PROGRAMME CODE: MAEL 20
SEMESTER III BRITISH POETRY- III (MAEL 601) SEMESTER IV BRITISH POETRY-IV (MAEL 606)
“ “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”-that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”
John Keats
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES
Uttarakhand Open University
PROGRAMME CODE: MAEL 20
SEMESTER III BRITISH POETRY- III (MAEL 601) SEMESTER IV BRITISH POETRY-IV (MAEL 606)
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES
Uttarakhand Open University
Phone nos. 05964-261122, 261123
Toll Free No. 18001804025
Fax No. 05946-264232, e-mail info @uou.ac.in
Board of Studies
Prof. H.P.Shukla (Chairperson) Director
Prof. S.A.Hamid (Retd.) Dept. of English Kumaun University Nainital
School of Humanities Uttarakhand Open University Haldwani
Prof. D.R.Purohit Senior Fellow
Prof. M.R.Verma Dept. of English
Indian institute of Advanced studies Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
Gurukul Kangri University Haridwar
Programme Developers and Editors
Dr. H.P. Shukla Professor,Dept. of English
Dr. Suchitra Awasthi(Coordinator) Assistant Professor
Director,School of humanities Uttarakhand Open University
Dept. of English Uttarakhand Open University
Unit Writers
- Dr. R.B. Sharma
- Semester III- Unit 1, 2
Lucknow University, Lucknow
Dr. M.M. Tripathi DAV College, Kanpur
Semester III - Units 3, 4, 5, 6 Semester IV- Units 1, 2, 3 Semester IV- Units 4, 5 Semester IV -Units 6,7,8
Dr. Manjula Namboori Govt. Raza PG College, Rampur
Dr. Veerendra Mishra IIT, Roorkee
Dr. Andhruti Shah Shivalik College of Engineering, Dehradun
- Edition: 2020
- ISBN : 978-93-84632-16-8
Copyright: Uttarakhand Open University, Haldwani Published by: Registrar, Uttarakhand Open University, Haldwani
Email: [email protected]
Printer:
CONTENTS
SEMESTER III MAEL 601 BLOCK 1 : EARLY ROMANTIC POETRY
Unit 1
Unit 2
William Wordsworth “Tintern Abbey”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
02-11
12-28
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
BLOCK 2: LATER ROMANTIC POETRY
Unit 3
P.B. Shelley (1)
“To a Skylark”
“Stanzas Written in Dejection –December 1818, near Naples”
29-40
Unit 4
P. B. Shelley (2)
- “Adonais”
- 41-47
48-59 60-67
Unit 5 Unit 6
John Keats (1) “Ode to a Nightingale” “Ode on a Grecian Urn” John Keats (2) “The Eve of St. Agnes”
SEMESTER IV MAEL 606 BLOCK 1: VICTORIAN POETRY
Unit 1 Unit 2
Unit 3
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
“The Lady of Shalott” “Tithonus”
Robert Browning
69-89
“The Last Ride Together” “Rabbi Ben Ezra”
Matthew Arnold: The Scholar Gypsy
90-107
108-122
BLOCK2: TWENTIETH CENTURY POETRY (I)
Unit 4 Unit 5
W. B. Yeats “Sailing to Byzantium” “When you are Old” T. S. Eliot “The Wasteland”
123-134 135-159
BLOCK 3: TWENTIETH CENTURY POETRY (II)
Unit 6
W. H. Auden “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”
“In Praise of Limestone”
160-170 171-189 190-208
Unit 7 Unit 8
Philip Larkin “Church Going” “Ambulances” Ted Hughes “Daffodils” “Hawk Roosting”
- British Poetry III / British Poetry IV
- MAEL 601 / MAEL 606
SEMESTER
III
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- British Poetry III / British Poetry IV
- MAEL 601 / MAEL 606
- UNIT 1
- WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
“Tintern Abbey”
1.1. Introduction 1.2. Objectives 1.3. The Romantic Age
1.3.1. Historical and Intellectual Background 1.3.2. Literary Background
1.4. Introduction to the Poet
1.5. “Tintern Abbey” 1.6. Introduction to the Poem “Tintern Abbey”
1.7. Critical Appreciation of the Poem 1.8. Glossary 1.9. Summing Up 1.10. Answers to Self Assessment Questions 1.11. References 1.12. Terminal and Model Questions
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1.1. INTRODUCTION
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Wordsworth is one of the leading poets of Romantic age. Romantic age in English Poetry begins with the publication of Lyrical Ballads (1798), a collection of poems jointly published by William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge. English poetry before Wordsworth was the poetry of urban upper middle class people narrating the follies and foibles of city life. Wordsworth attempted to bring poetry and common man closer by narrating the life and experiences of rural landscape. In this unit you will read one of the most popular po-
ems of William Wordsworth, “Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”. This
poem is one of the masterpieces Wordsworth. The poem celebrates the power of human mind and the magnificence of Nature. With the help of human memory and imagination, the spiritual powers of the Nature can be invoked in times of crisis, when one becomes tired of the materialistic life. In such times the mystical healing powers of Nature can give comfort to human beings suffering from pain and pangs of life. The healing touch of Nature, the mystical presence of Nature remains present with the lover of Nature even when he is away from Nature. This theme runs through the entire poem. It celebrates the relationship between Man and Nature. Before we read the poem it is better if we know some historical and literary background of the age in which the poem was written.
