Russian Translation Reception of Wordsworth's

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Russian Translation Reception of Wordsworth's Vol. 8 Núm. 19 /Marzo - abril 2019 529 Artículo de investigación Russian translation reception of Wordsworth’s ballad “We are seven” Recepción de la traducción en ruso a Wordworth's ballad "We are seven" Recepción de la traducción en ruso uma balada de Wordworth "Somos sete" Recibido: 26 de abril de 2019. Aceptado: 20 de mayo de 2019 Written by: Dmitry N. Zhatkin (Corresponding Author)172 Anna A. Ryabova173 Abstract Resumen The article is devoted to comprehension of El artículo está dedicado a la comprensión de la Russian translation reception of William recepción de la traducción al ruso de la balada de Wordsworth’s ballad “We are Seven” (1798). It William Wordsworth "We are Seven" (1798). introduces the prose translation of this work made Introduce la traducción en prosa de este trabajo by V.N.Semyonov in 1831 for research use. It realizado por V.N.Semyonov en 1831 para uso presents a comparative analysis of the early de investigación. Presenta un análisis Russian poetic translations of this ballad created comparativo de las primeras traducciones by I.I.Kozlov (1832), E.K. <E.F.Korsh> (1835), poéticas rusas de esta balada creada por Ya.K.Grot (1842) and of the newest translation I.I.Kozlov (1832), E.K. <E.F.Korsh> (1835), by I.S.Melamed (1996). Noting the general Ya.K.Grot (1842) y de la traducción más reciente aspiration to adapt the work of the English author por I.S.Melamed (1996). Sin embargo, to Russian reality, the authors of the article, observando la aspiración general de adaptar el however, conclude that only I.I.Kozlov, the only trabajo del autor inglés a la realidad rusa, los of the early Russian translators, succeeded in autores del artículo concluyen que solo IIKozlov, transferring the internal atmosphere of the el único de los primeros traductores rusos, logró English original most fully. Whereas transferir la atmósfera interna del original en V.N.Semyonov’s prosaic interpretation contains inglés más plenamente. Mientras que la semantic inaccuracies, E.F.Korsh’s translation is interpretación prosaica de V.N.Semyonov characterized with randomly added literary contiene inexactitudes semánticas, la traducción details alien to the spirit of the original, de E.F.Korsh se caracteriza por detalles literarios K.Ya.Grot’s translation oriented on children’s agregados al azar ajenos al espíritu del original, audience has typical lexical and grammatical la traducción de K.Ya.Grot orientada a la means. I.S.Melamed’s translation created one and audiencia infantil tiene medios léxicos y a half centuries after interpretations of gramaticales típicos. La traducción de predecessors, taking into account qualitatively I.S.Melamed se creó un siglo y medio después de different requirements to literary translation, can que las interpretaciones de los predecesores, be hardly compared with the translations of the teniendo en cuenta los requisitos 1830-s – 1840-s directly. At the same time, it cualitativamente diferentes de la traducción belongs to the number of literary triumphs of literaria, difícilmente puedan compararse con las I.S.Melamed who managed to be exact both in traducciones de los 1830-s - 1840-s recreation of literary details and preservation of directamente. Al mismo tiempo, pertenece al the general emotional background of the original. número de triunfos literarios de I.S.Melamed que logró ser exactos tanto en la recreación de los Keywords: Wordsworth, Russian-English detalles literarios como en la preservación de los literary relations, poetry, ballad, literary antecedentes emocionales generales del original. translation, reception, tradition, cross-cultural communication Palabras claves: Wordsworth, relaciones literarias ruso-inglesas, poesía, balada, 172 Department of Translation and Methods of Translation, Penza State Technological University, Penza, Baidukov Thoroughfare / Gagarin Street, 1a / 11, Penza, Russian Federation 173 Department of Translation and Methods of Translation, Penza State Technological University, Penza, Russian Federation Encuentre este artículo en http://www.udla.edu.co/revistas/index.php/amazonia-investiga ISSN 2322- 6307 Zhatkin, D.N., Ryabova, A. /Vol. 8 Núm. 19: 529- 539/ Marzo - abril 2019 530 traducción literaria, recepción, tradición, comunicación intercultural. Resumo O artigo é