in art for the sake of life. The function of poetry is teaching moral
and philosophical values and ideals.

 THEMES:
 FOCUS ON LITTLE THINGS - FIND THE EXTRAORDINARY FROM THE ORDINARY,
FROM THE COMMON LIFE – LANGUAGE PURIFICATION
PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS (1802)

The principal object, then, which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to chuse incidents and
situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in
a selection of language really used by men; and at the same time, to throw over them a certain
colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual
aspect; and, further, and above all, to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in
them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as far as regards the
manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement. Low and rustic life was generally
chosen, because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which
they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic
language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater
simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly
communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings, and,
from the necessary character of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended, and are more
durable; and, lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the
beautiful and permanent forms of nature.

TRADUZIONE:
Lo scopo principale che ho avuto scrivendo queste poesie è stato quello di rendere interessanti gli
avvenimenti di tutti i giorni, rintracciando in essi, fedelmente ma non forzatamente, le leggi
fondamentali della nostra natura, specialmente per quanto riguarda il modo in cui noi associamo le
idee in uno stato di eccitazione. La vita umile e rurale è stata scelta generalmente perché, in
questa condizione, le passioni essenziali del cuore trovano un terreno più adatto alla loro
maturazione, sono meno trattenute, e parlano un linguaggio più semplice e più enfatico; perché in
quella condizione di vita i nostri sentimenti elementari coesistono in uno stato di maggiore
semplicità, e, di conseguenza, possono essere più accuratamente contemplati, e comunicati con
più forza; perché i modi della vita rurale germinano da quei sentimenti elementari e, dal carattere
necessario delle occupazioni rurali, sono più facilmente comprensibili e più durevoli; e, infine,
perché in quella condizione le passioni degli uomini sono incorporate con le forme belle e
permanenti della natura.

The language, too, of these men is adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its real
defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust) because such men hourly
communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived; and
because, from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse, being
less under the influence of social vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and
unelaborated expressions. Accordingly, such a language, arising out of repeated experience and
regular feelings, is a more permanent, and a far more philosophical language, than that which is
frequently substituted for it by poets, who think that they are conferring honour upon themselves
and their art, in proportion as they separate themselves from the sympathies of men, and indulge
in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression, in order to furnish food for fickle tastes, and fickle
appetites, of their own creation.

TRADUZIONE:

Si è pure adottato il linguaggio di questi uomini. (certo purificato da quelli che sembrano essere i
suoi veri difetti, e da tutte le permanenti e ragionevoli cause di avversione o di disgusto), perché
tali uomini comunicano continuamente con le cose migliori, dalle quali proviene originariamente la
parte migliore della lingua, e anche perché, a causa della loro posizione sociale e della uniformità
e ristrettezza dei loro rapporti interpersonali, essendo meno sotto l'influenza della vanità sociale,
essi comunicano i loro sentimenti e le loro idee con espressioni semplici e non elaborate. Un simile
linguaggio, che scaturisce da ripetute esperienze e da regolari sensazioni, è dunque un linguaggio
più stabile e ben più filosofico di quello che i poeti di solito sostituiscono ad esso, pensando di
attirare tanti più onori a sé stessi e alla loro arte, quanto più si alienano le simpatie degli uomini e si
abbandonano ad abitudini espressive arbitrarie e capricciose, per fornire cibi adatti a palati volubili
e volubili appetiti che esistono solo nella loro immaginazione\creazione.

1. In the first part, there is the idea of choosing rural and rustic life in order to find the essential
feelings and passions of our heart. The manners of rural life germinate from those
elementary feelings, and they are more comprehended and durable. Returning to the
original forms of feelings brings to something real. In this way, passions of men are
incorporated with the beautiful elements of nature.

2. In the second part of the preface, there is the idea that a poet has to purify the language
from defects that cause disgust. The use of a more simplified language brings a possibility
of returning to the state of reality. He is against the tendency of high poetry that makes us
forget the contacts with things and their true meaning.

3. In the last part, the authors wrote with irony to talk about poets and their operations and
exaggerations.

In this preface, Wordsworth clarify the two fundamental concepts of poetry: simple subjects
expressed by a simple language. It includes the idea of the simplicity to achieve the extraordinary.
The idea is to draw inspiration from the common life, which is experimented by everyone, and to
use the same language. Nevertheless, at the same time, the language had to be purified and
cleaned of all the mistakes in order to create a democratic poetry. The aim is to bring poetry to an
unprecedented level of accessibility.

The common life or common person is referred to A LOW AND RUSTIC LIFE. For this, there are
two elements: that of nature, that is seen as a life-force, and the idea of imagination, which has to
make ordinary life special because without imagination, a poet cannot describe the nature or the
life in a unique way. The poet was an ordinary man who possesses more imagination than other
men.

“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807)

“GRASMERE JOURNAL – 15 APRIL 1802”, DOROTHY WORDSWORTH

The inspiration for the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth came from a
walk Wordsworth took with his sister Dorothy and Coleridge. She too described this walk in her
journal (15 April 1802). Here Dorothy describes the walk in the woods beyond a Park in Lake
District. The weather is bad, the wind is blowing like it was a hurricane, but despite this they are
fascinated by the beautiful daffodils they see close to the water side. The daffodils are personified
(they rested their heads, they danced, they laughed). The place is quite isolated, but from a
naturalistic point of view it is full of plants and water streams. The language she uses recalls that of
William’s poem. At the end she uses the word “Simplicity”, one of the main concepts in William’s
and Coleridge’s poetics, this shows that the three were very close to each other and had similar
ideas. This extract can be seen, thus, as an anticipation to the writing of William Wordsworth’s
poem. Here there is a collective experience since she always uses the plural, not the singular
person. So, the text is based on an autobiographical experience, namely a walk in the countryside
with his beloved sister Dorothy during which the poet finds himself in front of an expanse of
daffodils along a lake.

 MEANING:
This poem is a representative text of Romanticism, since Nature is the main subject
and it is strictly connected to the poet. The scene the poet describes is peopled not by
other men but by nature; the crowd he sees is made up of golden daffodils. They are located in
the landscape – beside the lake and the trees – and they seem to dance together with the waves
of the nearby lake. The moment of vision by the poet brings a shock of happiness at the beauty
of the scene; the flowers seem to feel the same pleasure as the poet. The poem is, however, about
Wordsworth remembering the daffodils, not the moment when he actually saw them. In detail:
 1. STANZA: presents the scene and clarifies the object of the narration (daffodils). The very
starting line of the poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud” informs the poets profound
sentiments of being left alone. It was actually the death of his brother John that led him to
his feeling of loneliness.

2. STANZA: provides a personified description of the daffodils. In the 2nd stanza the poet is
not as present as in the 1st, he is not the protagonist anymore but a witness (testimone).
Comparing the daffodils to stars in the sky, the speaker notes how the flowers seem to go
on without ending. The speaker guesses there are ten thousand or so daffodils, all of their
heads moving as if they were dancing.
3. STANZA: is centred on the relation between the poet and the daffodils. The poet says that
Nature brings him “wealth”, seen as an inner wealth. So not only Nature is a source of
company and joy, but it also makes richer the soul of the poet. A poet couldn't help being
cheerful, says the speaker, in the company of the daffodils. The speaker stares at the
daffodils, without yet realizing the full extent of the positive effects of encountering them.
4. STANZA: After the experience with the daffodils, the speaker lies on the couch. It is then
that the daffodils come back to the speaker's imaginative memory—access to which is a gift
of solitude—and fills the speaker with joy as his mind dances with the daffodils. Whenever
the poet is lying on his couch the daffodils come on his imagination. The memory of the
daffodils not only fills his heart with pleasure but also has a refreshing effect on him and he
feels like dancing along with the daffodils.
 EMOTION RECOLLECTED IN TRANQUILLITY:
“I wandered lonely as a cloud “is a poem by the English romantic poet William Wordsworth, also
known as Daffodils, from the name of the flower protagonist of the text, written in 1804 and
published in the collection “Poems in two volumes” of 1807. Wordsworth will edit the text for a
second edition in 1815.

This poem is a representative text of Romanticism, since Nature is the main subject, and it is
strictly connected to the poet. It is a perfect example of those “emotions recollected in
tranquillity” that Wordsworth talks about in his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads. In fact, in this poem,
he does not describe the moment in which he saw the daffodils, but the memory of that moment,
as can be seen above all in the last verse of the text. Here we find how the poetic process works
according to Wordsworth: «poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings» which
«takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity».

The last stanza of the poem is the most important part of the poem and is the essence of the
poem. In this stanza, the poet speaks about the healing and refreshing effect of nature. According
to him, when one is in the state of solitude, one becomes retrospective and meditates on all the
good and pleasurable moments which one had, or which had happened to him-in his life. The poet
says that whenever he lies on his couch having nothing to do or in pensive mood, enjoying the
solitude, the images of the daffodils flash upon his imagination. When this happens, the poet feels
calm, refreshed, motivated and good about himself. This is how nature influences him. The
memories of the daffodils fill his heart with pleasure and joy, and he feels like dancing along with
the daffodils. This shows the healing and refreshing effect of nature on the poet.

 MEN AND THE NATURAL WORLD: Wordsworth is mainly a nature poet and for him. there
is nothing which is superior to and better than Nature. He breathes through with nature and
finds spiritual peace in it. In his opinion, nature has the solution for all the problems of
mankind. It is through nature that he seeks salvation. The theme of this poem “Daffodils” is
based on the healing (curativo) and refreshing power of nature. The poet starts the poem
with the simile and compares himself with the cloud wandering lonely. But as soon as he
sees the beautiful golden daffodils, he was impressed by their magical beauty. In the
Romantic context, generally man is characterised by loneliness, but here Nature is a source
of company and a sort of shelter (rifugio). Nature is personified and the poet becomes one
with Nature.
 STRUCTURE AND FORM
The poem is divided into 4 stanzas in iambic tetrameter with 6 lines per each. The rhyme scheme
is ABABCC with two alternate rhymes and an ending rhyming couplet. The language is very simple
and direct, it is mainly concrete.

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD (1804)

I wandered lonely as a cloud Vagavo solitario come una nuvola

That floats on high o'er vales and hills, che fluttua nell’alto delle sue valli e colline,
When all at once I saw a crowd, quando d’un tratto vidi una folla,
A host, of golden daffodils; un esercito, di dorati narcisi;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, accanto al lago, sotto gli alberi,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. ondeggianti e danzanti nella brezza.

Continuous as the stars that shine Perpetui come le stelle che brillano
And twinkle on the milky way, e scintillano nella Via Lattea,
They stretched in never-ending line essi si allungavano in una linea senza fine
Along the margin of a bay: lungo il margine della baia:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, diecimila ne vidi con una prima occhiata,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. agitando le loro corolle in una vivace danza.

The waves beside them danced; but they Le onde accanto a loro danzavano; ma essi
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: sbattevano le onde scintillanti in allegria:
A poet could not but be gay, un poeta non poteva che essere felice
In such a jocund company: in una così gioconda compagnia:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought io li fissai- e rifissai- poco pensando
What wealth the show to me had brought: a quanta ricchezza tale spettacolo mi aveva portato:

For oft, when on my couch I lie Perché spesso, quando giaccio sul mio sofà
In vacant or in pensive mood, a mente vuota o con fare pensoso,
They flash upon that inward eye essi irrompono in quell’occhio interno
Which is the bliss of solitude; che è la beatitudine della solitudine;
And then my heart with pleasure fills, e poi il mio cuore si riempie di piacere,
And dances with the daffodils. e danza insieme ai narcisi.
 Enjambments:
- 1 STANZA: 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6
- 2 STANZA: 7-8, 8-9, 9-10, 10-11, 11-12
- 3 STANZA: 13-14, 15-16, 17-18
- 4 STANZA: 19-20, 20-21, 21-22, 23-24
 Anaphora: ggg
- 4 STANZA: And (v.23-24)
 Alliterations: ggg
- 1 STANZA: H sound (v.2); B sound (v.5); TH sound (v.5)
- 2 STANZA: TH sound (v.7); S sound (v.7- finals)
- 3 STANZA: TH sound (v.13); B sound (v.15); T sound (v.15); W sound (v.18)
- 4 STANZA: TH sound (v.21); D sound (v.24)
 Assonances:
- 1 STANZA: A sound (v.1/v.3); O sound (v.2)
- 2 STANZA: A sound (v.11)
- 3 STANZA: /
- 4 STANZA: O sound (v.19); I sound (v.20); /ai/ sound (v.19 not perfect)
 Repetitions: ggg
- 1 STANZA: The (v.5)
- 2 STANZA: /
- 3 STANZA: waves (v.13-14); gazed (v.15)
- 4 STANZA: in (v.20)