For Friday: English Romantic Poetry, William
Wordsworth
Read
these 8 poems on pages 23-57 :
• “We Are Seven”
• “Strange fits of passion”
• “Lucy Gray”
• “My heart leaps up”
• “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”
• “In London, 1802”
• “The world is too much with us”
• “Mutability”
Answer 2 of the 4 questions below:
1. How does Wordsworth seem to be interested in the same ideas of
childhood, innocence, and adult experience that Blake used in his poems? Why might Wordsworth defend the idea of “innocence”
or a child-like perspective on the world?
What do children see (or those who aren’t cynical, like Martin) that
many adults forget to look at?
2. In the poem, “Composed upon Westminster Bridge,” Wordsworth says
that London “like a garment, wear[s] the beauty of the morning.” Discuss how Wordsworth uses metaphors to
transform the vision of sunrise in London; what does he want us to see and
experience in a normal, every-day view of the city? How do the metaphors make London seem more
than just a city full of dirty streets and houses?
3. One of the most famous lines of poetry comes from Wordsworth’s short
poem, “My heart leaps up,” which is “The Child is father of the Man.” What do you think this phrase means? How can a child (which comes second) be the
father to the man (which comes first)?
How might this metaphor help us read many of the poems in this
selection, especially “We Are Seven” and “The world is too much with us”?
4. Wordsworth, like many of the English Romantic poets, was a great
lover of nature and took walks the way many people attend church. How does he describe the power or importance
of nature in these poems? What does
nature show us, or reveal to us, about the true realities of human existence? In other words, what can we find there that
we don’t see anywhere else?
Cera Miller
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1.
- Both Wordsworth and Blake see children as full of wonder; they see the world as being big, new, and full of exciting things. Adults are very jaded. They have experience to tell them that the world is not a friendly place. Because adults are so cynical about the world, they close themselves off from it. Children however, they want to feel and see everything the world has to offer, and are much more open to it. That’s why Wordsworth would defend “innocence” since it is full of wonder and hope. As with the little girl in “We Are Seven”, she says that she and her siblings number seven, even though two of her siblings are dead, she still counts them as her siblings and thinks that the man questioning her is odd when he says that there are only five of them; yes there are physically five children, but she carries the other two in spirit and still talks and plays with them. The adult doesn’t see past the cold logic, but the girl sees with her heart.
Question 3.
- I think that “The Child is father of the Man” means that before you are an adult, you are a child. As a child, you see the world differently and as you grow up, you lose the ability to see what is good and wonderful in this world. "We Are Seven" showed a little girl that saw herself as part of seven siblings, rather than part of five living siblings. "The world is too much for us" shows that we lose our child-like wonder to fast, letting it slip from our fingers.
Excellent points as always; I like the idea that the adult has "cold logic," which cannot admit sentiment or imagination. He sees the girl as being stupid and unreasonable. She, for her part, cannot understand why she wouldn't count her two dead siblings--they're still "here," after all. The natural world is alive for her, and her siblings, buried in the earth, are still part of the living world. We're taught to see things as alive/dead, useful/not useful, sensible/foolish, but the girl questions all of this. What if your heart tells you a different story than your eyes? Which is right?
DeleteSrijita Ghosh
ReplyDelete1. Wordsworth's "We are Seven" & "My heart leaps up" and Blake's "The chimney sweeper" & "The Tyger" have a lot of things in common in regard to ideas of childhood, innocence and the effect of the 'world' on transforming children into adults. This gives us the message that Wordsworth was indeed interested in the ideas of Blake and he agreed to them. In "We are Seven" and " The Chimney Sweeper" we see that the children, who play the main roles in the poems are very optimistic and full of hope. Their simple minds do not understand all the complications of the world and they insist to believe what makes them happy. And, to think of it, is'nt this actually what we all should try to do? I think yes. These child like perspectives of the world may seem unrealistic, however they are much better than those perspectives which lead one to be pessimist and miserable. For example, a child on seeing a rainbow, will simply gaze and admire the beauty of the rainbow unlike adults who will think about the dark clouds and the rain that took place before the rainbow appeared. Children tend to see the world in a very simple manner,and this, we adults forget to do. Wordsworth and Blake both are trying to convey the message that though the world is tough and in order to survive we must become smart, but still we should not lose our innocence and simplicity, because in that way we tend to lose out on a lot of what is actually called 'life'.
3. The author in this poem - "My heart leaps up" - clearly mentions his love for nature, stating that he had loved it since he was a child and does even now when he has become a man. He further states that he wishes to remain obssessed and in love with nature even when he ages and grows old, and if not so, he would rather die. This is because he believes that a day spent without admiring nature's beauty is not a day worth living. The famous line 'The Child is father of the Man' implies that children are superior to men because their connection with nature is much more than that of adults and thus their simple minds actually understand the world in a different and better way. The author believes that children are better admirers of nature and they can truly realise the worth and beauty of nature while in general adults cannot do the same because they have lost innocence and honesty.
