The poem Incidents upon Salisbury Plain (otherwise known as Guilt and Sorrow) is a prime example of Wordsworth’s political visions of revolution for social equality, being weaved into his poetry. In the poem, Wordsworth writes of a society wrought with war and the misery experienced by a vagrant woman and wandering soldier. The poem captures a sense of despair, loneliness and disillusionment - no doubt a poetic representation of how it felt to live in a time of civil unrest. It could be said that the wanderer is comparable to the lower class, displaced without care, constantly searching for a sense of belonging. Wordsworth effectively exposes the isolation and despondency of the working class in the sense of dejection portrayed by the protagonists. …show more content…
Shelley himself is mostly praised, in a modern day context, for his poetic lyricism. However, when he was alive, most publishers refused to publish his work, fearing that they would themselves be accused of blasphemy or sedition. Though he came from an upper class background - his father was the Whig Member of Parliament for Horsham - Shelley was always preoccupied by visions of “a virtuous enthusiasm for those doctrines of liberty and justice” for mankind. Shelley wrote a number of poems that were intended to evoke thoughts of revolution. However, his desire for revolution was not one based on violence; in fact he believed that “faith and hope in something good” is something that “neither violence nor misrepresentation nor prejudice can ever totally …show more content…
He argues that the poet is a benefactor to humanity and should therefore support social advancement as opposed to repression. Literature, he says, contributes indirectly to moral improvement, and moreover that poetry “awakens and enlarges the mind itself by rendering it the receptacle of a thousand unapprehended combinations of thought.” Shelley adds that the social betterment of man is reliant upon the exercising of the “organ of the moral nature of man”13, otherwise referred to as imagination. In addition to this, Shelley contends that literature acts in response to the social climate; it thrives in periods of prosperity and political reform which endorse creativity. There is clearly a recognised correlation between poetry and politics, but it seems ambiguous as to whether revolutionary literature is actually a precursor of revolution or not. Furthermore, the lines are blurred between that of a rebellious social leader, and a mere social outcast. J. Drummond Bone argues, that “social exile is virtually a precondition of rebelliousness or rebellious social criticism”14
Through an abundance of human thoughts and interactions, Woolf has created a meticulous juxtaposition of Septimus against society or human nature in order to emphasize the self-absorption and desire for conformity of London society. Londoners’ understanding of the War and its fatalities is often specifically and immediately related back to themselves, used for entertainment or to ease their own fears of death. Their “treatment” of war-related illness is unfailingly for the benefit of England’s successful, if gilded, image at large. Woolf has, therefore, illustrated England’s proud display of personal advantage for all who conform to Sir William’s “sense of proportion” by exposing the hardships that befall those who do not.
Ben Jonson’s poem, “To Penshurst”, reflects a genre of poetry known as country house poetry. This poetry was written primarily in order to please the owner of the country house. Jonson’s poem was written specifically to praise the Kent estate of Sir Robert Sidney. What makes Jonson’s country house poem different from the other poems of this time period is the content that Jonson wrote about. Johson’s “To Penshurst” appeals to all classes of people whether it be a peasant or a king due to its sheer acceptance and simplicity in nature. This poem could almost be considered a literal gift to Penshurst, much like it is a gift to all social classes. In this poem, Jonson writes in the hopes of praising the Sidney’s estate, Penshurst. The estate resides in the town of Kent, and the scenery is described as being humble much like the manor. What makes this poem intriguing is how it deviates from the country house poetry of the time. During this time in history, the likelihood of peasants intimately interacting with royalty was very unlikely. What Penshurst offers through this work is lower and middle class equality among all classes. Outside of Penshurst, though, the same concept does not apply. This is because Penshurst, in a sense, could be considered a type of utopia. This is primarily because of the welcoming interaction between peasant and royal life. As mentioned earlier, all classes are not equal outside Penshurst. Penshurst is almost like a paradise for those looking for an escape from the harsh social standards of the society of the time. Though, unlike Thomas More’s “Utopia”, there are no negative connotations that the reader can decip...
Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous sonnet “Ozymandias” creates a very clear image in my mind of what type of man pharaoh Ozymandias was. I believe that pharaoh Ozymandias was an extremely unique and powerful leader, looking at lines 4-5 the speaker mentions the disintegrated statues facial expressions which the speaker noticed first even though the statue was shattered. The speaker could clearly see “..frown, and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command” which in my opinion suggests that the king looked down on other people, thought that he was better by curling up his lip. His “frown” indicates that he intimidated people to ensure that everybody was aware of the great king and his power. “Cold command” in line 5 suggests that Ozymandias was everything but a warm loving Pharaoh and he would demand anything he wanted no matter how cruel or vicious it was. In line 10 carved on the pedestal “My name is Ozymandias, King of kings”, proves to us how egotistical and arrogant pharaoh Ozymandias was. His “works” quoted in plural form demonstrates that the pharaoh had more than enough and...
