DOCSLIB.ORG

Sarah Weiger Dissertation Reformatted

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Sarah Weiger Dissertation Reformatted THE BIRD IS THE FEELING: ROMANTIC NATURAL HISTORY AND ITS SUBJECTS A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Sarah Nike Weiger August 2011 © 2011 Sarah Nike Weiger THE BIRD IS THE FEELING: ROMANTIC NATURAL HISTORY AND ITS SUBJECTS Sarah Nike Weiger, Ph. D. Cornell University 2011 “The Bird is the Feeling: Romantic Natural History and its Subjects” argues that Romantic natural history writers and the nonhuman objects of their work are mutually constitutive subjects. Unlike eighteenth and later nineteenth-century forms of natural history that consider the natural world as a set of discrete objects and species available for collection and cataloguing, the texts considered in this dissertation are primarily concerned with unexpected encounters and fleeting natural phenomena. The writers addressed express these unrepeatable encounters as a form of natural history that does the work of designating significant subjects and articulating their presence within distinct, subjectively constituted and construed environments. In reading the “natural history” journals, letters, and poems of Dorothy and William Wordsworth, John Clare, and Henry David Thoreau, this dissertation frames the Romantic turn to nature not as a turn away from sociality and history but towards alternative forms of both. Intervening in a number of established strands of Romantic literary criticism and ecocriticism that read the Romantic speaking subject’s treatment of the natural world as primarily an instrument of ego-formation, “The Bird is the Feeling” celebrates the largely private, idiosyncratic efforts of Romantic authors to consider nature, history, and subjectivity in both human and nonhuman terms. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Sarah Weiger has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her academic interests include ecocriticism, post-humanism, and transatlantic nineteenth-century literature. iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my earliest and very dearest mentor, Faye Amo, who provided my first bed and accompanied me all the way here. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My academic career has known too much good fortune to detail it completely in this space. Nevertheless, I want to thank especially the committee members who have assisted me throughout my time at Cornell with great wisdom, patience, and humor: Reeve Parker, whose extraordinary powers of perception and judgment continue to amaze me; Anne-Lise Francois, for her inspiration and example; Debra Fried for being a wonderful and provocative interlocutor; Laura Brown for her acute and invaluable professional advice; and Rick Bogel for his responsiveness and careful reading of my work. I thank my first long-project advisor, Sara Blair, for introducing me to academic writing and engagement so positively at the University of Michigan and for continuing to cheer me on. I am also fortunate to have many friends and classmates whose advice and encouragement has sustained me. They include Colin Dewey, Sarah Ensor, and Judy Park. Finally, I thank my dearest and most constant significant others (human and nonhuman): Julie Joosten, Anthony Stark, and Kawa. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch.......................................................................................................iii Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................... iv Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: “A love for things that have no feeling:” Dorothy Wordsworth’s Significant Others................................................................. 23 Chapter 2: The Influence of Natural Objects: Wordsworth and the Poetry of Nature.............................................................................. 65 Chapter 3: Shadows of Taste: John Clare’s Tasteful Natural History.......................................................................................... 112 Chapter 4: Natural History in a New Sense................................................................. 148 vi INTRODUCTION The “New” Nature Writing In 2008 the literary magazine Granta published an issue of commissioned articles on what it called “The New Nature Writing.” In his opening letter to the issue, editor Jason Cowley described what the publishers were looking for: [W]e were interested less in what might be called old nature writing—by which I mean the lyrical pastoral tradition of the romantic wanderer—than in writers who approached their subject in heterodox and experimental ways. We also wanted the contributions to be voice-driven, narratives told in the first person, for the writer to be present in the story, if sometimes only bashfully. The best new nature writing is also an experiment in forms: the field report, the essay, the memoir, the travelogue. If travel writing can often seem like a debased and exhausted genre, nature writing is its opposite: something urgent, vital and alert to the defining particulars of our times.1 For Cowley, the defining particulars of our time are, to a great extent, determined by our existence in a kind of ecological end-times: “We know