Module in ENG 306

LITERARY CRITICISM

VIOLETA B. FELISILDA
Instructor

Passed by:
Lyka M. Aseniero BSED-301 Eng
 LESSON 2: THE MIMETIC THEORY

Let’s Launch the LC Starship!

Hi there! I know you are still fresh from Literary Criticism, The Literary
Criticism Map, Literary Theory, Theory, and Making Meaning from the Text.

This time, we have a new task- The Mimetic Theory

Let’s try to analyze an excerpt from Alfred Edward Houseman’s poem, “When I Was One
and Twenty” and answer some questions about it.

When I was one-and-twenty------------------- 1

I heard a wise man say,--------------------------2
Give crowns and pounds and guineas--------3
But not your heart away.------------------------4

1. What do you think is the reason why the age of 21 is chosen by the speaker?
For me, when someone reaches 21, it is the time when the idea of being an adult
is starting to sink in. As we are stepping on the early stage of being adult, we
tend to set ourselves and the things we do as possible close to, if not to, perfection.
I think in this age, we are vulnerable from losing our self, our confidence, our
passion and the ability to manifest our dreams and goals. I think being 21 is the
stage when someone is starting to have his or her first step towards his/her life
journey’s peak. Being 21 is a mixture of excitement and anxieties that involves
making big life decisions.

2. What does crown, pounds, and guineas symbolize in line 3?

Crown: position/authority/power
Pounds: money
Guineas: money
It became a reality nowadays that having money is equals to power. The third line,
in my opinion, indicates that reality. I think the third line is also telling us that we can do
and buy anything with money, but not our self-respect, as the line goes on to the fourth.
3. Why does the speaker advise not to give the heart away in line 4? What does the heart
symbolize?
I think the common symbolization of heart is love or passion. I think the fourth
line means to not give up your dreams and the things you love to do in exchange
for materialistic things that eventually will be lost. Because the feeling of
fulfillment of having these materialistic things is fleeting, inferior to the fulfillment
of being able to do and achieve your goals that you are passionate about and has
given your heart into. Having a “heart” makes someone resilient and having a
strong will to go on in life, no matter how many things that this world could offer
that you have or the things it won’t give you.
 LITERARY ANALYSIS NO. 2: MIMESIS

Let’s check the Log!

Now, it’s your turn. Get into the mimetic aspects of the poem, “I Wandered
Lonely As A Cloud.” Be sure to provide a short background of the author and to
number the lines of the poem.

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

(William Wordsworth)

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.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

 Literary Analysis (Mimesis) – I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
By William Wordsworth

One of William Wordsworth's most renowned poems is I Wandered Lonely as a

Cloud. It's far more difficult than it is seem to be. Wordsworth was a virtuoso at weaving
different chronological views into a single poem, and his interweaving in this poem is
particularly important because time and the changes it produces were Wordsworth's
major poetic interest.

The poem has four six-line stanzas using ABABCC as its pattern. By the first stanza,
it tells the story or experience of a lone narrator wandering along a lake surrounded by a
swarm of golden daffodils fluttering and dancing in the air. He is impressed by what
appears to be the flower’s energy and their ‘laughing mood’ which expands into a type of
cosmic communion between the flowers and the movement of the water, as well as the
stars sparkling in the Milky Way. And when he's lying on a couch, empty and melancholy,
the daffodils flash onto his inward-eye, filling his heart with such delight that it dances
with the daffodils. This well-known poem contrasts the poet's loneliness with the limitless
throngs of nature.

Its lines are formed by variations in states of being. First, the poet is immersed in
loneliness, so profound that he can only compare it to a distant cloud drifting aimlessly.
Then he is propelled back into action by a swarm of flowers, which come to life in assumed
motion AND emotion. The poet's lonely gaze contrasts with the bright, pulsating vitality
of the plants and waves.

His serenity had returned by the final stanza. But the solitude he admits to while
he lies alone is "bliss", not loneliness. As he has imprinted nature's life on his imagination.
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is frequently and correctly cited as an example of
Wordsworth's renowned theory of poetry as "emotion recollected in tranquility." The
poet's surprise gaiety at seeing the daffodils would be the emotion here, and the
tranquility would be blank or pensive moods when he suddenly remembers them.
Wordsworth is noting and enjoying the truth that memories may surprise us with
pleasure in this way.