Poetic Diction

Prepared by – Shubhda parmar

Roll no - 35

Sem - 1

Email id –shubhadaparmar10@gmail.com

Submitted by – Smt.S.B gardi

                          Department of English

                           Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji

                           Bhavnagar University

                          Gujarat

Introduction:

 Wordsworth is famous as the supreme Nature poet of England.           

 Wordsworth symbolized the yeoman of England with its strong formation and independence of mind. While he was frequently ill of a kind of hypochondria, and complained. The remains of his life were a model of domesticity . Wordsworth’s philosophical sympathies arrange with the revolutionaries, but his loyalties arrange by England .He explored most of the available parts of the continent, and visited Scotland some times. His poems were almost entirely concerning the environment in which he loved to dwell , though the tree of poetry which grew since this natural soil soared into the upper air of the sprit .Wordsworth can express the feel of a place with memorable effect –‘ The tall rock ,the mountain and the deep and gloomy wood……’

                ‘The bleak music of that old stone wall…’

                  Yet the insufficiency of the description of him as a nature poet is observable. while nature he became aware of the joys and sorrows of the human situation.

            

                ‘For I have learned to look on nature …hearing

                  Often times the still, sad music of humanity. ’

                    During nature, too, he felt,

         

           ‘a presence that disturbs me with the joy

                Of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime

                Of something far more deeply interfused. ’

                   This is that superiority of which we must take account , while we consider his philosophy. For the moment, stay with his poetry .It is wise and proper to estimant a poet by his qualities his achievements .But most people are familiar with J.K. Stephen’s lines,

                  

                ‘Two voices are there; one is of the deep,

                   And one is of an old, half witted sheep,

                   And, Wordsworth, both are thine……’

                        During his life, still, he never wavered in his trust in himself and his wickedness as a poet. He lived to see his own faith in his powers successfully necessary .It is seldom really that such gigantic selfishness is so fully and so fairly repaid.

His poetry:

                         Wordsworth records that his original verses were written at school. So, this is an interesting admission of the still surviving domination of the past poet .At the university he composed some poetry, which appeared like ‘An Evening Walk’ and‘Descriptive Sketches’. In style these poems have little originality, but they already show the Wordsworthian eye for nature .The first fruits of his intellect were seen in the Lyrical Ballads concerning the foundation of this remarkable book both Wordsworth and Coleridge have left accounts, which differ to some level, though not essentially. Coleridge’s may be taken as the more believable. He says in his Biographia Literaria.

    It was agreed that my endeavours should be directed to persons and character supernatural , or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitutes poetic faith .

      

      The journal of Lyrical Ballads represents a attraction moment for English poetry it was different anything that had come before and cemented the way for everything that has come after .Acorrding to the theory that poetry resulted from the spontaneous over flow powerful feelings   as Wordsworth and Coleridge made it their mission to write in the simple language of common people , telling real stories of their lives.

         

            Wordsworth had the larger contribute to in the book . various of his poems , like ‘The Thorn ’ and  ‘The Idiot Boy’  are condemned as being trivial and childish in style , a few , such as Simon Lee and Expostulation and Replay , are more sufficient in their expression and the  Concluding  Piece , Tintern Abbey , is one of the triumphs of this intelligence.

            Through the year 1798-1799 wordsworth composed various of his finest poems, which appeared in 1880, as one with his contributions to the Lyrical Ballads. with the most noteworthy of the new works in this collection were‘ Michale ’  , ‘The Old Cumberland Beggar ’.Although some of them , such as Michel and ‘The Old Cumberland Beggar’ , are irregular in quality , the new poems show Wordsworth less   worried with his theories and weakness of touch.

               ‘The Prelude’, which was completed in 1805 but not published until 1850, after Wordsworth‘s death, is confirmation of his development as a poet. He describes his experience with a extensiveness, closeness, and laborious anxiety that are exclusive in our literature. ‘The Prelude’ was intentional to form part of a huge philosophical work called ‘The Recluse’ which was never completed. Another part of this same work was ‘The Excursion’ , much of which was composed in the years now under review , while it was not published in the 1814 .It lacks the greatness of the full , rather monotonous and uninspired , and regularly prosaic. still so ,it does surround some good pictures and tales of country life .

                       In, 1807 , were two volumes of poems which symbolize the fine flower of his  intellect , but  it is impassible at this time to list even the very great poems in these volumes , but in all poetic form that he used , with the possible exclusion of the narrative, Wordsworth is here seen at the height of his powers . To declare but a few of the successes of this volume, we have , in the lyric vein ,   ‘The Solitary Reaper ’ , ‘The Green Linnet’, ‘Ode on the Intimations of Immortality’ , ‘ I Wander Lonely as a Cloud’ , ‘  Resolution and Independence ’ , ‘  Ode to Duty ’ ,which has led many critics to rise them as the  supreme sonnets in the language.

