Lecture One of Book Two

The Romantic Period;

William Wordsworth

I. Introduction• Romanticism: • literary and artistic movements of the late 18th and 19th century. • a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealiz

ation, and rationality that typified classicism in general and late 18th-century neoclassicism in particular.

• a reaction against the Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in general.

• Inspired in part by the libertarian ideals of the French Revolution, • believed in a return to nature and in the innate goodness of humans,

as expressed by Jean Jacques Rousseau;emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.

• interest in the medieval, exotic, primitive, and nationalistic. • From William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads in 17

98 to the death of Sir Walter Scott and the passage of the first reform bill in the Parliament in 1832.

II. Background knowledge of Romanticism

• 1. Historical background• (1) Romanticism as a literary movement appeared in England from t

he publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 to the death of Sir Walter Scott and the passage of the first reform bill in the Parliament in 1832.

• (2) The American and French revolutions greatly inspired the English people fighting for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

• (3) The Industrial Revolution brought great wealth to the rich but worsened the working and living conditions of the poor, which gave rise to sharp conflicts between capital and labor.

• (4) In England the primarily agricultural society was replaced by a modern industrialized one.

• (5) Political reforms and mass demonstrations shook the foundation of aristocratic rule in Britain.

• 2. Cultural background• Inspiration for the romantic approach initially came from two great s

hapers of thought, French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau and German writer Johann Wolfgang yon Goethe. It is Rousseau who established the cult of the individual and championed the freedom of the human spirit; his famous announcement was "I felt before I thought". Goethe and his compatriots extolled the romantic spirit as manifested in German folk songs, Gothic architecture, and the plays of English playwright William Shakespeare.

• (2) The Romantic Movement expressed a more or less negative attitude toward the existing social and political conditions, for the romantics saw both the corruption and injustice of the feudal societies and the fundamental inhumanity of the economic, social and political forces of capitalism.

• (3) Romanticism constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social activities to the inner world of the human spirit, tending to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience.

• (4) In literature, the romantics shifted their emphasis from reason, which was a dominant mode of thinking among the 18th-century writers and philosophers, to instinct and emotion, which made literature most valuable as an expression of an individual's unique feelings.

• 3. Features of the romantic literature• (1) Expressiveness: Instead of regarding poetry as "a mirror to natur

e", the romantics hold that the object of the artist should be the expression of the artist's emotions, impressions, or beliefs.

• The role of instinct, intuition, and the feelings of "the heart" is stressed instead of "neoclassicists" emphasis on "the head", on regularity, uniformity, decorum, and imitation of the classical writers. poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings".

• (2) Imagination: emphasis on the creative function of the imagination, seeing art as a formulation of intuitive, imaginative perceptions.

• (3) Singularity: a strong love for the remote, the unusual, the strange, the supernatural, the mysterious, the splendid, the picturesque, and the illogical.

• (4) Worship of nature: Romantic poets see in nature a revelation of Truth, the "living garment of God". nature to them is a source of mental cleanness and spiritual understanding.

• (5) Simplicity: turn to the humble people and the everyday life for subjects, employing the commonplace, the natural and the simple as their materials; take to using everyday language spoken by the rustic people as opposed to the poetic diction used by neoclassic writers.

• (6) The romantic period is an age of poetry with Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats as the major poets.

III. William Wordsworth• William Wordsworth. • the representative poet of the early romanticism• born in 1770 in a lawyer's family at Cockermout

h, Cumberland. • His mother died when he was only eight. His fath

er followed her six years later. • The orphan was taken in charge by relatives, wh

o sent him to school at Hawkshead in the beautiful lake district in Northwestern England.

• the unroofed school of nature attracted him more than the classroom, and he learned more eagerly from flowers and hills and stars than from his books.

• He studied at Cambridge from 1787 to 1791. While at university, he associated with those young Republicans roused by the French Revolution.

• In the year 1790-1792 he twice visited France. On his second visit he became acquainted with Beaupuy, an army officer of the new-born Republic of France, who kindled the heart of the young English man with a spirit of revolt against all social iniquities and a sympathy for the poor, humble folk.

• In 1795, Wordsworth settled, with his sister Dorothy, at Racedown in Somersetshire. They lived a frugal life and Dorothy, as his confidante and inspirer, made him turn his eyes to ' the face of nature' and take an interest in the peasants living in their neighbourhood.

