Wordsworth Flashcards

Context, Lines Written in Early Spring, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour July 13 1798, Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood (93 cards)

1
Q

During which years was Wordsworth alive?

A

1770-1850

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2
Q

When did Wordsworth become aligned with the ideals of the French Revolution?

A

when studying at Cambridge, took a walking tour in Switzerland and then France -> gained appreciation of the movement and became a supporter

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3
Q

When was the Romantic period believed to have begun in full swing?

A

in 1798 with Coleridge and Wordsworth’s publication of their ‘Lyrical Ballads’
o primarily WW’s work, but Coleridge contributed ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’
o met with hostility by most contemporary critics

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4
Q

What did Dorothy Wordsworth (Wordsworth’s sister) say about her literary ambitions?

A

“I should detest the idea of setting myself up as an author, I give Wm. the Pleasure of it.”

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5
Q

Describe Dorothy Wordsworth’s relationship with her brother in terms of career

A
  • Dorothy = prolific diarist and occasional poet
  • never had ambitions of becoming a published author herself, but wrote many journals of where she lived; descriptions in these were relied upon heavily by Wordsworth in his own work, such as his guide to the Lake District, as well as his famous poem ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ (sometimes referred to as ‘Daffodils’)
    o excerpt from Dorothy’s ‘Grasmere Journal’ (1802) = “I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing.”
    o excerpt from ‘IWLaaC’ = “I wandered lonely as a Cloud
    That floats on high o’er Vales and Hills,
    When all at once I saw a crowd
    A host of dancing Daffodils;
    Along the Lake, beneath the trees,
    Ten thousand dancing in the breeze.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: –
A poet could not but be gay
In such a laughing company:”
o VERY clear similarities
o plus, Wordsworth doesn’t give any credit to Dorothy in the poem (the walk in the Grasmere Journal description was SHARED between Dorothy and her brother, whilst in the poem, WW seems to claim the observations as his own; similarly, in his guide to the Lake District, Dorothy’s included descriptions are not credited to her

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6
Q

What does Wordsworth say of Dorothy in his poem ‘The Sparrow’s Nest’?

A

“She gave me eyes, she gave me ears”

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7
Q

Describe Wordsworth’s strife in the years following 1802 (his marriage to Mary Hutchinson) and the change in his political views this caused

A
  • two of his children died
  • his brother was drowned at sea
  • Dorothy had a mental breakdown
  • French Revolution ultimately failed with Napoleon Bonaparte taking power as the Emperor of France in 1804

as result, WW’s political views became increasingly conservative and was disillusioned by the failure of the French Rev, which he had believed in so greatly (David Wright)

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8
Q

What religion did WW follow and what effect did this have on his work?

A
  • pantheism
    o the belief that God and nature are one and the same - rejects the institutional idea of the One, anthropomorphic, Christian God and places God in the capacity of something so far beyond human ideation that we have no control over God (similarly to how nature should be treated in the eyes of the Romantics (power of nature vs society))
  • made him describe himself as a “Worshipper of Nature” and this was reflected very heavily in his poems, such as in Tintern Abbey
    o also made him more inclined to protect nature - was one of the first “tree-huggers” and advocated for the protection of public parks and natural spaces
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9
Q

What was the ‘back-to-nature’ movement?

A
  • ideas put forward by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and pioneered and spread in practice by Wordsworth
    o Rousseau’s “noble savage” -> the idea that humans thrive more completely in nature and are corrupted in mind and body by society
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10
Q

What did Wordsworth say in his extended preface to ‘Lyrical Ballads’ (1802) about the effect of nature on human emotion?

A

“the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language”

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11
Q

What did Wordsworth say in his extended preface to ‘Lyrical Ballads’ (1802) about the effect of society on the expression of human “passions”?

A

“the language [of rural people] is purified from… its real defects… being less under the influence of social vanity they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions.”