                                  

                                   Wordsworth’s all poems are generally connect with nature during his work; nature provides the final good influence on the human mind. He constantly emphasizes the importance of nature to an individual’s logical and spiritual development. A good relationship with nature helps individual’s attach to both of spiritual and the social world.

                    Wordsworth soon realized that to love  nature is to love Man who is part and lot of Nature .To love one’s fellows is therefore a prime principle of  Wordsworth’s philosophy and gives it thoughtful human significance .

          

          Wordsworth’s  words,

             One impulse from a vernal wood

               May teach you more of man,

               Of moral evils and of good,

                Than all the sages can.

His Theory of   poetry:

                         Wordsworth begins his theory of poetry. It reveals a superior conception of the dignity of that art which is “the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge” moreover which is the product of the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” , taking its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility. The ability of the poet is on a level with the dignity of his art. Toward Wordsworth, he is a man, possessed of more than usual organic sensibility, and one who has also thought long and deeply. Apart from these universal views on the poet and his art, Wordsworth belief can be divided into two portions regarding,          

                     A. the subject style      

                     B. the style of poetry

      

A. concerning subject,Wordsworth declares his first choice for incidents and situations from universal life , to attain such situations , humble and pastoral life was generally chosen, because in that condition the necessary passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity , over these incidents wordsworth proposes to throw a confident colouring of the imagination whereby usual effects should be presented to the mind in an strange feature .

B. Wordsworth’s views on poetical method are the most innovative of all the ideas in this preface .Discarding the gaudiness and inane word choice of many modern writers , he insists that his poems surround little poetic diction  ,and are written in ‘ a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation ’ . His views on poetic diction he summed up with these words, ‘there neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition. ’

               The level to which Wordsworth’s own practice as a poet necessary his theories is a question which has long occupied the attention of critics. That he was aware of the dangerous inherent in his theory he makes clear in these words; ‘in some instance, feelings, even of the ludicrous, have been given to readers by expressions which appeared to me tender and pathetic’. while Wordsworth writes under a strong emotional motivation, his style is free .It is touchingly easy in some of his Lucy poems, gay and joyous in other lyrics and vigorous.

 Features of his Poetry:

 ·    Its Inequality and its Limitations.  All the critics of Wordsworth are at effort to point out the collection of inferior work that came from his pen. Before the year1808 he had created poems as extremely and artistically beautiful as some in language. It was hard, though, for Wordsworth to appreciate his limitations, which were many and serious.               

  ·   Its Egoism.  In a person of minor caliber such a degree of self-esteem as Wordsworth’s would have been absurd, in his holder, with the absolute intellect that was in the man, is was something almost heroic .The best of his shorter poems covenant with his own experience, also his longest works, ‘The Prelude ’ and ‘The Excursion’ , explain his spiritual development in the most minute aspect .

·   In spite of this Self-obsession he is strangely scarce in the purely lyrical gift .so far he excels, particularly in the face of nature, in the expression of a reflective and systematic mood which is both personal and general . The following lyrical illustrates this feel to perfection,

             My heart leaps up when I behold

                    A rainbow in the sky,

             So was it when my life began,

              So is it now I am a man,

              So be it when I shall grow old ,

                                 Or let me die !

               The child is father of the Man ,

                         And I could wish my days to be

                         Bound each to by natural piety

     
 Occasionally he dose touch on intimate emotions , but then he tends to be controlled , hinting at slightly than proclaiming the passions that he feels .The serious of Lucy poems are typical of their type,                     

                She dwelt among the untrodden ways

                        Beside the springs of Dove

                 A Maid whom there were none to praise,

              And very few to love.

                     A violet by a mossy stone

                         Half hidden from the eye!

                      Fair as a star ,when only one

                          Is shining in the sky .

                       She lived unknown, and few could know

                              When Lucy ceased to be ,

                         But she is in her grave , and , oh ,

                             The difference to me!

            It was Wordsworth’s passion that by laying oneself open to the power of Nature a person acquires not only knowledge but health , beauty , and charm of body , and peaceful of mind . This is most eloquently described in this Lucy poem.

              Such a lyrical gift, thoughtful rather than fanatical finds a pleasant mode of expression in the sonnet, the most difficult and expository of the lyrical forms. In his sonnets his lyrical feel burns clear and strong and as a effect they rank between the best in English poetry .Wordsworth generally use of the petrarchan form.

   · His Treatment of Nature .His dealing  with nature are his chief brilliance as a poet .

        - His dealing is perfect and first hand .As he explained, he wrote with his eye gradually fixed on the object .Still the slightest of his poems have verification of close observation,    

           

              The cattle are grazing,

              Their heads never raising ,

               There are forty feeding like one.

