特立此据William Wordsworth

2021年1月19日发(作者：meto)
Chapter 2 Wordsworth
William Wordsworth, the representative poet of the early romanticism, was born in
1770,
in
a
lawyer's
family
at
Cockermouth,
Cumberland.
His
mother
died
when
he
was
only
eight.
His
father
followed
her
six
years
later.
The
orphan
was
taken
in
charge by relatives, who sent him to school at Hawkshead in the beautiful lake district
in Northwestern England. Here, 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. So the child early cherished a love of nature, which he later expressed in
his poetry.

He studied at
Cambridge
from
1787 to
1791. While at
university, he
associated
with
those
young
Republicans
whose
political
enthusiasm
had
been
roused
by
the
French
Revolution.
In
the
years
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
Englishman
with
a
spirit
of
revolt
against
all
social
iniquities
and
a
sympathy
for
the
poor,
humble
folk.
Wordsworth
joined the Gerondists, i.e. the moderate Republicans. But he was forced to return to
England because his relatives cut off his allowance.

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

face
of
nature
and
take
an
interest
in
the
peasants
living in their neighbourhood. She also induced him to transform his observation of
the landscape into the revelation of the beauty of nature in poetry, and thus
the poet in him.



And humble cares, and delicate fears;

A heart, the fountain of sweet tears;

And love, and thought, and joy.

In 1797 he made friends with Coleridge. Then they lived together in the Quantock
Hills,
Somerset,
devoting
their
time
to
writing
of
poetry.
In
their
partnership,
Coleridge
was
to
take
up
the

or
at
least
romantic
subjects,
while
Wordsworth was
jointly published the

Rime
of
the
Ancient
Mariner
The
majority
of
poems
in
this
collection,
however, were written by Wordsworth.

The publication of the
poetical tradition of the 18th century, i.e., with classicism, and
the beginning of the
Romantic revival in England.

In
the
Preface
to
the

Ballads
Wordsworth
set
forth
his
principles
of
poetry.
As
contrasted
with
the
classicists
who
made
reason,
order
and
the
old,
classical traditions the criteria in their poetical creations, Wordsworth based his own
poetical principle on the premise that
powerful
feeling.
He
appealed
directly
to
individual
sensations,
i.e.,
pleasure,

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excitement
and
enjoyment,
as
the
foundation
in
the
creation
and
appreciation
of
poetry.
Poetry

its
origin
from
emotion
recollected
in
tranquillity.
A
poet's
emotion extends from human affairs to nature, but emotion immediately expressed is
as
raw
as
wine
newly
bottled.
Tranquil
contemplation
of
an
emotional
experience
matures the feeling and sensation, and makes possible the creation of good poetry like
the refining of old wine. 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

metrical
arrangement
a
selection
of
the
real
language
of
men
to
a
state
of
vivid
sensation.
These
principles
helped
to
crumble
the
theoretical
foundations
of
the
classical
school
of
English
poetry
and
to
inspire
a
new
generation
of
poets.
The
Preface
to
the

Ballads
served
as
the
manifesto
of
the
English
Romantic
Movement in poetry.

With the establishment of the Jacobin dictatorship (May 1793-July 1794) and the
rise
of
Napoleon
(November
1799-April
1814)
in
France,
Wordsworth's
attitude
towards the revolution
changed and he
gave up
his
former political
enthusiasm. He
retired to the northern lake district, first living at Grasmere and then at Rydal Mount.
Here he lived in seclusion for a full half century. He became a Tory and upheld the
reactionary
policy
of
the
British
government.
Then
he
accepted
the
office
of
a
distributor
of
stamps
and
was
made
poet
laureate.
He
was
eighty
when
he
died
in
1850.

Wordsworth,
Coleridge
and
Southey
have
often
been
mentioned
as
the

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
runs
through
such
short lyrics as
as
a
Cloud

Heart
Leaps
Up

of
Immortality
and

Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
thanks to nature



(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

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