dedicado à compreensão da recepção da tradução russa da balada de William Wordsworth “We are Seven” (1798). Introduz a tradução em prosa deste trabalho feita por V.N.Semyonov em 1831 para uso de pesquisa. Apresenta uma análise comparativa das primeiras traduções poéticas russas desta balada criada por I.I.Kozlov (1832), E.K. <E.F.Korsh> (1835), Ya.K.Grot (1842) e da mais nova tradução de I.S.Melamed (1996). Observando a aspiração geral de adaptar o trabalho do autor inglês à realidade russa, os autores do artigo concluem que apenas o IIKozlov, o único dos primeiros tradutores russos, conseguiu transferir a atmosfera interna do original em inglês de forma mais completa. Enquanto a interpretação prosaica de V.N.Semyonov contém inexatidões semânticas, a tradução de E.F.Korsh é caracterizada com detalhes literários adicionados aleatoriamente alheios ao espírito do original, a tradução de K.Ya.Grot orientada para o público infantil tem meios lexicais e gramaticais típicos. A tradução do I.S.Melamed criada um século e meio depois das interpretações dos predecessores, levando em conta requisitos qualitativamente diferentes da tradução literária, dificilmente pode ser comparada às traduções de 1830-s- 1840-s diretamente. Ao mesmo tempo, pertence ao número de triunfos literários de I.S.Melamed quem conseguiu ser exato tanto na recriação de detalhes literários como na preservação do contexto emocional geral do original. Palavras-chave: Wordsworth, relações literárias Russo-Inglês, poesia, balada, tradução literária, recepção, tradição, comunicação intercultural. Introduction One of the best-known ballads by William considered the ballad to be a symbol of Wordsworth “We are Seven” was written at ideological and art falling of the poet who was Alfoxden in 1798, though the English poet met accused of a sermon of humility, apology of the girl, who became the heroine of the work, children’s attitude and excessive enthusiasm for near Goodrich Castle in 1793. He then was afterlife problems. However, thinking travelling from Alfoxden to Lenton in a company objectively, it is easy to notice that the poet of his sister Dorothy and friend Samuel Taylor “concerns not so much the question of afterlife, Coleridge, visited the Isle of Wight and Salisbury but the difference in two types of consciousness: Plain and continued the way up the River Wye. It logical and rational, sober awareness of adults is interesting that at first Wordsworth wrote the and naive and mythological, intuitive children’s last line of the first stanza, and only when the awareness which is characterized with poem was almost finished he returned to its mysticism, religiousness, as well as direct and beginning, having asked Coleridge to help. His sensual concreteness” (Gusmanov, 1995). In the option with small Wordsworth’s corrections girl’s perception a soul and a body of a person do opens the ballad: not exist separately from each other, moreover, she cannot understand death as destruction of the – A simple child, life, which appeared once. Therefore, for her to That lightly draws its breath, die means to leave, move in space, but not to And feels its life in every limb, change qualitatively, not to break relations with What should it know of death? (Wordsworth, the world of the living; for her there is no 1892). difference between departure of brothers by ship or departure to the city and death of her brother The greater part of the work (except for the first and sister. Being surprised with the girl’s three stanzas) represents a dialogue of the lyrical persistence, the author, at the same time, with all hero and the girl met by him who is stubborn, emotional spirit of the poem brings the regret while claiming that in her family there were shade caused by the fact that he cannot share a seven children, though two of them had already sincere childlike faith any more. According to died by then. Wordsworth’s emphasis caused I.G.Gusmanov, it is this that means “the romantic rejection of many contemporaries who Encuentre este artículo en http://www.udla.edu.co/revistas/index.php/amazonia-investiga ISSN 2322- 6307 Vol. 8 Núm. 19 /Marzo - abril 2019 531 poet’s melancholy for the lost integrity of 21, 1831) in the Department of Manuscripts of attitude” (Gusmanov, 1995). the Russian National Library in the fund of censorial materials (fund 831). On the first page The poetic power of the English poet’s ballad is of the manuscript there is a mark “To LPRI” (i.e. explained by harmony of its content and form: to “Literaturniye Pribavleniya k “Russkomy simplicity, naturalness of the little heroine with Invalidu””) and censorial conclusion: “Not her light look, spontaneity, attachment to nature, permitted because this article was printed in the the cemetery, the house, with her love to relatives journal of E<go> I<mperatorskogo> and belief in immortality of this love are V<elichestva> (His Imperial Majesty) successor emphasized with artlessness and from which it is not allowed to borrow. April 14, unpretentiousness of Wordsworth’s poem. 1831” (Semyonov, 1983). These marks show that Possibly, the English poet consciously used there was no publication in “Literaturniye incomplete rhyming of quatrains in the spirit of a Pribavleniya k “Russkomy Invalidu”” as the folk ballad, avoiding internal rhymes. And only translation had been issued before in the most once, at the moment of culmination, in the tenth unique now edition prepared for the successor of stanza when the girl, having lost her patience, the throne by his tutor V.A.Zhukovsky in 1831. with sincere bewilderment explained to the adult This edition – “Muraveynik, literaturniye listy, that her dead brother and sister did not disappear, izdavayemiye neizvestnym obshchestvom that they were nearby, Wordsworth used an neuchyonykh ludey” (No.
Recommended publications
  • WORDSWORTH's GOTHIC POETICS by ROBERT J. LANG a Thesis
    WORDSWORTH’S GOTHIC POETICS BY ROBERT J. LANG A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS English December 2012 Winston-Salem, North Carolina Approved By: Eric Wilson, Ph.D., Advisor Philip Kuberski, Ph.D., Chair Omaar Hena, Ph.D. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii CHAPTER 1 ........................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 ........................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER 3 ......................................................................................................................27 CHAPTER 4 ......................................................................................................................45 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................65 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................70 VITA ..................................................................................................................................75 ii ABSTRACT Wordsworth’s poetry is typically seen by critics as healthy-minded, rich in themes of transcendence, synthesis,
    [Show full text]
  • William Wordsworth. a Study of His Use and Development of Solitary Figures
    WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. A STUDY OF HIS USE AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOLITARY FIGURES A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Department of English Kansas State Teachers College In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Douglas E. Mailen August 1972 PREFACE William Wordsworth's predilection for and life-long use of the solitary figure in his poetry was initially re­ vealed to this author while a member of a graduate class concerned with the Romantic Movement in English Literature. The class session terminated before I had achieved a con­ certed understanding of Wordsworth's solitary figure. However, continued reading in Wordsworth's canon directed my scattered thoughts. To objectify my own thinking on this subject, I went to secondary material. Critical recognition of the poet's interest in the solitary figure was plentiful, but his development and use of the solitary figure had not been traced. I thought that I recognized a pattern of development and use in his poetic creations, and I resolved ~ to pursue Wordsworth's progressive treatment of the solitary figure with the hope of illuminating these facets of the poet's genius which had not been treated summarily. The primary source for this study was Wordsworth's poetical canon. Special emphasis has been placed on The Prelude, his Gothic drama, The Borderers, and The Excursion. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, edited by Ernest de Selincourt, was vital to this stUdy, as were the notes ii included in each volume of his edition. In addition, his categorizing of Wordsworth's Works was a great aid in es­ tablishing the poet's development and use of the solitary figure.
    [Show full text]
  • Wordsworth's Habits of Mind: Knowledge Through Experience (Review)
    University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO English Faculty Publications Department of English and Foreign Languages 2002 Wordsworth's Habits of Mind: Knowledge through Experience (Review) Nancy Easterlin University of New Orleans, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/engl_facpubs Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Easterlin, Nancy. "Wordsworth's Habits of Mind: Knowledge through Experience." Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory 3.2 (2002): 133-137. This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English and Foreign Languages at ScholarWorks@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Wordsworth’s Habits of Mind: Knowledge through Experience Nancy Easterlin University of New Orleans Brad Sullivan. Wordsworth and the Composition of Knowledge: Re- figuring Relationships Among Minds, Worlds, and Words. New York: Peter Lang, 2000. ISBN 0-8204-4857-5. xvi + 202 pp. $50.95. Many are the scholars who have sought to explicate Wordsworth’s philoso- phy, teasing out from the poetry definitions of terms such as “Nature,” “Imagi- nation,” and “Reason” and gleaning the underlying system of thought that con- nects them. Such accounts are often supported by detailed arguments about the influence of Coleridge and the philosophers, both German and English, whom that poet read so avidly and discussed with his friend and Lake District neighbor in the late 1790s. Given Wordsworth’s reluctance to address such subjects di- rectly, this persistent attention to his philosophy might seem nothing short of extraordinary—except that, especially in poems like The Prelude, Wordsworth clearly is placing his poetical meditations within the context of philosophers as diverse as Kant and Hartley.
    [Show full text]
  • UT154 Heaven in Wildflower Bklt
    HEAVEN IN A WILD FLOWER: THE BRITISH ROMANTIC POETS COURSE GUIDE Professor Adam Potkay COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY Heaven in a Wild Flower The British Romantic Poets Professor Adam Potkay The College of William and Mary Recorded Books™ is a trademark of Recorded Books, LLC. All rights reserved. Heaven in a Wild Flower: The British Romantic Poets Professor Adam Potkay Executive Editor Donna F. Carnahan RECORDING Producer - David Markowitz Director - Ian McCulloch COURSE GUIDE Editor - James Gallagher Design - Edward White Lecture content ©2009 by Adam Potkay Course guide ©2009 by Recorded Books, LLC 72009 by Recorded Books, LLC Cover image: Detail of The Cornfield by John Constable, 1826 © Clipart.com #UT154 ISBN: 978-1-4407-2618-7 All beliefs and opinions expressed in this audio/video program and accompanying course guide are those of the author and not of Recorded Books, LLC, or its employees. Course Syllabus Heaven in a Wild Flower: The British Romantic Poets About Your Professor...................................................................................................4 Introduction...................................................................................................................5 Lecture 1 What Is Romanticism?...........................................................................6 Lecture 2 Folk Culture, the Ballad Tradition, and Robert Burns............................9 Lecture 3 Wordsworth and Coleridge: Ballads of Nature and the Supernatural ...........................................................................12
    [Show full text]
  • Lyrical Ballads Theme: a Close Reading
    Discovering Literature www.bl.uk/discovering-literature Teachers’ Notes Author / Work: William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads Theme: A Close Reading Rationale Lyrical Ballads, first published in 1798, has been described by the journalist Nicholas Lezard as ‘quite simply, possibly the single most important collection of poems in English ever published’. It grew out of the friendship and artistic collaboration between William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, but Wordsworth – who contributed most of the poems and whose Preface to the 1800 edition outlines the aesthetic intention of Lyrical Ballads – was its guiding force. In this lesson, students will explore a number of poems from Lyrical Ballads in the light of Wordsworth’s key philosophies, considering the extent to which Wordsworth and Coleridge succeeded in putting these philosophies into practice. Content Literary and historical sources: - The 1798 edition of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, containing the Advertisement, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and ‘Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey’ - The 1800 edition of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, containing the Preface, notes to ‘The Thorn’ and extracts from ‘The Thorn’, and a note to ‘The Ancient Mariner’ - ‘We Are Seven’ by William Wordsworth, printed in William Hazlitt’s Select British Poets, or New Elegant Extracts (1824) Recommended reading (short articles): The Romantics by Stephanie Forward William Wordsworth, ‘Tintern Abbey’ by Philip Shaw External links: BBC Radio 4, ‘In Our Time’ – discussion of Lyrical Ballads Nicholas Lezard – review of Fiona Stafford’s edition of Lyrical Ballads, The Guardian, 16 July 2013 Further reading: James A.
    [Show full text]
  • Wordsworth, Ruins, and the Dialectics of Melancholia
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2014 Wordsworth, Ruins, and the Dialectics of Melancholia Colin Dekeersgieter Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/197 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] WORDSWORTH, RUINS, AND THE DIALECTICS OF MELANCHOLIA by Colin Mark Dekeersgieter A master’s thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The City University of New York. 2014 This document has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Richard Kaye Thesis Advisor Date Matthew K. Gold Date Executive Officer THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK ii Abstract WORDSWORTH, RUINS, AND THE DIALECTICS OF MELANCHOLIA by Colin Dekeersgieter Advisor: Professor Richard Kaye The concept of melancholia as it pertains to Romantic poets is often relegated to its simpler meaning of gloomy or depressed. This work provides an analysis of the motifs of melancholia in the work William Wordsworth as an allegory of the artist’s relationship to their art. I am interested in melancholia as the tension between the melancholic’s acute awareness of his temporal actuality and the grave desire for transcendence as a poet.
    [Show full text]
  • The Poems of William Wordsworth Collected Reading Texts from the Cornell Wordsworth
    The Poems of William Wordsworth Collected Reading Texts from The Cornell Wordsworth Edited by Jared Curtis In Three Volumes A Complimentary Addendum HEB ☼ Humanities-Ebooks For advice on use of this ebook please scroll to page 2 Using this Ebook t * This book is designed to be read in single page view, using the ‘fit page’ command. * To navigate through the contents use the hyperlinked ‘Bookmarks’ at the left of the screen. * To search, click the search symbol. * For ease of reading, use <CTRL+L> to enlarge the page to full screen, and return to normal view using < Esc >. * Hyperlinks (if any) appear in Blue Underlined Text. Permissions You may print a copy of the book for your own use but copy and paste functions are disabled. No part of this publication may be otherwise reproduced or transmitted or distributed without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher. Making or distributing copies of this book would constitute copyright infringement and would be liable to prosecution. Thank you for respecting the rights of the author. An Addendum to The Poems of William Wordsworth Collected Reading Texts from The Cornell Wordsworth Series In Three Volumes Edited by Jared Curtis HEB ☼ Humanities-Ebooks, LLP © Jared Curtis, 2012 The Author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published by Humanities-Ebooks, LLP, Tirril Hall, Tirril, Penrith CA10 2JE. Cover image, Sunburst over Martindale © Richard Gravil The reading texts of Wordsworth’s poems used in this volume are from the Cornell Wordsworth series, published by Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850.
    [Show full text]
  • Wordsworth and France
    LITTERARIA PRAGENSIA Studies in Literature and Culture Vol. 27, No. 54 2017 WORDSWORTH AND FRANCE Edited by David Duff, Marc Porée and Martin Procházka LITTERARIA PRAGENSIA Studies in Literature and Culture Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic EDITORS Martin Procházka (Chief Editor), Zdeněk Hrbata, Ondřej Pilný, Louis Armand EDITORIAL BOARD Jan Čermák (Charles University, Prague), Milan Exner (Technical University, Liberec), Anna Housková (Charles University, Prague), Andrew J. Mitchell (Emory University, Atlanta), Jiří Pelán (Charles University, Prague), Miroslav Petříček (Charles University, Prague), Sam Slote (Trinity College, Dublin), Jiří Stromšík (Charles University, Prague), Clare Wallace (Charles University, Prague) ADVISORY BOARD Ellen Berry (Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio), Christoph Bode (Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München), Arthur Bradley (University of Lancaster), Rui Carvalho Homem (University of Porto), Francis Claudon (Université Paris VII), Charles Crow (Emeritus, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio), Malcolm Kelsall (Emeritus, University of Wales, Cardiff), Mária Kurdi (University of Pécs), Randolph Starn (Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley), Timothy Webb (Emeritus, University of Bristol) Executive Editor Ondřej Pilný Editorial Assistant Petra Johana Poncarová Cover Design lazarus Litteraria Pragensia, Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur, FFUK, Nám. J. Palacha 2, 116 38 Praha 1, Czech Republic. e-mail: [email protected] http://litteraria-pragensia.ff.cuni.cz Published twice a year, numbered continuously. Printed by HRG, s.r.o., Litomyšl. Subscription orders to Myris Trade Ltd., P.O. Box 2, V Štíhlách 1311, 142 01 Prague, Czech Republic, ph: +420-234035200, fax: +420-234035207, [email protected], or directly to the editors.
    [Show full text]
  • Virginia Woolf's Novels and the Literary Past
    Virginia Woolf’s Novels and the Literary Past Jane de Gay Edinburgh University Press © Jane de Gay, 2006 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in 10.5/13 Adobe Sabon by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester, and printed and bound in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wilts A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7486 2349 3 (hardback) The right of Jane de Gay to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Contents Acknowledgements v Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 1. From Woman Reader to Woman Writer: The Voyage Out 19 2. Tradition and Exploration in Night and Day 44 3. Literature and Survival: Jacob’s Room and Mrs Dalloway 67 4. To the Lighthouse and the Ghost of Leslie Stephen 96 5. Rewriting Literary History in Orlando 132 6. ‘Lives Together’: Literary and Spiritual Autobiographies in The Waves 160 7. Bringing the Literary Past to Life in Between the Acts 186 Conclusion 212 Select Bibliography 216 Index 227 Acknowledgements Quotations from Virginia Woolf’s novels by permission of The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Virginia Woolf. Excerpts from Night and Day, copyright 1920 by George H. Doran and Company and renewed 1948 by Leonard Woolf, reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc. Excerpts from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, copyright 1927 by Harcourt, Inc. and renewed 1954 by Leonard Woolf, reprinted by permission of the publisher. Excerpts from Orlando copy- right 1928 by Virginia Woolf and renewed 1956 by Leonard Woolf, reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • "Lucy" Poems Spencer Hall Rhode Island College, [email protected]
    Rhode Island College Digital Commons @ RIC Faculty Publications 1971 Wordworth's "Lucy" Poems Spencer Hall Rhode Island College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/facultypublications Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Citation Hall, S. (1971). Wordsworth's" Lucy" poems: Context and meaning. Studies in Romanticism, 10(3), 159-175. https://doi.org/ 10.2307/25599802 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ RIC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ RIC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Wordsworth's "Lucy" Poems: Context and Meaning SPENCER HALL ED. in a recent book on the of HIRSCH, theory interpreta discusses the of in the most tion, problem meaning famous Wordsworth's # of "Lucy" poems, "A Slumber Did My Seal." He to the the two Spirit points opposing interpretations of last the round lines of poem?"Rolled in earth's diurnal course,/With and rocks, and stones, trees"?put forward by F. W. Bateson and a Cleanth Brooks respectively. For Bateson, the lines constitute "climax" of "Pantheistic for magnificance"; Brooks, they suggest time most "dead lifelessness" and "earthly in its powerful and horrible Hirsch concludes that is no of image." there way reconciling these both of which seem and contrary emphases, linguistically plausible; that the to the of the is to only way verify meaning poem "establish the most means recon probable context," by which he "a deliberate stance to extent struction of the author's subjective the that this x stance is relevant to the text at hand." in this is to a context the My purpose essay suggest for interpreta not of "A Slumber Did but the tion, only My Spirit Seal," of "Lucy" as a I shall that the poems group.