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12
Q

What did Wordsworth say in his extended preface to ‘Lyrical Ballads’ (1802) about the effect of nature on the permanency/power of human emotional expression?

A

“such a language… is a more permanent, and a far more philosophical language, than that which is frequently substituted for it by Poets”

OR

“the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature”

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13
Q

What did Wordsworth say in his extended preface to ‘Lyrical Ballads’ (1802) about the type of language used in the poems of the collection?

A

used “a selection of language really used by men”

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14
Q

What did Wordsworth say in his extended preface to ‘Lyrical Ballads’ (1802) about his presentation of the “situations from common life” used in the ‘Lyrical Ballads’ collection?

A

“to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way”

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15
Q

Lines Written in Early Spring

A

Lines Written in Early Spring

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16
Q

When was the poem written and where?

A
  • April 1798 (published in ‘Lyrical Ballads’)
  • written while WW was in Somerset, by the side of a brook where an ash tree had fallen
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17
Q

Why did WW write ‘Lines Written in Early Spring’?

A
  • dismay at materialism
  • dismay at the failure of the French Revolution with the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
  • exploration of the contrast between Nature and man-made world ‘s corruption
  • Pantheism
  • the power of Nature vs power of humans (subordinates humans to be PART of nature and subject to it, not rulers of nature as the Ind Rev + institutionalised Christianity assert)
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18
Q

What is significant about the structure of ‘Lines Written in Early Spring’?

A
  • 6 quatrain stanzas
    o the maintenance of the quatrain throughout could be an attempt to maintain the impression of harmony and perfect belief in nature’s “holy plan” by WW/speaker
  • halfway through (from and including the 4th stanza, until the last stanza) goes from 3 lines of iambic quadrameter and one of iambic trimeter, to 2 lines of quadrameter and trimeter alternated with one another
    o the shift happens when it becomes apparent that the speaker (WW) is trying to suppress doubts and maintain his belief in the joy and self-enjoyment of nature -> the change throws in a bit of disorder to the otherwise orderly, neat, consistent rhythm of the piece and thus could mirror the corruption of society and the perversion of natural harmony and order due to the force of humanity’s attempt to assert control over nature (the trimeter sounds more forceful and impactful due to the emphasis -> forces reader to take a pause and think; society’s control)
  • ABAB rhyme scheme throughout
    o idealisation of the harmony in nature or even between nature and humanity whilst he is sitting there writing this poem
    o lends soundness and perfect neatness to the poem -> thus gives authority to WW’s lament “What man has made of man” and encourages people to listen?
  • neatness of MOST aspects of the structure and rhythm may suggest that the fundamental harmony of nature still exists, however the corruption of humanity being thrust on nature by the Ind Rev is threatening this harmony - save nature
  • throughout poem, open vowels are used frequently -> gives air of languidness or peace; evocative of the peaceful, calming, effect of nature - perhaps even evocative of the lament itself?
  • throughout poem, plosives also used to give a bouncy, lively feel -> vitality of nature
  • slips into feminine rhymes at points (“flower”/”bower”, “measure”/”pleasure”)
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19
Q

“I heard a thousand blended notes,”

A
  • “I heard”
    o opens with the word “I” -> gives the poem a personal tone from the start and lets you into the speaker’s mind and experiences more deeply; engage with the poem like a conversation and thus derive more EMOTIONAL response from the work -> Romantic aims
    o also opens with the sensory aspect of “hearing” the notes - again places great emphasis on feeling and one’s experiences, as well as perhaps emphasising that one’s relationship with nature cannot be purely intellectual and must denote some sort of physical connection with nature
    o also, the fact that the speaker is simply HEARING these “thousand” notes instead of partaking in them separates the human speaker from the rest of nature - part of the human condition = separation from the nature which they should BELONG to - “what man has made of man”
  • “thousand blended notes”
    o “blended” implies that all the “notes” sung by the nature around him are so harmonious that they sound as one solid, unified note, however this is not the case; the speaker is able to identify a “thousand” distinct notes -> though nature is the one unifying force in the universe/world, it has many small intricacies and makes it alive and complex and deserving of treatment as a beautiful and mystifying thing (Pantheism as well as general reverence for nature and its beauty)
  • “notes” = singing -> vitality and life and cheer present within nature
    o pleasant to listen to and is a source of joy and peace
    o meanwhile, the speaker (human) is just experiencing and not taking part - humans have removed themselves from the acute joys of the natural world and living a free life in order to grow for man-made requirements of life such as profit etc. -> corruption of the human spirit (Rousseau ‘Discourse On the Nature of Inequality’ or smth)
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20
Q