1.2. OBJECTIVES
At the end of the unit, the students should be able to:
relate the historical and intellectual background of the Romantic age with themes and concerns of the poem, appreciate the poetic qualities of the poet on the basis of their reading of the poem, interpret and analyze the poem from the perspectives of language and other formalistic features, critically appreciate the poem, by focusing on the themes and philosophical issues.
1.3. ROMANTIC AGE 1.3.1. Historical and Intellectual Background
In English literature the period of 1798 -1832 is known as the Romantic Age. The age begins in 1798, the year Wordsworth and Coleridge published their Lyrical Ballads, and ends in 1832, a year which saw the death of Sir Walter Scott and the enactment of the First Reform Bill by the parliament. These years link literary and political events. The Romantic period was an era in which a literary revolution (Revival of Romanticism) took place alongside the social and economic revolutions. This is why in some histories of lit-
erature the Romantic period is called the ‘Age of Revolutions’. The American Declara-
tion of Independence from British Rule of 1776 marked the loss of the American colonies as a consequence of the American War of Independence (1775-1783). The French Revolution in 1789 not only abolished monarchy in France, it also paved the way for abolishing the whole aristocratic system in the Europe. It attempted to reconstruct the whole so-
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cial system on the basis of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Britain’s conservative rulers
feared the revolutionary spirit and were well determined to prevent these forces from spreading to British society. It had a deep impact on all thinkers and literary writers, including Wordsworth. Another revolution that changed the face of the society for ever was
Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution completely transformed Britain’s social
structure. The invention of the steam-engine by James Watt in 1765 and the subsequent inventions of new machines for weaving, spinning and the like brought about a change in the industry, but it also changed the society. The factory system replaced the cottage industry and threw many people out of employment. This on the one hand led to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of manufacturers; on the other, it brought sufferings and hardships to working class. The growth in industry created a new middle class which demanded its share in power. This paved the way for expanding democracy in England. The First Reform Bill of 1832 was enacted to give power of vote to a larger section of society, which was concentrated in the hands of a few only so far. The development in industry also caused the migration of rural population from villages and towns to large cities. As a result the social and family life of people was changing rapidly. Another development that changed the life in the nineteenth century was the growth in science. Technological and scientific research was moving rapidly and the publication of Origin Species in 1858 was the culmination of scientific research that propounded the theory of evolution. This challenged the traditional religious foundations of human society.
1.3.2. Literary Background
The Elizabethan age is marked by the highest achievements in literary creations that give free expression to the romantic spirit of individual imagination. But in the 18th century giving expression to individual emotions was considered as vulgar and disgusting. Rationalism, intellectuality and restrain replaced the free, romantic, individual imagination. The readers of 18th century could not enjoy the boundless landscapes of imagination that stirred their emotions and feelings in the Elizabethan times. They were seldom exposed to the impassioned emotions in literature or to the thrills of colourful adventures. The Neoclassical age was dominated by common sense, moderation, and thoughtful expression of the social life of the age.
In these conditions, the time was ripe for revolution in literature as well. In the second half of the 18th century the writers began to breaks the restrictions of the Neo-classical age, and began to seek wholeheartedly a new freedom of expression. The spirit of romanticism, the fancy and imagination, the savage enthusiasm of rural life, all were getting preference over the dry intellectualism of the 18th century. The Romantic Movement,
which Victor Hugo calls ‘liberalism in literature’, is simply the expression of life as seen by imagination, rather than by prosaic ‘common sense’, which was the central doctrine of
life in the 18th century. William J. Long has beautifully summarized the characteristics of Romanticism:
There are various other characteristics of Romanticism, but these six –
the protest against the bondage of rules, the return to nature and the human heart, the interest in old sagas and mediaeval romances as suggestive of heroic age, the sympathy for the toilers of the world, the emphasis upon individual genius,
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the return to Milton and Elizabethans, instead to Pope and Dryden for literary models
MAEL 601 / MAEL 606
are the most noticeable and the most interesting. When we study Wordsworth we need to keep in mind these characteristics of Romanticism in order to appreciate his poetry better.