• In 1797 be made friends with Coleridge. Then they lived together in the Quantock Hills, Somerset, devoting their time to writing of poetry.

• In 1798 they jointly published the “Lyrical Ballads”. Coleridge’ s contribution was his masterpiece ' The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. The majority of poems in this collection, however, were written by Wordsworth.

• The publication of the ' Lyrical Ballads' marked the break with the conventional poetical tradition of the l8th century, i.e. with classicism, and the beginning of the Romantic revival in England.

• In the Preface to the "Lyrical Ballads', Wordsworth set forth his principles of poetry.

• "all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling.' individual sensations, i.e. pleasure, excitement and enjoyment, as the foundation in the creation and appreciation of poetry.

• Poetry “takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." • A poet's emotion extends from human affairs to nature. Tranquil con

templation of an emotional experience matures the feeling and sensation.

• The function of poetry lies in its power to give an unexpected splendour to familiar and commonplace things, to incidents and situations from common life just as a prism can give a ray of commonplace sunlight the manifold miracle of colour.

• Ordinary peasants, children, even outcasts, all may be used as subjects in poetical creation.

• As to the language used in poetry, Wordsworth "endeavoured to bring his language near to the real language of men”.

• The Preface to the “Lyrical Ballads” as the manifesto of the English Romanticism.

• Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey have often been mentioned as the “Lake Poets” because they lived in the lake district in the northwestern part of England. The three traversed the same path in politics and in poetry, beginning as radicals and closing as conservatives.

• Wordsworth lived a long life and wrote a lot of poems. He was at his best in descriptions of mountains and rivers, flowers and birds, children and peasants, and reminiscences of his own childhood and youth. As a great poet of nature, he was the first to find words for the most elementary sensations of man face to face with natural phenomena. These sensations are universal and old but, once expressed in his poetry, become charmingly beautiful and new.

• His deep love for nature run through such short lyrics as Lines Written in Early Spring". “To the Cuckoo” “ I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” .” My Heart Leaps Up”, Intimations of Immortality' and - Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey'. The last is called his "lyrical hymn of thanks to nature:

• Wordsworth was also a masterhand in searching and revealing the feelings of the common people.

• The themes of many of his poems were drawn from rural life: and his characters belong to the lower classes in the English countryside. This is so because he was intimately acquainted with rural life and believed that in rural conditions man's elementary feelings find a better soil than in town life and can be better cultivated and strengthened in constant association with nature.

• (' The Solitary Reaper' ). in depicting the naivety of simple peasant children (' We Are Seven' ) and in delineating with deep sympathy the sufferings of the poor. humble peasants ("Michael'," The Ruined Cottage'. "Simon Lee", and "The Old Cumberland Beggar' ).

• His "Lucy" poems are a series of short pathetic lyrics on the theme of harmony between humanity and nature.

• Wordsworth's poetry is distinguished by the simplicity and purity of his language. "His theory and practice in poetical creation started from a dissatisfaction With the social reality under capitalism, and hinted at the thought of' back to nature ' and back to the patriarchal system of the old time"

• "The Prelude" is Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem, in 14 books, which was written in 1799-1805 but not published until 1850. it is the spiritual record of the poet's mind, honestly recording his own intimate mental experiences which cover his childhood, school days, years at Cambridge, his first impressions of London, his first visit to France, his residence in France during the Revolution, and his reaction to these various experiences, showing the development of his own thought and sentiment.

Points of view• (1) Politically Wordsworth was a radical democrat in the early days,

attracted to the slogans of liberty, equality and fraternity but became a conservative in his later years. However, in his whole life, he held a critical attitude towards the government and the upper class. He was strongly against the Industrial Revolution which, he believed, had caused the miseries of the poor people and destroyed the quiet simple life of the country people. He had great sympathy for the poor and regarded them as the victims of the fortune-hunting capitalists.

• (2) Literarily, he was strongly against the neoclassical poetry, especially that of Dryden, Pope and Johnson, and tried to restore the tradition of Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton. He was the leading figure of the English romantic poetry. He thought the source of poetic truth was the direct experience of the senses. Poetry, he asserted, originated from "emotion recollected in tranquility". He maintained that the scenes and events of everyday life and the speech of ordinary people were the raw material of which poetry could and should be made. The most important contribution he hag made is that he has not only started the modern poetry, the poetry of the growing inner self, but also Changed the course of English poetry by using ordinary speech of the language and by advocating a return to nature.