This metaphor indeed helps us to read and decipher the true meaning of other poems. For example, while reading 'We are Seven'I got the feeling that the little girl was talking more sense than the man. Because though the man speaks realistic but the thought behind the child's words are much more deep. The child is father of the man- fits in perfectly here, because the little girl seems to be more matured than the man. She believes that thought not physically, but in spirit her siblings are with her, but the man, who is an adult having faced the 'world' has lost all forms of innocence and is unable to realise this feeling.
Excellent responses and great detail as always. As you suggest, the child is much wiser than the man, since she still feels her dead siblings are present all around her. She can visit them and speak to them, so why not count them as "seven"? The man, as a sensible adult, sees this as foolish since dead people have no further use to the living. He tries to argue with her but his logic is simply illogical to her. Wordsworth wants us to protect the "child" in all of us, who isn't a child but a being sensitive to the power of the natural world, and compassionate to his/her fellow man. In England at this time, there really was no conception of childhood, and the Industrial Revolution was pushing aside traditional values in favor of money. Wordsworth wanted to satirize this philosophy much as Blake did in his poetry.
DeleteDarryn York
ReplyDeleteQuestion 4
It's obvious that the author loves nature and the outdoors. In the poem "The world is too much with us; late too soon" he seemed a little ticked off. He was trying to get the message across that too many people take nature for granted and don't get the full joy of it. "The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; the winds that will be hwoling for hours" these are things that you will only get from nature.
Question 3
"The Child is father of the Man" I think this means that you are who your father raised you to be. As a child kids pick up different things from their fathers and when they are fathers themselves they have a lot of the same characteristics in behavior.
Good responses here. Maybe in Question 3, the idea that "the child is the father of the man" is more of a metaphor than a literal statement. Instead of just one individual's father, he might refer to the idea of the "child" being wiser, in many ways, than the "man," the person who becomes educated, jaded, and cynical about the beauty and purpose of life. The man who simply lives to make money and get on with life. He forgets who he was, a child who was receptive to the world and saw the power of a rainbow.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAmira Jacobson
ReplyDelete(1) Wordsworth and Blake can both agree that children see the brighter side of things and are always looking for new and exciting opportunities to come their way but as they grow up that sense of wonder and awe slowly fade away, along with their innocence. Wordsworth might be trying to up hold a childlike perspective of the world so that he can try to hold on to his memories of his own childhood. Children see wonder in everything and expect nothing but the best, unfortunately, adults who have experience out in the real world, see the world as a cruel and unforgiving place.
(2) He shows us that all nature is beautiful and it seems that in most of his poems seem to represent him saying that nature speaks to him and his response for speaking for nature. It also seems that he uses nature to represent children’s “innocence”. Take a flower for example; flowers are small, defenseless plants with no worries in the world, like many of the children in his poems.
Yes, for Wordsworth Nature is a being, something that speaks through "Nature's Priest," which is children. Children don't make big distinctions between people and animals, life and death, etc. They are open to dualities in life, in a way that adults are increasingly closed off to. So for Wordsworth, it is in Nature that we find our way back to our original self, the Child who had an undivided nature with Nature.
Delete1.
ReplyDeleteBoth Blake and Wordsworth have the same idea when it comes to children. They both view them as very innocent, exciting, and full of love laughter and life. In contrast their take on adults contrasts drastically. These authors view adult as very narrow minded, not only about themselves and ideas but they contain a narrow minded outlook on the world as a whole. Children however are very curious and open to learning new things about the world. For example, the girl in “We Are Seven”, states that she is one out of her seven siblings total. However, two of her siblings are no longer alive, and have died. This being said she is almost in denial about these deaths, because she continues to play and sing to them in their grave. Not upset by this misfortune, the girls accepts the fact that they are gone and in a better place and continues to live her happy joyful life. Unaffected day after day, she continues to refer to all seven of her siblings even though there’s five siblings physically on earth. The older man cannot accept the fact that the girls still believes to be one of seven siblings even after two deaths, reaffirming the view that children are optimistic, innocent, a full of much more hope than that of adults.
3.
In my opinion I believe that “The Child is father of the Man” means that everyone starts out as a child, it’s the way of life. Everyone is born, transformed into a toddler taking their first steps, becoming a child in elementary school, then to a teenager who just got their license, a young adult in college, eventually to becoming a middle-aged starting a family. This being said is the circle of life and as a child you see the world in an innocent unknowing curious way, in contrast to when you start to grow up. As you start to grow up, you are acquainted with more and more different situations shaping you into the mature man you want to be, losing all the innocence and optimism you once had as a child. Therefore implying an open child in a way is wiser than a narrow minded stubborn man.
Sammie Smith
Great responses: Wordsworth does see life as a circle rather than a straight progression, and because of that, he feels that we can occupy different points on the circle simultaneously--or that we can go back and forth. We shouldn't leave behind our past as we go forward, since the end is the beginning. If the "child is the father of the man," it also suggests that we die as children--so why not cultivate that "youth" throughout one's life?
DeleteAshley Rinner
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1
In "We Are Seven" I notice the innocence of children, but also how differently they think from adults. We tend to forget people and forget that even though they are gone, it's not as if they never existed. They once were, and still are alive in memories. He tries to change her mind, but she sticks to it. Adults cave sometimes under pressure from others to conform to ideas so that we can belong, while children are stubborn, and stick to their ideas, no matter how ridiculous. It's a trait we lose as we grow up, but one we can learn from. We can believe what we wish to, and no one can really force us to change unless we let them.
Question 3
In "My Heart Leaps Up" It seems like child being father of the man means something along the lines of who we are as a child frames what we are like as an adult. If you were a simple child, you tend to appreciate the simple things. He found joy in rainbows, or possibly good things that happen are rainbows and it's a metaphor, and he hopes to still find that joy when he grows old. He says, in so many words, he would rather die than lose that appreciation and gladness found in rainbows. He wants it be be something he doesn't have to think about, something he just keeps within him.
It helps us see in the other poems, that children have much simpler mindsets, which is shown as a positive thing. They don't take things for granted. In "We Are Seven" she reminisces about the things they all did together and how she still does things "with" them, like sing songs to them. Children are so much more appreciative of what they have and use their time for the best and simplest things.
Great responses; Wordsworth is clearly an adult, and sees things through an adult's eyes. But his poems are a way to remember that lost heritage of childhood, and to celebrate innocence in small ways. He truly feels that death is only terrifying if we meet it without any joy in our hearts.
Delete2) Wordsworth uses the metaphor of the dress, as a beautiful woman putting on her dress to go out, and everything that you haven't noticed about her you now notice just because she's changed her clothes. He wants us to see the beauty of the city as we've never seen before, including the ships, towers, and domes
ReplyDelete4) In each of his poems he describes something beautiful about nature. Several times he uses nature to describe the beauty of women, and vice versa. In nature we see the beauty of everything that God created, and that it stays beautiful even without our help, yet we as humans do so much to try to stay beautiful
Good responses; yes, he views a city as a woman (or even a human being) to suggest that a city is made up of people. It "breathes" with us, and is shaped by us. So instead of looking at it as a machine, or a collection of buildings, why not treat it as a thing of Nature, something human that protects people rather than enslaves them?
DeleteDax Walker
ReplyDelete1.) I think that Blake and Wordsworth cherish the innocence of a child as you can tell from their poems. A child's innocence is incredible I can remember as a child all I ever wanted to do was come home from school an play with my siblings and my dogs and no matter how bad a day I would have once I got out of school I had no worries at all because I had my siblings and dogs waiting for me, it was a really simple thing but it cheered me up and made me happy no matter how I was feeling. No that I'm older I have so many worries and I hardly ever take time to enjoy the little things like I used to when I was a child. And I think that's kind of how the child in "We Are Seven" is also, no matter how many times the man tells her that her siblings are gone she doesn't see it that way she sees all the good. Probably all the good times and memories they made and those simple thoughts will always stick with her and always make her happy.
3.) I think this phrase is very cool, and I think it makes a lot of sense without making any sense really. I think he is trying to say that the child makes the man. That a child with a good upbringing will be a good man. He could also be saying that perhaps the child is father to the man because he knows better than the man because if you think about it a child is innocent that don't lust after money and power like most grown men do they just live to be happy and free maybe that's what he is trying to say. I think understanding this kind of gives different perspective on the previous stories read.
Great responses; as you suggest, she simply can't see the world through the eyes of an adult, since she is not "experienced" in the sharp distinction of life and death. But much worse is the man's inability or obstinate refusal to see life through her eyes. He is closed off from her experience, which is the way he once saw the world. It means he's lost something vital to his humanity. The poem is a way for Wordsworth to lure people back to this original, innocent perspective.
DeleteJonathon Ward
ReplyDeleteQuestion 3
"The child is the father of the man." I guess I see this quote different than most. I feel that he is talking how your childhood shapes the man that you will become. I think we should all keep that sense of wonder that a child has, and reading some of his other poems with a child like mindset. It really changes the point of view of some of his poems. In "We are Seven" the man wants the child to understand that her brother and sister are dead, and no longer count. The child knows that they are dead, but refuses to say that they are gone. Her dead siblings are still apart of her family, and count towards her seven.
Question
Great responses, even if you see it different than most! :) But I agree, your childhood does shape who you grow into, as recent studies have shown: abused children have a hard time becoming functioning, trusting adults. For Wordsworth, it's a little different, but the idea is that if you lose that childhood perspective and ability to feel deeply (or to remember that you once felt simple things deeply) you lose an important part of yourself. You forget the Child's--and God's--instruction.
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