    [Show full text]
  • “We Are Seven” and the First British Census
    “We Are Seven” and the First British Census Hollis Robbins illiam Wordsworth’s “We Are Seven,” first published in Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 volume, Lyrical Ballads , features a rustic setting, an Winnocent child, and a poetic speaker whose question, “how many may you be?” provokes the poem’s title. As scholars have long noted, the prominence of counting in this poem, published the same year as Thomas Malthus’s “Essay on the Principle of Population,” is essential to the child’s request to register formally the presence of her dead sister and brother. The question “how many,” however, may be structured less by Words- worth’s interest in poetic “experiments,” as he describes his work in the Advertisement to Lyrical Ballads , than by contemporary policy debates about enumerating the rural popula - tion, culminating in the first British census of 1801. 1 Clearly, “We Are Seven” is a poem about counting people.The disagreement between the speaker and the little maid he encounters is entirely about the number of siblings who dwell with her in her cottage.The girl claims seven: in addition to herself, she has six broth - ers and sisters—two are dead, two are living elsewhere, and two have gone to sea. The speaker argues, “you are five”: if two are dead, only five are left. Oliver Goldsmith’s popu - lar “The Deserted Village” (1770) had previously offered a poignant poetic account of the disruption of rural life as a generation began moving away. Goldsmith, in a published ded - ication to Sir Joshua Reynolds, demurs that the poem “is not the place to enter into an enquiry, whether the country be depopulating or not.” 2 Yet the lines “A time there was, ere England’s griefs began, / When every rood of ground maintain’d its man” (57 –58) evoke not only the myth of a more stable era, but also the ideology that individuals and particular parcels of land are naturally linked.
    [Show full text]
  • WORDSWORTH F F [ F^
    SELECTIONS FROM THE POETS .'t'*..*^. \ WORDSWORTH f f [ f^ ANDRJiVV LANG ' "'' "^. '"' '' " t / ."^^'^-i'^''' JH MgMORhV FOR MAMY YEAJiSATEAO^ER. IW THIS Cr>LLEGE5r55Ss.£K THIS B(2?K IS ONECTANUMB^? FROM THE bl I5RARY ?/>L« HOLMES RRESEMTED TO THE QMTARIO OOliEGE OFAPI BY HIS RELATIVES SELECTIONS FROM WORDSWORTH ONTARIO CeilESE OF ART 100 McCAUL ST. TORONTO 2B> ONTARIO J , AUTR.!:; ?/-\: ^^^y /yu^u/i.'/o ..^^jn- (^/kcifi^^ S-r>a-m*'t^t^ fvf Selections from the Poets Wordsworth By Andrew Lang ^& Illustrated by Alfred Parsons, A.R.A. Longmans, Green, and Co 39 Paternoster Row, London New York and Bombay 1897 112)1 lot> Printed by Bai.lantynk, Hanson 6^ Co. At the Ballantyne Press CONTENTS PAGE Introduction ix-xxxii Extract from the Conclusion of a Poem, composed in antici- pation of leaving School i Written in very early Youth ....... 2 Remembrance of Collins 3 Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree which stands near the Lake of Esthwaite, on a desolate part of the shore com- manding a beautiful prospect 4 My heart leaps up when I behold 9 To a Butterfly 10 The Sparrow's Nest 11 Alice Fell ; or, Poverty 13 Lucy Gray ; or, Solitude 16 We are Seven 19 The Pet Lamb . .23 To H. C. Six Years old 28 Influence of Natural Objects in calling forth and strengthen- ing the imagination in Boyhood and Early Youth . 30 To a Butterfly 33 A Farewell 35 Stanzas written in my Pocket-Copy of Thomson's Castle of Indolence . ^ 38 Lucy 42 She dwelt among the untrodden ways 44 Among unknown men 47 The Last of the Flock 48 The Affliction of Margaret 53 V CONTENTS PACE Michael.
    [Show full text]