how our world is changing and what is being lost and yet we are powerless to prevent the change.” As such, many of the pieces collected in the issue can be read as elegies, and Cowley’s new nature writing is prospectively nostalgic: innovative in its forms and immediate in its perceptions, but wistful in its themes. Though compelling, Cowley’s description of the new nature writing as heterodox, experimental, urgent and “alert to the defining particulars” of the times makes it sound less like “new” nature writing than it does like an old form of nature writing—not the “lyrical pastoral tradition of the romantic wanderer” Cowley imagines, perhaps, but rather romantic natural history writing (a new tradition of its own). Romantic natural history writing—characterized by its heterodoxy, its 1 Jason Cowley, “Editor’s Letter,” Granta 102: The New Nature Writing, Summer, 2008, unpaginated, <http://www.granta.com/Magazine/102/Editors-Letter>. 1 necessary experimentalism, its attendance to particulars, and its first-person (sometimes bashful) narrators—was also responsive to a world that seemed to be both radically expanding and slipping away, and to an experience of time as both unimaginably extensive and finite. For the old nature writing as for the new, the only possible approach to this world is one that emphasizes the subjective, the particular, the momentary. As Cowley puts it (in terms that once again echo romantic evocations of nature as much as they do contemporary ones), this writing is “about the discovery of exoticism in the familiar, the extraordinary in the ordinary. [It is] about new ways of seeing.” This dissertation reads new ways of seeing and describing in the journals, letters and poems of Dorothy and William Wordsworth, John Clare, and Henry David Thoreau. Beyond simply observing and describing features of natural objects, these “natural histories” record the meetings of mutually constitutive subjects, through which the unique forms of subjectivity available to natural phenomena inform and are informed by those available to the romantic poet, diarist, and naturalist. In this introduction, I present a brief sketch of natural history writing in the late eighteenth century before describing the preoccupation of romantic naturalists with unexpected encounters and fleeting natural phenomena. The writers I address in this dissertation express these unrepeatable encounters, I argue, as a form of natural history that does the work of designating significant subjects and articulating their presence within distinct, subjectively constituted and construed environments. This introduction also implicitly tracks the evolution of the dissertation project, which moved from an interest in the practice of natural history to an exploration of the ways it encouraged resonant and distinct forms of attention to and engagement with natural phenomena during the romantic period. Each chapter investigates the particular legacy of these forms of attention and engagement in a different author. 2 Natural History Notes The title of Ashton Nichols’ anthology Romantic Natural Histories is instructive in two ways: it periodizes natural history and, in its plural form, it suggests that natural history is not a simply categorized, or single, art (or science).2 Characterized by a resistance to systemization and a sharply particularized, yet deeply contextualized, form of engagement with the material world, romantic natural history writing is distinguished by its multifariousness: sometimes private, sometimes public, sometimes amateur, sometimes professional, it participates in a number of different literary genres, often in the space of a single text. Common to natural history writing is a lively and diverse form of viewing, thinking, and writing about the local, like that inaugurated by Gilbert White, whose Natural History of Selborne has shaped the approach of countless writer-naturalists in England and America since its publication. White’s letters, written over the course of fourteen years, developed natural history as a material literary practice. At the heart of this practice is a commitment to authentic engagement with and faithful description of the natural world, with
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The River Duddon (End Underline)
    Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2007-11-29 Wordsworth's Evolving Project: Nature, the Satanic School, and (underline) The River Duddon (end underline) Kimberly Jones May Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation May, Kimberly Jones, "Wordsworth's Evolving Project: Nature, the Satanic School, and (underline) The River Duddon (end underline)" (2007). Theses and Dissertations. 1247. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1247 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. WORDSWORTH’S EVOLVING PROJECT: NATURE, THE “SATANIC SCHOOL,” AND THE RIVER DUDDON by Kimberly Jones May A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of English Brigham Young University December 2007 BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY GRADUATE COMMITTEE APPROVAL of a thesis submitted by Kimberly Jones May This thesis has been read by each member of the following graduate committee and by majority vote has been found to be satisfactory. November 16, 2007 Date Nicholas Mason, Chair November 16, 2007 Date Dan Muhlestein, Reader November 16, 2007 Date Matthew Wickman, Reader