2. Major works

• Tintern Abbey

Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting The Banks Of The Wye During A Tour. July 13, 1798.

• FIVE years have past; five summers, with the length• Of five long winters! and again I hear• These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs• With a soft inland murmur. -- Once again• Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,• That on a wild secluded scene impress• Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect• The landscape with the quiet of the sky.• The day is come when I again repose• Here, under this dark sycamore, and view• These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,• Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,• Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves• 'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see• These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines

• Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,• Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke• Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!• With some uncertain notice, as might seem• Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,• Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire• The Hermit sits alone.

• These beauteous forms,• Through a long absence, have not been to me• As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:• But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din• Of towns and cities, I have owed to them• In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,• Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;• And passing even into my purer mind,

• With tranquil restoration: -- feelings too• Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,• As have no slight or trivial influence• On that best portion of a good man's life,• His little, nameless, unremembered, acts• Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,• To them I may have owed another gift,• Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,• In which the burthen of the mystery,• In which the heavy and the weary weight• Of all this unintelligible world,• Is lightened: -- that serene and blessed mood,• In which the affections gently lead us on, -- • Until, the breath of this corporeal frame• And even the motion of our human blood• Almost suspended, we are laid asleep• In body, and become a living soul:• While with an eye made quiet by the power• Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,• We see into the life of things.

• If this• Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft -- • In darkness and amid the many shapes• Of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir• Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,• Have hung upon the beatings of my heart -- • How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,• O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods,• How often has my spirit turned to thee!• And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,• With many recognitions dim and faint,• And somewhat of a sad perplexity,• The picture of the mind revives again:• While here I stand, not only with the sense• Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts• That in this moment there is life and food• For future years. And so I dare to hope,

• Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first• I came among these hills; when like a roe• I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides• Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,• Wherever nature led: more like a man• Flying from something that he dreads, than one• Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then• (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,• And their glad animal movements all gone by)• To me was all in all. -- I cannot paint• What then I was. The sounding cataract• Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,• The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,• Their colours and their forms, were then to me• An appetite; a feeling and a love,• That had no need of a remoter charm,• By thought supplied, nor any interest• Unborrowed from the eye. -- That time is past,• And all its aching joys are now no more,

• And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this• Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur, other gifts• Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,• Abundant recompence. For I have learned• To look on nature, not as in the hour• Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes• The still, sad music of humanity,• Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power• To chasten and subdue. And I have felt• A presence that disturbs me with the joy• Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime• Of something far more deeply interfused,• Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,• And the round ocean and the living air,• And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;• A motion and a spirit, that impels• All thinking things, all objects of all thought,• And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still• A lover of the meadows and the woods,• And mountains; and of all that we behold

• From this green earth; of all the mighty world• Of eye, and ear, -- both what they half create,• And what perceive; well pleased to recognise• In nature and the language of the sense,• The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,• The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul• Of all my moral being.

• Nor perchance,• If I were not thus taught, should I the more• Suffer my genial spirits to decay:• For thou art with me here upon the banks• Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,• My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch• The language of my former heart, and read• My former pleasures in the shooting lights• Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while• May I behold in thee what I was once,• My dear, dear Sister! and this prayer I make,

• Knowing that Nature never did betray• The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,• Through all the years of this our life, to lead• From joy to joy: for she can so inform• The mind that is within us, so impress• With quietness and beauty, and so feed• With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,• Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,• Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all• The dreary intercourse of daily life,• Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb• Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold• Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon• Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;• And let the misty mountain-winds be free• To blow against thee: and, in after years,• When these wild ecstasies shall be matured• Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind• Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,

• Thy memory be as a dwelling-place• For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then,• If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,• Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts• Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,• And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance -- • If I should be where I no more can hear• Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams• Of past existence -- wilt thou then forget• That on the banks of this delightful stream• We stood together; and that I, so long• A worshipper of Nature, hither came• Unwearied in that service: rather say• With warmer love -- oh! with far deeper zeal• Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,• That after many wanderings, many years• Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,• And this green pastoral landscape, were to me• More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!

She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways

• She dwelt among the untrodden ways

• Beside the springs of Dove,

• Maid whom there were none to praise

• And very few to love:

• A violet by a mosy tone

• Half hidden from the eye!