“grove”

A
  • “grove”
    o a (typically naturally occurring) small group of trees with little to no undergrowth
    o have Biblical connotations; the olive grove at Gethsemane where Jesus prayed before his crucifixion is thought to represent the link between nature and the divine, as well as Abraham’s grove planted in Beersheba where he “called there on the name of God” (Genesis 21:33)
    o links to WW’s Pantheism and presents the natural world as intrinsically linked to the divine - when one is in nature, there is no need for institutionalised religion or enclosed buildings because one is surrounded by God
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21
Q

“I sate reclined”

A
  • “reclined”
    o gives connotations of rest and repose in nature -> nature as a source of this (could link to Rousseau thinking that one can garner everything they need in life from nature)
    o could also be read in the light of the contrast between this inactivity of the speaker and the birds having “hopped and played” around him later on as another way in which humans are distinctly set apart from nature - speaker does not partake in this vitality and movement and instead reclines
    o lack of movement associated with death perhaps -> separation from the natural world is killing the human soul ??? i wouldn’t be inclined to use this argument but yk. jic
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22
Q

“sweet mood when pleasant thoughts/Bring sad thoughts to the mind.”

A
  • even though the “thoughts” are “sad”, still have an element of sweetness to them because it means that he is thinking and feeling and alive
    o emotion as a beautiful thing -> Romanticism
  • this sadness experienced could also be an expression of nostalgia and longing for a past in which society didn’t exist and the invisible barrier between nature and mankind hadn’t been put up so could be truly part of the joy and vitality of nature which he is now forced to simply observe
    o alternatively, the “sad thoughts” could be caused by the knowledge that the wonderful, beautiful and lively nature surrounding him is under threat due to the corruption and greed of society (Ind Rev and human assertion as a dominant force over nature when really it is the other way around)
  • sweetness of the “sad thoughts” could be because of his surroundings in nature - allows him to be introspective without hurting because of the nurturing and comforting peace that nature provides -> feminine and divine aspects of nature
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23
Q

“her” used for “Nature”

A

feminine aspect of God and Nature -> OT depiction of God when watching over the Jews in their wanderings in the desert as feminine and caring -> WW Pantheism
o nurturing and mortherly aspects of nature emphasised
- used across a lot of WW’s work - eg. the Prelude

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24
Q

“did Nature link/The human soul that through me ran;”

