English Literature

Theory of poetry �Poetry is the thought and the words in which emotion spontaneously embodies itself.� Thoughts on Poetry and its Variations by Mill. Wordsworth took the hint and produced the theory of poetry which is contained in Preface to Lyrical Ballads wherein, at least two places; he points out: �All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling,� and �It

SHUAIB ASGHAR DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE HAROONABAD, PAKISTAN The period from 1798 to 1824 is termed as �The Romantic Age� of English Literature. In this period the writing was mostly poetry. A revolution was taking place in poetic language and its themes. Previously the head controlled the heart, now the heart controlled the head; for the previous poets feelings and imagination were dangerous, but for the Romantics reason and the intellect were dangerous. The romantic period is the most fruitful period in the history of English literature. The revolt against the classical school which had been started by writers like Chatterton, Collins, Gray, Burne, Cowper etc. reached its climax during this period and some of the greatest and most popular English poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats belong to this period. To have knowledge of the trends and characteristics of this age we are to discuss some of its prominent and representative figures. T...

SHUAIB ASGHAR DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE HAROONABAD, PAKISTAN The Romantic period is the most fruitful period in the history of English literature. The revolt against the Classical school which had been started writers like Chatterton, Collins, Gray, Burne, Cowper etc. reached its climax during this period and some of the greatest and most popular English poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats belong to this period. This period starts from 1798 with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, and the famous �Preface to Lyrical Ballads� which Wordsworth wrote as a manifesto of the new form of poetry which he and Coleridge introduced in opposition to the poetry of the Classical school. Wordsworth chose the language of the common people as the vehicle of his poetry, because it is the most sincere expression of the deepest and rarest passions and feelings. This was the first point of attack on the artificial and formal style ...

SHUAIB ASGHAR DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE HAROONABAD, PAKISTAN Wordsworth�s passion for nature is well-known. As De Quincey puts it, �Wordsworth had his passion for nature fixed in his blood. It was a necessity of his being, like that of a mulberry leaf to the silk-worm, and through his commerce with nature did he live and breathe.� Wordsworth had a complete philosophy of nature. Following major points in his creed of nature may be noted: Nature, A Moral Teacher Wordsworth emphasized the moral influence of nature. A careful reading of �The Prelude� shows that he received the best part of his education from nature. He regarded her as a great moral teacher, as the best mother, guardian and nurse of man, as an elevating influence. Like the senior Duke in �As You Like it� , he too found                    Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks     ...

SHUAIB ASGHAR DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE HAROONABAD, PAKISTAN �The Prelude�, a kind of �semi-autobiography� is only a record of the meaningful experiences of Wordsworth�s life. He tells the story of his inner life from earliest childhood up to 1798, the year of the �Lyrical Ballads�. It is not a self-portrait. In it, Wordsworth makes no attempt to bring his personality before the reader. It actually offers us a record of his mental and spiritual growth which starts from his very infant days. As it is concerned with the development of the poet�s sensibilities, only those aspects and events of his life which affected them are included. He selects only those of his actions and experiences which are significant for the evolution of his soul. It is the Nature inspired life which he lived through his childhood and youth that he tries to recapture and record. The introduction to �The Prelude� ends with a brief account of the paradisiacal state of childhood described ...

Drawing upon the personal experiences of his own life and the Platonic theory of anamnesis , Wordsworth in his ode "On Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" presents such a typical theme, which can easily be generalized as a Romantic cry over the loss of innocence, and of the splendour that goes with the vision of innocence. Wordsworth�s originality lies in the poetic transformation of the theme, and the poetic treatment also gives human touch to a deep philosophical problem. While discussing the process of the birth of Particular (human) Soul from the Universal Soul, Plato said that the human soul undergoes a change, and that there occurs the forgetting (anamnesis) of the Supreme Beauty and Goodness and Truth of the Universal Idea, which it descends from. Wordsworth�s approach to the problem is, however, different. He begins in a tone of profound regret at the loss of visionary splendour, which seemed, in retrospect, to have invested so many scen...

--> Generally speaking, Wordsworth�s "Tintern Abbey" has been seen in relation to many an aspect of his poetic career. First of all, it is said to be a historical record of the different stages of the growth of his poetic imagination, and that is why some view it as a miniature epic that anticipates his epical endeavour with "The Prelude", in both thematic and artistic designs. Tintern Abbey contains and expounds many of Wordsworth�s poetic and philosophical beliefs, which were intended to be the themes of his other poems like, �Recluse�, �The Excursion� and, of course, �The Prelude�. Again the poem is unusual in examining the composition of the landscape, like his contemporary artist of his country Constable, rather than expressing the spirit of the landscape�its topography, its arrangement of vegetation, its placement of the works of men and its colours and light and shade have been scrupulously described. These scenes ultimately become the �objective cor...