WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

William Wordsworth was born on 7th April 1770 Cockermouth Cumberland. He

had five siblings. His sister, the diarist, the poet, Dorothy Wordsworth, to whom,
he was close all his life and Dorothy also contributed to his work “ lyrical Ballades”
which he wrote in collaboration with S T Coleridge. His mother died when he was
eight years old, his father died some six years later and he was taken in charge by
his relatives, who sent him to school at Hawkhead, in the beautiful lake region.

Here, apparently, the unroofed school of nature attracted him more than classics
and he learned more eagerly from the flowers and hills and stars than from his
books. He was an early supporter of the French Revolution but later he felt that
any poetry which promoted any kind of uprise, it should be squashed down and a
shift was need to move away from this kind. This is the way romanticism causes a
direct opposition to enlightment poetry. On the death of Southey he was made
poet laureate. He died in 1850.

IMPORTANT WORKS:-
 Lyrical ballades
 Tin tern Abbey
 Sonnets, Odes and lyrics
 The Recluse
 The prelude
 The Excursion

WORDSWORTH’S PHILOSOPHY IN THE PRELUDE:-

Wordsworth wrote a
poetic prospectus to “The Recluse ”(1798), which he layed out in the structure of
the poem, The Prelude, treating the growth of the poet’s mind, was to introduced
the work.

The Home at Grasmere, which is the first book of the Recluse, The Excursion
(1814) his second book and the third was never completed. Prelude has 14 books.
It is an epic because of its length. It is called autobiographical poem. It is an
idealized version of his spiritual growth in which he escapes into the higher reality
of his imagination. It emphasized particularly his surrender of his charm of logic to
the claims of the emotion which became a cardinal principle of all later romantic
poets. Wordsworth called it “The poem to Coleridge” and reveals to Dorothy in
letters “The poem on the growth of my own mind “. The title “Prelude” is given to
it by his wife Mary. Milton’s Paradise Lost has a huge influence on this work.

He conceived of nature as living personality and believed that there is a divine

spirit pervading all the objects of nature and this belief in the divine spirit
pervading all the objects of nature may be termed as mystical pantheism.

Wordsworth used the word nature to symbolize the inexplicable, unknown

oversoul which human heart yearn to know.

According to his philosophy of pantheism, God is present in all natural things

Wordsworth finds the living place of this “ presence” in all things around him in
setting sun, ocean, air, blue sky, and even in the minds and hearts of mankind.

According to him, nature gives joys to human heart, excersing a healing influence
on sorrow- stricken heart. He believes that in man and nature there is a “spiritual
intercourse ”.

Wordsworth’s this poem “The prelude” recalls experience of seed like origins for
his growth of imagination. The first, is an autumn scene of taking woodcock from
other people traps and then feeling that the hill pursued him to punish him.

The second, is a spring time experience of robbing bird’s nests and then feeling
that the wind accused him of being a violator.

The third episode is a summer one of borrowing a boat without permission,

rowing out onto a lake alone and then feeling that the mountains rose in
condemnation.

The final scene is one of winter ice- skating at night on frozen lakes; he had stayed
out late then he ought, and in guilty state alone, feeling nature alive with motion.
He explains that a force (measured motion like living thing, strode after ( him)).
Such memorise are exercised that raise the poet’s imaginative energies to feel
regeneration and renewed confidence in himself.

There are three things in the prelude that impress even in the casual reader; first,
Wordsworth loves to be alone but he is never lonely with nature. Second, like
every other child who spends much time alone in the woods and fields, he feels
the presence of some living spirit, real through unseen and companiable through
silent; third, his impressions are exactly like our own and delightfully familiar.
There are also other things which we can see in his worth.

A dislike of urban life and embrace of natural world (as a reaction to the effects of
the Industrial Revolution).

A love of supernatural.

Use of ordinary everyday language.

He is the poet of nature and he is the worshiper of the nature. He spiritualized

nature and regarded her a great moral teacher, as the best mother and guardian
of man, he believed between nature and man there is mutual consciousness or
spiritual communion. According to him human beings who grow up in the lap of
nature are perfect in every respect.

Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows

Like a harmony in music; there is a dark

Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles

Discordant elements, makes them cling

Together in one society;

These lines show his philosophy and he says that our physical body is distined to
die but our soul is immortal. Just as the melody of music is composed by
harmonizing different notes so, also our immortal souls is formed by harmonizing
different and opposing elements.
He says that nature works in mysterious way and it is beyond our intelligence to
understand the art or workmanship with which nature combines various
discordant or opposing elements into a harmonious whole.

Wordsworth in his various stages of life, has undergone experiences of worries,

fear, vesation and weariness. But the most wonderful thing is that all these
discordant elements were fused into a harmonious combination to faster the
growth of his soul and thus played a very useful part to enable him to attain a
calm and peaceful existence. He says that nature’s ministry is sometimes mild and
gentle and at some other times it causes slit and mild fear. He is very thankful to
nature.

Wordsworth is sensitive as a barometer to every subtle change in the world about

him. In this worth the prelude, he compares himself to an alien harp, which
answers with harmony to every touch of the wind. He penetrates to the heart of
things and always finds some exquisite meaning that is not written on the surface.
In his childhoods Wordsworth regarded natural objects, the streams, the hills, the
flowers, even in the winds, as his companions; and with his mature belief that all
nature is the reflection of the living God.

REFERANCE:-
 www.enotes.com
 www.slideshare.com
 Poetryfoundation.com
 History of English literature by William J.Long