Self Assessment Questions I
1. Name three revolutions of the Romantic Age. Write a short note on each, giving details of their influence on literary writings.
2. Define Romanticism. Give chief characteristics of English Romanticism. 3. Select a poem of your choice of any Romantic poet and describe its theme(s) in detail.
4. Write five sentences on the kind of poetry that you like.
1.4. INTRODUCTION TO THE POET
Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 at Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. His parents, John and Ann, died when Wordsworth was still a child. He lost his mother when he was eight and father when he was thirteen. But he could continue his studies. In 1787,
Wordsworth went to St. John’s College, Cambridge. Here he remained till 1791. He did
not have deep passion for intellectual pursuits. In fact he was attracted by the laziness and wilderness of student life, but later he was repelled by this too. Soon financial difficulties also became a problem for him. He showed no liking for any other job except for wandering and writing poetry. Wordsworth published his early poems in 1793. In these poems we witness his love for Nature and also his powers of minute observation of human experiences. He grew up in the company of mountains and rivers, in the company of rustics and villagers. The mystical healing power of Nature on Man became a conviction for Wordsworth from his childhood onwards, and this conviction remained with him for the rest of his life. At this time he was also coming under the influence of French Revolution. In 1790 he made his first visit to France. Again in 1791 he went to France for the second time, and stayed there for longer time. During these years he developed strong indignation against social injustices. He spoke against his own country when England declared war against France. He was greatly influenced by the French Revolution, but his enthusiasm was cooled down when the French Revolution turned violent. But the basic tenets of French Revolution influenced the life of the poet forever. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, the three slogans of the Revolution, guided the thought and imagination of the poet for the rest of his life. Wordsworth now settled down at Racedown in Doresetshire. A legacy of £900 eased his financial difficulties. Dorothy, his sister, dissuaded him from the dry intellectualism of Godwin. He came in contact with Coleridge again, who was living in
Nether Stowey, in Somersetshire. Dorothy and Coleridge’s company worked positively
for the poet and his creative imagination. The great philosophical poem, The Recluse was conceived in this period. It was never completed, only the first part, The Prelude and The Excursion were completed. The years between 1797- 1814 were the most productive
times of Wordsworth’s life. In 1798 the first edition of Lyrical ballads was published. Coleridge contributed the most fascinating poem, “The Ancient Mariner”, the poem that
you are going to read in the second unit of this course. In 1798 Wordsworth, his sister
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Dorothy, and Coleridge went to Germany. He came back and settled down in his native mountains till 1813. The he shifted to Rydal Mountain to live there for the rest of his life. In1802, he married Mary Hutchinson. He spent most of his life in close contact with Nature. In 1850 he died, with the whole nation mourning his death.
Some of the most famous poems of Wordsworth are – “Tintern Abbey”, “The Sparrow’s
Nest”, “My Heart Leaps Up”, “The Solitary Reaper”, “To the Cuckoo”, “I Wandered Lonely as A Cloud”, “Ode to Duty”, “Intimations of Immortality from recollections of Early Childhood”.
Wordsworth is the leading poet of Romantic Age. The following are the chief characteristics of Wordsworth as a poet:
a. Wordsworth revolted against the 18th century artificial poetic diction and declared that
poetry should be written in ‘a selection of language really used by men’. The poetic lan-
guage should be simple, direct and plain. b. He empathized with humble and rustic life and his poetic subjects were the shepherds, the huntsmen, the solitary reaper, the leech gatherer and not famous men and women stupefied with victory and intoxicated with glory and power.
c. He dealt with country side of life and not with the clubs and artificial life of cities. d. Wordsworth is considered the greatest poet of Nature. Nature is the soul of his poetry. Nature pictures come alive in his poems. He believes that God shines through all objects of Nature, investing them with celestial light. This immanence of God in Nature gives him mystic visions. Wordsworth believes that beneath the matter of universe there was soul, a living principle, acting and even thinking. This soul was Nature for Wordsworth.
e. The most characteristic quality of Wordsworth’s poetry is its imaginative appeal: its
power to transform a person, place or thing into something rich and strange. Wordsworth looked at the world not with his eyes but with his soul which changed the world for him to its own likeness.
f. His poetry is full of lyrical and musical notes. His poetry has its own music which is second to none in the Romantic Age.