A
  • “Nature” is capitalised
    o thus written like a name and personifies nature -> emphasis on the vitality of nature and how alive and present a force it is - has agency and cannot be manipulated by humans as a lifeless object but must be treated with respect and kindness and love like it provides humans with
  • Nature here is posited as a do-er (“link” = verb)
    o again, agency of Nature
    o linking the “human soul” also gives Nature authority and control over the spiritual faculties of humans in the same way as God (Pantheism) and thus assert’s nature’s mystical power as well above the power of humans over nature (critique of IR and the human attempt to pervert the natural order of things - humans are a PART of nature, not its ruler, and so nature has dominion over THEM)
  • “link/The human soul”
    o Nature as directly connected to the innermost aspects of humanity
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25
"it grieved my heart to think"
- grief is an incredibly powerful emotion o exacerbates the sheer tragedy of man's moral corruption via society and separation from nature and makes reader feel as if the sacrifices made by humanity in forming society were exceedingly great o the grief also is out of key with the descriptions of joy and impassioned life surrounding him - another way in which man-made humanity has separated humans from nature and destroyed their ability to be in their natural state of joy and innocence - "heart to think" o posits the heart as the centre of thought -> Romantic emphasis on emotion and feeling above logic o also shows that the grief felt at the losses of humanity in regards to their natural state and subsequent corruption by society goes right to the very core of the human being - exacerbates tragedy
26
"What man has made of man."
- repeated twice in the poem -> central idea - "man has made of man" (syntax) o the separation from nature that man suffers from is entirely man's fault -> criticism of the industrial revolution and the moral and mental corruption of society (Rousseau) o syntax also states implicitly that there was a time where man was not influenced by man-made elements of life such as society and class, and so belonged to something else - this something was nature - return to nature? (WW back to nature movement) o "made of" has connotations of reshaping the original 'savage' man entirely to create a new version of man - the new version is thus a perversion of "Nature's holy plan" as it disregards everything in this plan to create a self-serving model of the 'ideal' man; this is the nexus of the separation and distinct barrier between nature and modern mankind o alternatively, could place emphasis on the word "of" - to create society, man has sacrificed its own true nature and desired way of life as one with nature - highlights the tragedy of separation thus as well as the moral evils that stem from a society which exploits the individuals within it - also, here presents man as the 'creator' or 'maker' however the result is destructive -> nothing good can come of humans usurping the natural order and trying to assert dominance over the nature which is the greatest power (pantheism, back2nature)
27
"primrose tufts"
- "primrose" as a flower is one of the earliest to flower and symbolises optimism and youth o captures the eager, lively and excited essence of the natural world that WW is trying to convey o contrast between a flower which is so eager to be alive and partake in nature, and Rousseau's depiction of the "civil man" as unhappy to be alive and eager to "throw away as much of it [life]" as possible - "tufts" o the primrose isn't even fully flowered yet (innocence, youth - positions children and youth as inherently a part of nature; age as another separating factor between the speaker and nature, as have had time to be corrupted by society o soft -> loveliness, vulnerability? again the same kind of stuff as well as the fact that nature is gentle and kind and nurturing - source of peace and joy
28
"The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;"
- "periwinkle" = another flower; delicacy, vitality, innocent aspect of nature o also, periwinkle laid on statues of the Virgin Mary as is associated with her (blue colour); the holiness and nurturing divinity of nature thus is emphasised - could also emphasise nature as being the birthplace of goodness, holiness etc.? - "trailed" o personifies the periwinkle and gives it agency -> nature is ALIVE o semantic field of life in nature pops up throughout the poem, with the "trailing", birds "hopping and playing", the "thousand notes", flowers "breathing" etc. -> nature as an active force that is still present in the world and is joyful and cheerful and content - "wreaths" again have religious connotations (advent wreath, corpus christi wreaths (celebrate the real presence of Jesus Christ) etc.) -> Pantheism
29
"'tis my faith that every flower/Enjoys the air it breathes."