          The most graceful of his poems have the similar stamp, as can be seen in Resolution and Independence  . The equal image of the here,he says that, about ‘I then observed on the ridge of the Fell ’ ,

      There was a raring in the wind all night,

     The rain came heavily and fell in floods,

     But now the sun is rising calm and bright,

     The birds are singing in the distance woods,

     Over his own sweet voice the stock dove broods,

      The jay makes answer as the Magpie chatters,

      And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters.

        All things that love the sun are out of doors,

        The sky rejoices in the morning‘s birth,

         The grass is bright with rain drops on the moors

         The hare is running races in her mirth,

         And with her feet she from in the sun,

      Runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run.

   – This individual dealing with nature in all her moods produces a joy, a plenteousness of pleasure that to mainly readers is Wordsworth’s most appealing attraction. Earlier than the beauty of nature he is never worthless, he is nearly always sufficient, and that is possibly the highest achievement that he ever desired. 

    –   In his  work explain  of nature , though , he is not satisfied only to rejoice ,he tries to see more severely and to find the secret springs of this joy , he says ,

              To me the meanest flower that blows can give

               Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

              He strived to confine and symbolize in words such deep seated emotions, but, almost of requirement, from the very nature of the case, with little success. He can not solve the mystery of,

         those obstinate questionings

                  of sense and outward things,

                  falling from us , vanishings .

                    With a outstanding combination of constant thought  and of poetic imagination . In one of the most glorious poetical efforts in any language ,he put into words the ideal of the stability of life that runs through all existence ,

            Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting,

            The soul that rises with us, our life’s star

             Hath had elsewhere its setting,

                  And not in utter nakedness,

             But trailing clouds of glory do we come

                   From God, who is our home.

Wordsworth’s dealing of nature distinguishes him since many lesser poets. He looks on nature to hear ,the silent sad music of nature gives rise to some of his best known poems , such as ‘The Solitary Reaper’, ‘ Resolution and Independence’ and ‘ Michael’ . These figures have something of the might dignity, and severity of their setting. Even more striking are the poems such as ‘Tintern  Abbey’, ‘ Ode on the Intimations of Immorality’ and some parts of  ‘ The Prelude’ , which trace

the increase of his own relations with nature, during his youth , when natural beauty ,

                       Had no need of a remoter charm

            By thought supplied, nor any interest

            Unborrowed from the eye…….

           to his maturity , of which he wrote ,

      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,

     Nor harsh nor grating , through of ample power

     To chasten and subdue . and I have felt

     A presence that disturb me with the joy

    Of something far more deeply interfused ,

    Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

    And the round ocean and the mind of man,

    And the blue sky, and in the living air,

    A motion and a spirit , that impels

    All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

    And rolls through all things .   

–    Wordsworth presents  amazing difference, for he ranges since the inspiring to the ridiculous,

In the sweet shire of cardigan,

Not far from pleasant Ivor-hall,

An old Man dwells , a little man-

Tis said he once was tall.

Full five and thirty years he lived

A running huntsman merry,

And still the centre of his cheek,

Is red as a ripe cherry .

   This verse illustrates the minor range of his style, while he is hugridden with his theories of poetic diction .The first two lines are ordinary the second pair are ridiculous, and the rest of the verse is middling. He has a variety of middle style , at its best it has beauty and dignity , a heart searching simplicity , and a certain supernatural clarification of phrase that is all his own .wordsworth when the latter is in a mood that created a poem like the following ,

        “She shall be sportive as the fawn

          That wild with glee across the lawn,

           Or up the mountain springs,

           And hers shall be the breathing balm,

           And hers the silence and the calm,

            Of mute insensate things. ”

  Conclusion:

               Poem of Wordsworth   initiated the Romantic period by emphasizing feelings , impulse and pleasure more than formality and mannerism .In Wordsworth poems he generally  writes on nature because nature is surround us  in our life nature is present  very important roll to all our life and its best example is Wordsworth’s poem ‘Daffodils’ ,

                    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 golden daffodils,

                    Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

                    Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Wordsworth forever poetry should be written in the natural language of common speech, rather than in the superior and complicated dictions that were then considered poetic. His works like forever different from other. His also first principal of poetry should be pleasure, which the chief duty of poetry is to provide pleasure through a rhythmic and beautiful expression of feeling. While this mystical love of Nature is the most distinctive characteristic of Wordsworth‘s poetry. Here Wordsworth was to give the attraction of novelty to things of every day with beginning the mind’s attention since the lethargy of custom and frankly it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world.

                  To, sum up, Wordsworth owes his individual position in English literature to his, spiritual understanding of nature. No further poet made Nature his exclusive concern.