    [Show full text]
  • Abbreviations Used in the Notes
    ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES The following list is for use in connection with the short-form citations in Notes to the Introduction (beginning at p. 148 below) and Notes to the Poems (beginning at p. 150 below). BL S. T. Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, 2 vols (London, 1817); ed. J. Shawcross, 2 vols (Oxford, 1907). EY The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The Early Years, 1787-1805, ed. Ernest de Selincourt (Oxford, 1935); 2nd edn rev. Chester L. Shaver (Oxford, 1967). See also LY and MY, below. HD William Wordsworth, Poems in Two Volumes, ed. Helen Darbishire (Oxford, 1914; 2nd edn, 1952). Hutchinson William Wordsworth, Poems in Two Volumes, ed. Thomas Hutchinson, 2 vols (London, 1897). IF Notes dictated by Wordsworth to Isabella Fenwick. JDW Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, ed. Mary Moorman (Oxford, 1971) - notably the Alfoxden and Grasmere Journals. LSTC Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. E. L. Griggs, 6 vols (Oxford, 1956-71). LY I, II The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The Later Years, 1821-1834, ed. Ernest de Selincourt (Oxford, 1938-9); 2nd edn rev. Alan G. Hill (Oxford, 1978-9). See also EY above, and MY below. MS.L. Longman MS, British Library Add. MS. 47864. [Cf. A Description of the Wordsworth and Coleridge Manuscripts in the Possession of Mr T. Norton Longman, ed. W. Hale White (London, 1897).] MYI The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The Middle Years, Part I, 1806-1811, ed. Ernest de Selincourt (Oxford, 1936); 2nd edn rev. Mary Moorman (Oxford, 1969). MY II The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The Middle Years, Part II, 1812-1820, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Issue 130 (April 200
    26 The 2005 Elian Birthday Toast By DICK WATSON The 2005 Elian Birthday Toast was held on Saturday, 19 February at the Royal College of General Practitioners, South Kensington, London ON AN OCCASION SUCH AS A BIRTHDAY LUNCH, it is natural to think of anniversaries. It is this which was in my mind when I reflected that exactly two hundred years ago, to the day, on 19 February 1805, Charles Lamb was writing to William Wordsworth. It was the second letter in two days, referring to the death of Wordsworth’s brother John in the shipwreck of the Earl of Abergavenny off Portland. It was an event which affected the poet, and indeed the whole family, very deeply, and which was only partially resolved in the ‘Elegiac Stanzas’ which Wordsworth wrote after seeing Sir George Beaumont’s picture of Peele Castle in a Storm. As Richard E. Matlak has shown in Deep Distresses, John Wordsworth had, by dint of hard work and good conduct, risen to become the captain of an East Indiaman. A captain in such a position stood to gain much from a voyage, and John had hoped to get enough money to set the family up in comfort. He required capital from the venture, and both William and Dorothy invested money in it. The ship set sail from Portsmouth on 1 February, and ran into bad weather. The pilot tried to run for shelter, but the ship struck a rock at four o’clock in the afternoon of 5 February. According to one account, John Wordsworth is supposed to have said, ‘Oh Pilot! Pilot! You have ruined me!’ Some of the crew and passengers got ashore in boats, but of the 402 passengers on board only 100 were saved.
    [Show full text]
  • William Wordsworth (7 A;뼈 1770 - 23 Ap벼 1850)
    William Wordsworth (7 A;뼈 1770 - 23 Ap벼 1850) Judith W. Page Millsaps College BOOKS: AnEv’e1’↑따r Peter Bell, A Tale in Verse (London: Printed by dressed to a young Lady, [rom the Lakes o[ the Strahan & Spottiswoode for Longman, North o[ Englaηd (London: Printed for J. Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1819); johnson, 1793); The Waggoner, A Poem. To Which are added, Sonnets Descriptive Sketches. ln Verse. Take'ft 4t띠ng a Pedes­ (London: Printed by Strahan & Spot­ trian Tour in the ltalian, G:매:son， Swi:ss, and Sa­ tiswoode for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme voyard Aφ's (London: Printed for J. johnson, & Brown, 1819); 1793); M강cellaη eous Poems o[ William Word:sworth, 4 vol­ Lyrical Ballad:s, with a [ew other Poems (Bristol: umes (London: Printed for Longman, Printed by Biggs & Cottle for T. N. Long­ Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1820); man, London, 1798; London: Printed for J. The River Dμddoη， A se얘es o[ Sonnets: Vaudracmιr & A. Arch 1798; enlarged edition 2 vol­ , , q,nd Jμ lia: and Other Poems. To which 강 aη­ umes, London: Printed for T. N. Longman nexed, A Topographical Desc얘 tioη o[ the Coun­ & Rees by Biggs &. Co., Bristol, 1800; Phil­ o. tη， o[ the Lakes, in the North o[ Eη.glaηd (Lon­ adelphia: Printed & s이d by james Hum­ don: Printed for Longman, Hursì:, Rees, phreys, 1802); Orme & Brown, 1820); Poems, in two Volumes (London: Printed for Long­ ADαcπÖ:þ tioη o[ the Sceη ery o[ the Lakes in The N orth man, Hurst, Rees & Orm~ ， 1807); o[ Eη.glaηd. Third Editioη， (Now [irst publi:shed Concerning the Convention o[ Cintra (London: separately) (London: Printed for Longman, Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1822; revised 1809); and enlarged, 1823); revised and enlarged TheEχ:cursion， being a portion o[ The Recluse, a Poem again as A Gμide through the Di:strict o[ the (London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Lakes in The N orth o[ Eηgland (Kendal: Pub­ Rees, Orme & Brown, 1814; New York: C.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Essay Title: Romantic Poetry and Victorian