- "faith" = Pantheism o as well as WW's pantheism, the use of the word "faith" connotes a full trust in an idea which cannot be proven -> slight tone of uncertainty creeping in as speaker tries to maintain his belief in the perfection of Nature - "flower" (youth, innocence, beauty) o Luke 12:27 - "Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" = we should not be wasting our time on trying to look good, or by extension on working hard and piling up wealth so as to improve our status and appearance o BACK TO NATURE MOVEMENT !!!!!! ROUSSEAU !!!!!!!! WW !!!!!!!! o because flowers and nature do not waste all this time and effort fulfilling social dictates which humans have subjected themselves to, they can live freely and "enjoy the air" they breathe o as well as literal flowers, could symbolise children - they are not yet corrupted by society, so in their youth and innocence they are like the Biblical "lilies" and are truly at peace with nature and the world in a way which adults cannot be - "breathes" -> personification of nature -> alive, present in a tangible way, not like Christian God if from Pantheistic perspective - "Enjoys the air it breathes" o could also be a subtle criticism of the IR in the sense that pollution caused by humans and societal corruption through the IR is slowly stripping the flowers and nature and all beings of this simple pleasure o if looking at flowers as symbolic of youth and children, this could also be a moral pollution, as the IR meant increases in child labour, child prostitution, formal schooling and so on
30
"The birds around me hopped and played,"
- "around me" o separation from being part of Nature and being harmonious with all its "notes" - plosives = bouncy feel, actions "hopped and played" -> alive - "played" = childlike; link between children and innocence, and Nature -> b4 societal corruption, Rousseau's idolisation of child as most natural, etc.
31
"Their thoughts I cannot measure:-"
- "Their thoughts" o gives birds the same mental faculties as humans o so, reasserts that humans are not specially distinct from the rest of Nature and thus do not deserve to control or destroy nature for societal benefit as seen fit o alternatively, could also show that Nature is just as emotional and deserving of respect as humanity and reinforces this view in a more emotional way - "cannot measure" o measuring = logical, scientific -> Nature resists a scientific interpretation and cannot be intellectualised on a spiritual level; criticism of Enlightenment and science as solely man-made constructs and completely unnatural o could also show that, despite not being intellectualised, one still derives joy from the life and movement of the birds and it is still important -> children -> Rousseau? else importance of emotion over logic in Romantic ideology o could also interpret in the light of uncertainty - cannot be entirely sure of the "pleasure" that the birds "seem" to experience and this troubles perhaps? -> human social constructs and logic and the need to impress human values on Nature as the source of unhappiness
32
"But the least motion which they made/It seemed a thrill of pleasure."
- "least motion" -> even the smallest movements suggest life - "thrill of pleasure" o "thrill" = extreme enjoyment; being alive and being in harmony with Nature and being free to move instead of being restricted and "in chains" (ROUSSEAU) is all that one should need to feel fulfilled in life - "noble savage" o the simpleness of being enamoured by the state of being alive idealised -> humans overcomplicate things with logic and societal shit ("Consider the lilies" Luke 12:27)
33
list quotes from the semantic field of youth
"budding twigs" "primrose tufts" "the birds around me hopped and played"
34
list quotes from the semantic field of religion
"Nature's holy plan" "If this belief from heaven be sent" "faith" PANTHEISM
35
"I must think, do all I can,/That there was pleasure there."
- sense of desperation to maintain this view of Nature as harmonious and peaceful and alive and as taking pleasure in itself o else, his own mental state will be harmed? humanity doesn't take pleasure in its own creation of civility (ROUSSEAU), so if Nature doesn't take pleasure in itself there isn't really any hope left??? this is a stretch though o could also be read as the desperation to maintain the comfort and peace and joy speaker derives from Nature in light of the destruction of IR and the failure of the French Rev (thus the fall of symbolic individuality - David Wright)
36
Anaphora of "If" in last stanza when discussing the intention of Nature's "holy plan" and sent "belief from heaven"
- uncertainty
37
"Have I not reason to lament/What man has made of man?"
hammers home the point that the separation of humans from their natural state and Nature as a whole by society and its corruption is too great a loss after the display of happiness and love and cheer in Nature in the rest of the poem - "lament" = great grief, anguish etc.
38
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour
39
What did Wordsworth say about this poem?
"it was written with a hope that in the transitions, and the impassioned music of the versification, would be found the principle requisites of [an Ode's] species of composition."
40
When was this poem written?
- July, 1978 - added last minute to the 'Lyrical Ballads'
41
Why did WW write 'Tintern Abbey'?
42