• ---Fair as a star, when only one

• Is shining in the sky.

• She lived unknown, and few could know

• When Lucy ceased to be;

• But she is in her grave, and, oh,

• The difference to me!

I traveled among unknown men• I TRAVELLED among unknown men,• In lands beyond the sea;• Nor, England! did I know till then• What love I bore to thee.

• 'Tis past, that melancholy dream!• Nor will I quit thy shore• A second time; for still I seem• To love thee more and more.

• Among thy mountains did I feel

• The joy of my desire;

• And she I cherished turned her wheel

• Beside an English fire.

• Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed

• The bowers where Lucy played;

• And thine too is the last green field

• That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

I wandered lonely as a cloud• That That floats on high o’er vales and hills,• When all at once I saw a crowd,• A host, of golden daffodils:• Beside the lake, beneath the trees,• Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

• Continuous as the stars that shine• And twinkle on the milky way,• They stretched in never-ending line• Along the margin of a bay:• Ten thousand saw I at a glance,• Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

• The waves beside them danced; but they• Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;• A poet could not but be gay;• In such a jocund company;• I gazed—and gazed—but little thought• What wealth the show to me had brought:

• For oft, when on my couch I lie• In vacant or in pensive mood, • They flash upon that inward eye• Which is the bliss of solitude;• And then my heart with pleasure fills, • And dances with the daffodils.

Sonnet: Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

• Earth has not anything to show more fair:• Dull would he be of soul who could pass by• A sight so touching in its majesty:• This City now doth, like a garment, wear• The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,• Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie• Open unto the fields, and to the sky;• All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

• Never did sun more beautifully steep

• In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;

• Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

• The river glideth at his own sweet will:

• Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;

• And all that mighty heart is lying still!

Sonnet: London,1802• Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour;• England hath need of thee: she is a fen• Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,• Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,• Have forfeited their ancient English dower• Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;• Oh! raise us up, return to us again;• And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.• Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;• Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:• Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,• So didst thou travel on life's common way,• In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart• The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

The Solitary Reaper• BEHOLD her, single in the field, • Yon solitary Highland Lass! • Reaping and singing by herself; • Stop here, or gently pass! • Alone she cuts and binds the grain, • And sings a melancholy strain; • O listen! for the Vale profound • Is overflowing with the sound.

• No Nightingale did ever chaunt• More welcome notes to weary bands• Of travellers in some shady haunt,• Among Arabian sands:• A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard• In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,• Breaking the silence of the seas• Among the farthest Hebrides.

• Will no one tell me what she sings?--• Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow• For old, unhappy, far-off things,• And battles long ago:• Or is it some more humble lay,• Familiar matter of to-day?• Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,• That has been, and may be again?

• Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang• As if her song could have no ending;• I saw her singing at her work,• And o'er the sickle bending;――• I listen'd, motionless and still;• And, as I mounted up the hill,• The music in my heart I bore,• Long after it was heard no more.

• (1) Lyrical Ballads (1798)• the landmark in English literature, for it started a poetical revolution

by using the common, simple and colloquial language in poetry. The poems were written in the spirit and in the pattern of the early storytelling ballads. They are simple tales about simple life told in simple style and simple language to express the simple emotions in simple lyricism.

• (2) Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802)• The Preface deserts, its reputation as a manifesto in the theory of p

oetry. Most discussions of the Preface focused on his assertions about the valid language of poetry, that is, "all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." He attributed to imaginative literature the primary role in keeping man emotionally alive and morally sensitive, i. e. keeping him essentially human, in the face of the pressures of a technological and increasingly urban society. He claimed that the great subjects of poetry were "the essential passions of the heart" and "the great and simple affections" as these qualities interact with "the beautiful and permanent forms of nature" and are expressed in a "naked and simple" language that is "adapted to interest mankind permanently."

• (3) Prelude, or Growth of a poet's Mind(1850)• The Prelude is Wordsworth's masterpiece, the greatest a

nd most original long poem since Milton's Paradise Lost. It is a personal history which turns on a mental crisis and recovery, and for such a narrative design the chief prototype is not the classical or Christian epic, but the spiritual autobiography of crisis. The recurrent metaphor is that of journey, whose end is its beginning, and in which it turns out that the end of the journey is "to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time". The journey goes through the poet's personal history, carrying the metaphorical meaning of his interior journey and questing for his lost early self and the proper spiritual home. The poem charts this growth from infancy to manhood. We are shown the development 0f human consciousness under the sway of an imagination united to the grandeur of nature.

• 3. Special features• (1) best at the truthful presentation of nature. He not only sees clearl

y and describes accurately, but penetrates to the heart of things and always finds some exquisite meaning that is not written on the surface. He gives the reader the very life of nature and the impression of some personal spirit.

• (2) The theme is about incidents and situations of common life (generally "low and rustic"). Wordsworth considers that man is not apart from nature, but is the very "life of her life". So he thinks the common life is the only subject of literary interest.

• (3) Wordsworth advocates a return to nature. According to him, society and the crowded unnatural life of cities tend to weaken and pervert humanity; and a return to nature and simple living is the only remedy for human wretchedness. He Shows sympathy to the common people.

• (4)The language used in his poetry is a selection of language really used by men. In other words, he uses simple, colloquial language in poetry.

• "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"• (A) Main idea• The poem is crystal clear and lucid. By recounting a little

episode, the poet gives a description of the scene and of the feelings that match it. Then he abstracts the total emotional value of the experience and concludes by summing that up. Below the immediate surface, we find that all the realistic details of the flowers, the trees, the waves, the wind, and all the accompanying sensations of active joy, are absorbed into an over-all concrete metaphor, the recurrent image of the dance, which appears in every stanza. The flowers, the stars, the waves are units in this dancing pattern of order in diversity, of linked eternal harmony and vitality. Through the revelation and recognition of his kinship with nature, the poet himself becomes as it were a part of the whole cosmic dance.

• (B) Comprehension notes• (a) "I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o'er vales and

hills": While the poet was taking a walk in the woods, he felt lonely and detached from earthly fellowship just like a lonely cloud, wandering and floating in the sky.

• (b) "When all at once I saw a crowd, / A host, of golden daffodils... "; Suddenly the poet sees the host of dancing daffodils. The daffodils remind him of the stars at night in brightness and multitude; they match the waves in radiance and gaiety. In a flash, the poet's loneliness is transformed into fellowship; he becomes a part of all this "jocund company".

• (c) "Fluttering and dancing in the breeze": The dancing image (such as fluttering, dancing, shining, twinkling, sparkling and tossing) recurs in every stanza of the poem, revealing a sense of joy and unity and continuity in the natural elements of air, water and earth.

• (d) "What wealth the show to me had brought": The moment of vision is a revelation, an intuition of a vital union between him and the forces around him, which enriches his life forever.

• (e) "They flash upon that inward eye": Through that "inward eye" of memory, other moods of loneliness, and listlessness can be animated with the sense of fulfillment which was captured on that first spring morning. It is an intensely personal poem. It creates a purely subjective experience. The poet tells us about the daffodils in order to tell us something about himself.

• (f) In the last two stanzas, we notice that the speaker uses in succession five words denoting joy ("glee", "gay", "jocund", "bliss", and "pleasure") in a crescendo that suggests the intensity of the speaker's happiness. Although Wordsworth uses various words to indicate joy, he occasionally repeats rather than varies his diction. The repetitions of the words for seeing ("saw", "gazed") inaugurate and sustain the imagery of vision that is Central to the poem's meaning; the forms of the verb to dance ("dancing", "dance", and "dances") suggest both that the various elements of nature are in harmony with one another and that nature is also in harmony with man. The poet conveys this by bringing the elements of nature together in pairs: daffodils and wind (stanza 1); daffodils and stars (stanza 2); water and wind (stanza 3). Nature and man come together explicitly in stanza 4 when the speaker says that his heart dances with the daffodils. A different kind of repetition appears in the movement from the "loneliness" of line one to the "solitude" or line 22.

• Both words denote an alone-ness, but they suggest a radical difference in the solitary person's attitude to his state of being alone. The poem moves from the sadly alienated separation felt by the speaker in the beginning to his joy in recollecting the natural scene, a movement framed by the words "lone" and "solitude". An analogous movement is suggested within the final stanza by words "vacant" and "fills". The emptiness of speaker's spirit is transformed into a fullness of feeling as he remembers the daffodils.