    Essay title: Romantic Poetry and Victorian Nonsense Poetry: Some Directions of Travel Name: Peter Swaab Email: [email protected] Postal address: Dept of English, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT Abstract: This essay explores links between Victorian nonsense poetry and poetry of the Romantic period, with a focus on narratives of quest, voyaging and escape. It discusses brief instances from various writers of the two periods and moves on to a more developed comparison between Wordsworth and Edward Lear, centring on ‘The Blind Highland Boy’. The comparison between periods leads to an argument that self- critique and scepticism were quite robustly in place from the start in the romantic period, and that obstacles to sense could at times be experienced not just as perplexity but as enjoyment shared with an audience. It also points to a further appreciation of some of the less canonical works by the most canonical writers, and suggests a tradition in which romantic aspiration was often coolly linked to a sense of absurdity. Keywords: romanticism, nonsense poetry, quests, voyages, romantic Victorianism 1 Romantic Poetry and Victorian Nonsense Poetry: Some Directions of Travel Peter Swaab We are used to asking what was Victorian about nonsense writing, but this essay takes the slightly different approach of asking what was Romantic about it. Various thematic and generic links suggest themselves as possible approaches. First, we might say that nonsense brings a cooling comic self-consciousness to many of the dramas of romanticism – for instance those involving childhood, isolation, utopian dreams, travel and imperialism. In exploring sublimity, nonsense always grounds it in absurdity, chiefly the absurdity of love in Edward Lear, and of meaning in Lewis Carroll.
    [Show full text]
  • Arnold, Matthew, 99 Barrett Browning, Elizabeth, 99 Battle of Waterloo, 30
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-89668-9 - The Cambridge Introduction to William Wordsworth Emma Mason Index More information Index Arnold, Matthew, 99 ecopoetics, 110 elegy, 57–60 Barrett Browning, Elizabeth, 99 Eliot, George, 99 Battle of Waterloo, 30 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 20 Beaumont, George, 11, 21 emotion, 23, 37, 39, 43, 45, 47, 68, 77, Beaupuy, Michael, 4 79, 110 Bible, 40, 41, 54, 100, 102 enclosure, 29 Ecclesiastes, 92 Enlightenment, the 24 Genesis, 81 environmentalism, 110 Gospel of Luke, 83 epitaphs, 59 Gospel of Mark, 92 ethical criticism, 109–10 Psalms, 77, 92 Evangelical Revival, 40, 41 Revelation, 54 Blake, William, 99 Fenwick, Isabella, 21, 52, 86, 105 blank verse, 49–52 formalism, 107–8 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 32 Fox, Charles James, 34, 36, 51, 82 Burke, Edmund, 4, 26, 28, 32, 36 French Revolution, 4, 30, 37 capitalism, 27 Gaskell, Elizabeth, 99 Church of England, 18, 19, 41, gender, 103–6 42, 43, 93 Godwin, William, 6, 33, 66 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, xi, xii, xv, 7, Gordon Riots, 30 11, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 25, 33, Grasmere, 9 34, 38, 41, 51, 53, 70, 71, 78, 89, graveyard poets, 57 92, 105, 124 Greenwell, Dora, 100 ‘Christabel’, 71 fancy, 90 Habermas, Jürgen, 26 ‘The Rime of the Ancyent Hartley, David, 24 Marinere’, 70, 71 Hawkshead, 2, 58 community, 37, 47, 109 Hazlitt, William, 46, 99 Hemans, Felicia, 19, 54, De Quincey, Thomas,13 , 14, 68 99, 104 deconstruction, 103 historicism, 106 dissenting academies, 25 Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 100 dissenting religion, 41 Hume, David, 26 131 © in this web service Cambridge
    [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 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]
  • Thoughts on William Wordsworth a Commemorative Essay
    thoughts on william wordsworth A commemorative essay BRUCE B CLARK this year will mark the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of william wordsworth who was born on april 7 1770 in the little town of kermouthcockermouthCoc situated on the river der- went in the lovely lake district of northwestern england upon the death of his mother when wordsworth was only eight the family was scattered wordsworth himself going southward about fifteen miles to school at hawkshead near the center of the lake district in this beautiful region of lush greenness with its rolling hills peaceful lakes and quiet streams wordsworth spent most of his lifeilfefifehife and wrote most of his poetry schooling at cambridge a year of study in france long walks through scotland and occasional travels elsewhere took him briefly away from his beloved lake country from time to time but always he was drawn back and there he died on april 23 1850 A simple headstone in the country cemetery in the small village of grasmere still marks the place of his burial everyone now knows wordsworth though not everyone likes him almost everyone including even those who don t like him acknowledges that he holds a special place in litera- ture perhaps more at the heart of the romantic movement than any other poet among mormon readers both in the church generally and at BYU particularly he has found a large audience through the years because of the special appeal of the philosophy and ethics of his poetry the collection of dr darkoarkclark dean of the college of humanities at brigham