What is Tintern Abbey (the place)?
43
What is significant about the structure of 'Tintern Abbey'?
44
What is significant about the FULL title of 'Tintern Abbey'?
45
"five summers, with the length/Of five long winters! [have passed]"
46
"again I hear/These waters, rolling"
47
"With a soft inland murmur."
48
"Once again/Do I behold"
49
"steep and lofty cliffs"/"wild secluded scene"
50
cliffs "impress/Thoughts of a more deep seclusion [on the "wild secluded scene"]"
51
cliffs "connect/The landscape with the quiet of the sky"
52
"The day is come when I again repose/Here, under this dark sycamore"
53
"these orchard-tufts... with their unripe fruits,/Are clad in one green hue"
54
the orchard-tufts "lose themselves/'Mid groves and copses."
55
"These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines/Of sportive wood run wild:"
56
"these pastoral farms,/Green to the very door,"
57
"wreaths of smoke/Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!"
58
"cave, where by his fire/The Hermit sits alone."
59
"oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din/Of towns and cities" recollects the "beauteous forms" of nature near Tintern Abbey
60
"sensations sweet,/Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;/ And passing even into my purer mind/With tranquil restoration:"
61
"unremembered pleasure"
62
"that best portion of a good man's life,/His little, nameless, unremembered, acts/Of kindness and love."
63
"To them I may have owed another gift,/... that blessed mood,/...In which the heavy and weary weight/Of all this unintelligible world,/Is lightened"
64
"the affections gently lead us on-/Until, the breath of this corporeal frame... we are laid asleep/In body, and become a living soul"
65
"with an eye made quiet by the power/Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,/We see into the life of things."
66
"If this/Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft-... [when] the fever of the world,/have hung upon the beatings of my heart-/How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,/O sylvan Wye!"
67
"thou wanderer"
68
"with gleams of half-extinguished thought,/... And somewhat of a sad perplexity,/The picture of the mind revives again"
69
"with pleasing thoughts/ That in this moment there is life and food/For future years."
70
"like a roe/I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides/Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,"
71
"Wherever nature led"
72
"more like a man/Flying from something that he dreads, than one/Who sought the thing he loved."
dread of child = societal corruption
73
"(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days/And their glad animal movements all gone by)"
74
"For nature then [after "coarser pleasures" had "gone by"]/To me was all in all."
75
"I cannot paint/What then I was."
76
"The sounding cataract/Haunted me like a passion"
77
""Their colours and their forms, were then to me/An appetite: a feeling and a love,/That had no need of a remoter charm,/By thought supplied"
78
"That time is past,/And all its aching joys are now no more" BUT "Not for this/Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts/Have followed"
79
"For I have learned/To look on nature, not as in the hour/Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes/The still sad music of humanity... ample power/To chasten and subdue."
80
"I have felt... a sense sublime/Of something far more deeply interfused,/Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,/And the round ocean and the living air,/And the blue sky, and in the mind of man"
81
"A motion and a spirit, that impels/All thinking things, all objects of all thought,/And rolls through all things."
82
"I am still/A lover of... all that we behold/From this green earth: of all the mighty world/Of eye, and ear, - both what they half create,/And what perceive"
83
"The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,/The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul/Of all my moral being."
84
"If I were not thus taught, should I the more/Suffer my genial spirits to decay"
85
"My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch/The language of my former heart, and read/My former pleasures in the shooting lights/Of thy wild eyes."
86
"Oh! yet a little while/May I behold in thee what I was once"
87
"this prayer I make,/ Knowing that Nature never did betray/The heart that loved her"
88
"she can so inform/The mind that is within us...that neither evil tongues,/Rash judgements, nor the sneers of selfish men... Shall e'er prevail against us"
89
"let the moon/Shine on thee in thy solitary walk"
90
"when thy mind/Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms... oh! then,/If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,/Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts/Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,/And these my exhortations!"
91
"I, so long/A worshipper of Nature"
92
"Nor wilt thou then forget,/That after... many years/Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,/And this green pastoral landscape, were to me/More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!"
93
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood