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The Grotesque in the Poetry of William Wordsworth

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The Grotesque in the Poetry of William Wordsworth University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 6-1986 The Grotesque in the Poetry of William Wordsworth Ernst Derwood Lee Jr. University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Lee, Ernst Derwood Jr., "The Grotesque in the Poetry of William Wordsworth. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1986. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/2935 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Ernst Derwood Lee Jr. entitled "The Grotesque in the Poetry of William Wordsworth." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. Edward W. Bratton, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Richard Kelly, Allen Carroll, Dorothy Habel Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Ernest Derwood Lee, Jr ., entitled "The Grotesque in the Poetry of William Wordsworth ." I have examined the final copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy , with a major in English . �_J} w -�It;;:::_ Edward W. Bratton, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: -,·"' ' i dv£.;1� [;). � Accepted for the council : Vice Provost and Dean of The Graduate School I i J THE GROTESQUE IN THE POETRY OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Ernest Derwood Lee, Jr . June 1986 Copyright @ Ernest Derwood Lee, Jr ., 1986 All rights reserved lii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my parents and brother for their faith and devotion and to June for her patience and love. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For his excellent guidance and kindness , I wish to thank Professor Edward Bratton , who served as my director during the course of dissertation research . I also wish to thank Professors Richard Kelly , Allen Carroll , and Dorothy Habel for their interest and valuable suggestions while serving as members of my dissertation committee . The encouragement and critical perception of Professor Bratton and the committee members have inspired me to strive for excellence . Special thanks to Byrns Coleman , Suthern Sims , Paul Beasley and my friends at Wingate College for their generous assistance and encouragement and to Yvonne Brower for her dedicated typing and proofreading . v ABSTRACT The funct ion of the grotesque wi thin William Wordsworth's most important poetry , that written between 1788 and 1805, has not been appreciated. Yet perceptions characterized by the juxtaposition of fearful, unattractive images wi th images of beauty and harmony appear throughout Wordsworth's youthful poetry and are focused and directed in the Lyrical Ballads volumes and in The Prelude (1805) . The few scholars who have discussed the grotesque in Wordsworth's poetry either have not recognized the value of that mode to the development of Wordsworth's poetic idiom or have confused it with the sublime , and thus have misunderstood the nature and function of his images . The first two chapters of this dissertation include an introduction to cri tical considerations of the importance of a dark , fearful tension in Wordsworth's poetry and attempt to synthesize important definitions of the grotesque . They offer a backdrop against which to consider the grotesque and provide a working definition of that mode particularly applicable to Wordsworth . The third , fourth, and fifth chapters study the poet's developing use of grotesque image patterns , beginning with his youthful poetry and continuing through the Lyrical Ballads and The Prelude vi <1805) . The specific argument is that Wordsworth became a true artist of the "noble" grotesque , functionally employing grotesque image patterns in his poems , not just for the sake of idle fancy or to relate social and moral meanings , but rather to reveal the dynamic role of the grotesque in the process of the imagination 's growth. Wordsworth discovered the poetic voice necessary to expressing how incongruous perceptions temper and mature the imagination , preparing it to achieve a heightened vision, the sublime . The final chapter argues that Wordsworth now needs to be recognized as a masterful artist of the true grotesque. He revived the native grotesque tradition in English literature and extended the grotesque to become a positive artistic expression, a means of projecting a vis ion of the mystery and beauty of the divinity alive in all of creation . vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••1 II. DEFINING THE GROTESQUE •••••••••••••••••••••••••19 III. THE GROTESQUE IN THE EARLY POETRY OF WORDSWORTH ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••47 IV . EXPERIMENTS WITH THE GROTESQUE : POEMS FROM THE LYRICAL BALLADS •••••••••••••••76 V. THE FUNCTION OF THE GROTESQUE IN THE PRELUDE ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 145 VI . WORDSWORTH AS AN ARTIST OF THE GROTESQUE ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 197 LIST OF REFERENCES ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••··222 VITA •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 229 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION No attempt yet has been made to study in depth the importance of the grotesque in Wi lliam Wordsworth 's major poetry. In fact , on ly a few individuals have recognized that the grotesque plays any role in his work, despite the fact the grotesque so often has been associated with the Romantic poets.l In her short essay "Some Forms of the Grotesque in Wordsworth ," Rosemary Boston argues that the grotesque "does generate a few strangely vivid ba llads , some eerie scenes of 'visionary dreariness,' and several passages filled wi th bizarre detail" (35). But she seems to consider the ugly or the monstrous as synonymous with the grotesque , and in truth, makes little attempt to clarify what she means by the term grotesque , despite its traditional elusiveness. Her considerations focus primarily on "The Thorn" and "The Idiot Boy," and she concludes that Wordsworth is unable to look steadily at a disjointed , ugly external world. Thus , her argument is that the poet fails to "sustain the observation which, in even the comic 'Idiot Boy,• brings frightening implications about the lsee, for example , Wolfgang Kayser 's The Grotesque in Art and Literature (cited in Li st of References ). 2 incoherence behind events " (40). But she does recognize, as do a number of modern scholars , that a dark , demonic aspect often surfaces in the body of Wordsworth 's poetry: a tension between the external world of nature and the internal world of self , expressed and bequeathed foremost by Wordsworth, which is characteristic of the English Romantic poets . Similarly , Ronald Earl Morgan , in his broad study of the relation of grotesque imagery to the Romantic theory of imagination , recognizes some grotesque image patterns in selections from Wordsworth's poetry, especially The Prelude . But Morgan does not consider in depth the importance of the grotesque in Wordsworth's poetry , partly because his purpose is to discuss a broad range of poets and philosophical considerations and partly because he has difficulty in defining the grotesque , pa rticularly in Wordsworth, because he confuses it with the sublime . He admits that "in some cases , especially in the poetry of Wordsworth , the sublime and the positive grotesque seem almost to merge because both work by means of materials that evoke man 's terror and awe in his encounters with an inscrutable and often overwhelmingly powerful force beyond reason• (82). Morgan bases much of his discussion on John Ruskin 's comments about the nature of the grotesque , but he fails to take into account Ruskin 's specific comments about 3 Wordsworth and the grotesque , concluding that for Ruskin 0the grotesque always involves the combination of disparate elements that is both terrible and ludicrous-­ fantastic combinations of different animal species , disconnected parts of the human body , combinations of animal and vegetable • • • appearing as decorative motifs in the architecture he is examining" (11). In fact , Ruskin 's wr itings indicate that the grotesque is much more aesthetically important to him than Morgan later argues. Ruskin specifically discusses Wordsworth and Plato as examp les of those employing the 0noble grotesque ," as opposed to the more artificial "ignoble grotesque ," thus extending his considerations beyond decorative motifs in architecture to poetry and to other art forms . Modern theorists have echoed Ruskin 's identification of two distinct expressions of the grotesque , yet have not followed Ruskin 's lead by identifying the exact nature and function of the grotesque image patterns
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