    [Show full text]
  • William Wordsworth Describing London and the River Thames, Viewed from Westminster Bridge in the Early Morning
    Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Earth hath 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 splendor, 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! "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802" is a sonnet by William Wordsworth describing London and the River Thames, viewed from Westminster Bridge in the early morning. It was first published in the collection Poems in Two Volumes in 1807. Contents [hide] • 1 William Wordsworth • 2 Context • 3 Structure • 4 Summary • 5 Themes, language and imagery • 6 Dorothy Wordsworth • 7 Notes • 8 External links [edit] William Wordsworth William Wordsworth was a Romantic poet. The Romantic Movement describes a group of people who threw off the rigid scientific world created by Isaac Newton and his other followers. Wordsworth was one of the most well known romantic poets – along with his close friend and collaborator Samuel Taylor Coleridge – beginning a revolution in thought and expression. He believed that through nature and communion with nature, we find happiness.
    [Show full text]
  • Fixing the Phantoms of Conceit: Wordsworth’S Prefiguration of the Photographic Impulse in “Tintern Abbey” and the Prelude
    Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism Volume 6 Issue 1 Article 5 2013 Fixing the Phantoms of Conceit: Wordsworth’s Prefiguration of the Photographic Impulse in “Tintern Abbey” and The Prelude Rachel Daniel Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/criterion BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Daniel, Rachel (2013) "Fixing the Phantoms of Conceit: Wordsworth’s Prefiguration of the Photographic Impulse in “Tintern Abbey” and The Prelude," Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism: Vol. 6 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/criterion/vol6/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. fixing the phantoms of conceit Wordsworth’s Prefiguration of the Photographic Impulse in “Tintern Abbey” and The Prelude Rachel Daniel To consider the poetry of William Wordsworth alongside photography first comes off as a mismatched proposal since Wordsworth wrote the bulk of his material several decades before Daguerre formally introduced the photographic process to the public. Beyond being bound historically, the bulk of Wordsworth’s poems, with their emphasis on imagination and the cen- tral role of nature appear to share none of the qualities typically attributed to the photograph. Moreover, the consideration of photography as a scientific art makes it seem further removed from the conceptual handiwork of the Roman- tics. Despite these barriers to bridging the photographic with the poetic, Word- sworth elicits profound connections to the pre-photographic desire to arrest images from life that pervaded the late eighteenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • William Wordsworth - Poems
    Classic Poetry Series William Wordsworth - poems - Publication Date: 2004 Publisher: Poemhunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive William Wordsworth(1770-1850) Wordsworth, born in his beloved Lake District, was the son of an attorney. He went to school first at Penrith and then at Hawkshead Grammar school before studying, from 1787, at St John's College, Cambridge - all of which periods were later to be described vividly in The Prelude. In 1790 he went with friends on a walking tour to France, the Alps and Italy, before arriving in France where Wordsworth was to spend the next year. Whilst in France he fell in love twice over: once with a young French woman, Annette Vallon, who subsequently bore him a daughter, and then, once more, with the French Revolution. Returning to England he wrote, and left unpublished, his Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff - a tract in support of the French Revolutionary cause. In 1795, after receiving a legacy, Wordsworth lived with his sister Dorothy first in Dorset and then at Alfoxden, Dorset, close to Coleridge. In these years he wrote many of his greatest poems and also travelled with Coleridge and Dorothy, in the winter of 1798-79, to Germany. Two years later the second and enlarged edition of the Lyrical Ballads appeared in 1801, just one year before Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson. This was followed, in 1807, by the publication of Poems in Two Volumes, which included the poems 'Resolution and Independence' and 'Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood'. During this period he also made new friendships with Walter Scott, Sir G.
    [Show full text]