• (2) "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" (September3, 1802)

• (A) Main idea• The poem is a kind of dramatic monologue, in the presen

t tense, to express immediate pleasure in the eye and ear and to celebrate qualities of a particular personal experience. The tone is solemn but not heavy. The first 8 lines present a very beautiful picture of London in the early morning, with its "ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples" glittering "in the smokeless air". By linking the city buildings with the open fields and the sky, the speaker tries to put the stress to the scenes of the whole country in which the city is only a part. In doing so, the speaker intends to connect the valley, rock and hill and river in the next few lines to present the natural beauty.

• (B) Comprehension notes• (a) "This City now doth, like a garment, wear / The beauty of the mor

ning": The poet chose the word "wear" to say that the city wears its beauty just like people wearing a garment. Generally people wear something for two purposes: one is to keep them warm; the other is to cover up something ugly. The beauty of the morning might be the calm and the quiet of the city. Thus, the speaker would observe the city in such a way that his eyes as if went on tiptoe over the scene, anxious not to awaken the city into the ugliness and confusion of noisy activities he hated.

• (b) "All bright and glittering in the smokeless air": The air of London was severely polluted during the early Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. Smokeless air could only be seen in the early morning.

• (c) "The river glideth at his own sweet will": The river runs freely, for there is no barges or steamers to hinder its running in the early morning. Here the river is personified so that it has its own will.

• (3) "She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways"• (A) Main idea• This is One of the five well-known "Lucy poems"

by Wordsworth. It tells us that since Lucy lived remote from the great world, her death passed unnoticed. Few people knew her, and the few simple, unlettered folk who knew her lacked the means to set forth to the world the tributes due to her. Yet, though Lucy's passing made no difference to the great world, it has made all the difference to her lover, who speaks the poem. The poem is written with rare elusive beauty of simple lyricism and haunting rhythm.

• (B) Comprehension notes• (a) "She dwelt among the untrodden ways": The speaker tries to say

that the lowly country girl led her simple life of obscurity far away from "the madding crowd".

• (b) "A violet by a mossy stone / Half hidden from the eye! /--Fair as a star, when only one / Is shining in the sky": By using a metaphor and a simile, the poet compares Lucy with a Violet, a wild flower growing by a mossy stone, and a fair star, shining in the sky. The two comparisons are meant to enhance Lucy's charm by associating her with such attractive objects as flowers and stars. Lucy's natural charm, like that of the violet, was derived from her modesty; She, too, was "half-hidden from the eye", obscure and unnoticed. Though Lucy was, to the world, as completely obscure as the modest flower in the shadow of the mossy stone, to the eye of her lover she was the only star in his heaven, shining like the planet of love itself.

• (c) "The difference to me": This phrase reveals the speaker's strong love-for Lucy. Although others may be indifferent to her whether dead or alive, he still loves her and her beauty. And her fine qualities are also living in his memory.

• (4) "The Solitary Reaper"• (A) Main idea• This is a deceptively simple poem, in which Wor

dsworth describes vividly and sympathetically a young peasant girl working in the fields and singing as she works. The plot of the little incident is told rather straightforwardly. Wordsworth did not experience the incident himself; it was suggested by a passage in his friend Thomas Wilkinson's Tour of Scotland. Yet the short lyric is an admirable poem of a simple peasant girl who obviously enjoys her work and whose plaintive song leaves strong and lasting impression upon the chance listener.

• (B) Comprehension notes• (a) "Nightingale", "Cuckoo bird": By using both images as metaphors,

the poet compares the beautiful song, sung by the peasant girt with those by the birds. On hearing a bird sing, we sometimes feel that we are heating the voice of nature itself. In the similar way, we could, in overhearing the girl's song (under the circumstances described), feel that we were overhearing the voice of human nature itself.

• (b) "Will no one tell me what she sings": The traveler cannot make out the words of the song, because, presumably, they are in Gaelic, the native language of the Scottish Highlands.

• (c) "Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, /That has been, and may be again": Sorrows, losses and pains are the common sufferings the poor people had in the past and may have again in their future.

• (d) "The music in my heart I bore, / Long after it was heard no more": The music, which is both lovely and sad, touches the poet so greatly that he can hardly forget it. With mixture of happiness and sorrow, the poet celebrates the beautiful rural life and expresses his sympathy for the suffering of the peasants.