1.5. INTRODUCTION TO THE POEM
Some biographical details related with the composition of the poem will help in appreciating the poem. Wordsworth first visited Tintern Abbey, an old ruin, in 1793. Words-
worth’s friend William Culvert requested the poet to come for a walking tour of southern
England. Near Stonehenge, Wordsworth was struck by a mystical experience as he saw the visions of the ancient Britons. In that mood as he reached near the valley of the Wye River, and for the first time he saw Tintern Abbey. It is important to remember that in 1792 Wordsworth had returned from France full of the great ideas of French Revolution, but he was soon filled with dejection when England declared war on France. Wordsworth wrote the poem almost five years later, and by that time matters in France had deteriorated. In the meantime, he had become acquainted with Godwin's ideas and had written poems such as "The Cumberland Beggar" and "The Ruined Cottage" in sympathy with the poor. He had settled with his sister Dorothy near Alfoxden and had started working with Coleridge. In 1798 Wordsworth and his sister had just spent a week with Coleridge at
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Stowey, preparing poems for the printer. Then the Wordsworths took a tour to the Wye valley, where they viewed the abbey from the same vantage point Wordsworth had enjoyed five years before. On his second visit of Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth recalled his
earlier experience of the scene. He felt the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”
now and as he and his sister left the Wye and continued their tour, the poem was composed.
Dear students it is necessary to read the poem at least three times, because poetry reading itself is an experience. Poetry cannot be enjoyed and appreciated without experiencing
the recital of the poem. You can also listen to the poem’s recitalfrom some of the render-
ings that are available on the internet. So let us read the poem first. Before you read the poem, you look at the Tintern Abbey photograph. This should stir your imagination to recreate the scene.
1.6. CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF THE POEM
Though the poem is generally known as “Tintern Abbey”, its full title is "Lines Com-
posed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey; On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798". The poem was written in July of 1798 and was published as the last poem of Lyrical Ballads (1798). At the age of twenty three, Wordsworth visited the abbey for the first time in 1793. In 1798 Wordsworth visited the abbey again, this time with
his sister Dorothy, who is referred as ‘friend’ in the whole poem. (Please read Introduc-
tion to the Poem once again.) The poem deals with several themes, which are interrelated with one dominant theme, and that theme is the relationship of Man with Nature. This dominant theme of the poem is interwoven with the complex issues of human life: mortality, spirituality, familial love, memory, and others. The poet uses blank verse and iambic pentameter and that suits the poet in dealing with the complex emotions that have overpowered the poet. The choice of blank verse gives the freedom to narrate the poetic emotions but the choice of meter, iambic pentameter, puts some restrain on the poet. The choice of meter also provides the necessary poetic elegance to the language. The flow of emotions and thoughts smoothly matches with the flow of lines in the poem. The language of the poem moves like waves, flowing in wavy manner with the ideas and thoughts of the poet. The poet uses the repetitions very well. He repeats the words and sounds, and these repetitions echo the repetitions of the ideas and thoughts that the poet has lived for quite some time now. Let us now analyze the poem in detail. At this stage you are advised to read the first stanza of the poem once again. Pay attention to language, figures, meter and stanza forms of the poem.
In the first stanza of the poem, the poet introduces the readers to the natural beauty of the Wye river area. Wordsworth begins the poem by telling the readers that it has been five years when he visited the abbey first. "Five years have passed; five summers, with the length / Of five long winters! and again I hear / These waters...". Then the poet describes the landscape by giving poetic descriptions of each minute detail of the natural beauty of the area. He paints the pictures of Nature by giving the imagery of "Steep and lofty cliffs," the "wild secluded scene," the "quiet of the sky," the "dark sycamore", the trees of the orchard, and the "pastoral farms" with "wreaths of smoke" billowing from their chim-
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neys. The memory of the beautiful scenes visited by him five years before never left him even when he was living in the midst of the din and the hustle and bustle of the city of London. Often he used to remember the experiences with Nature, which he received in his visit to this place five years ago. The gap of five years never created separation between the poet the Nature. Once again, now he gets an opportunity to hear the gentle murmur of Wye and he looks at the steep and lofty cliffs of the mountains. While resting under dark sycamore he looks at the cottages, hedgerows, the pastoral farms and the curling smoke rising towards the sky.