The poem Ozymandias tells of a king who was very powerful, people feared him. He created statues of himself for people to admire. Now all that remains of his power are remains. What remains of him are memories that are now long forgotten and that the wind carries away. Sand that stretches for miles and miles until it
"Ozymandias" written by Percy Shelley, represents the psychological forces of the id as well as the superego, as a charceter in a poem, and as a poetic work. In the poem we encounter a traveler. He brings a message from the desert. There is a statue that exists alone among the rocks and sand. Stamped on the pedestal of that statue are these words, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Despite his position, Wordsworth can hear the “soft island murmur” of the mountain springs. As “five long winters” suggests, Wordsworth is cold and dreary—London, we must remember, is a bitter place. He longs for the islands: the sand, sun, and warm waters that those murmurs suggest. The coldness of winter could be brought about by Rebecca’s distance from her brother; they had been, at the time of the poem’s writing, separate for five long years. But he can hear reconciliation coming just at the edge of hearing: he can spot the horizon of friendship. But no sooner does friendship appear in the poem than it is thwarted by these lines:
This poem describes a story told you by a passing traveler of a ruined statue of a king, Ozymandias, seemingly in a desolate desert. On the statue in is inscribed, “‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’/Nothing beside remain” (“Ozymandias” 10-12). Upon examination of the surrounding land, we realize that the once vast kingdom around the statue has been taken back by the desert, leaving the ironic message on the statue. This poem shows Shelley’s ideas of how all is temporary, especially mankind and our achievements. Showing romantic values, Shelley believed nature is much greater than man and no matter how big your kingdom, mather nature will always take back what was always
It is nature that destroys humankind when the sun disappears and the volcano erupts in “Darkness” and in “Ozymandias,” it is the sand and wind that causes the statue to fall. In Byron’s poem, humans lose the fight for their lives, and in Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias’s statue is powerless because it is lifeless, emphasizing the importance of the themes of life and death to the shared topic of destruction. Although they explore destruction using different language, they share the use of ideas about the destruction of civilization, and the fall of humankind because of nature, life and
‘It is often suggested that the source for many of William Wordsworth’s poems lies in the pages of Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal. Quite frequently, Dorothy describes an incident in her journal, and William writes a poem about the same incident, often around two years later.’ It is a common observation that whilst Dorothy is a recorder – ‘her face was excessively brown’ – William is a transformer – ‘Her skin was of Egyptian brown’ . The intertextuality between The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals and ‘I wandered lonely as a Cloud’ allows both Dorothy and William to write about the same event, being equally as descriptive, but in very differing ways. Dorothy writes in a realist ‘log-book’ like style, whereas William writes in a romantic ballad style. This can be very misleading, as it gives William’s work more emotional attachment even though his work is drawn upon Dorothy’s diary, which in its turn is very detached, including little personal revelation. When read in conjunction with William’s poetry, Dorothy’s journal seems to be a set of notes written especially for him by her. In fact, from the very beginning of the journals Dorothy has made it quite clear that she was writing them for William’s ‘pleasure’ . This ties in with many of the diary entries in which she has described taking care of William in a physical sense. In a way this depicts the manner in which William uses his sister’s journal to acquire the subject of his poetry, which makes it seem as though Dorothy is his inspiration.
In his poem “Ozymandias,” Percy Bysshe Shelley depicts an incongruous scene in which a colossal stone relic lays in ruins among a vast, empty landscape. Though on the surface, the piece has a simple meaning, the ironies and tensions hidden in the lyrics and meter are often overlooked (Martin 65). In his peculiar sonnet, Shelley uses the image of an ancient Egyptian sculpture to make a statement about the relationship between an artist, their subject, and the effects of time on both.
Primarily in Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey the mortality of creativeness and imagination is expressed by Wordsworth. This is a poem about the beauty of an old cathedral called Tintern Abbey. He hasn’t been there in five years and he brought his sister along. Even though imagination isn’t immortal, there is a way to reclaim it, “That time is past, / and all its aching joys are ...
The poem in brief summary allows us to experience an outsider’s view of the death of Lucy Gray and her parents’ grief. The character narrating the poem tells the story of Lucy, a girl who was sent by her father with a lantern to light the way home, for her mother in town. On her way to town a snow storm hits and Lucy is never found neither dead nor alive. The fact that a stranger is narrating the story as opposed to one of the parents telling the story, allows the reader to witness the tragedy of Lucy Gray without feeling too tangled up in the parents’ grief. By having an outsider who is in no way involved in the tragedy tell the story, the writer of the poem William Wordsworth, gives the reader an objective point of view on the tragedy as well as room to relate the reader’s own experience to the poem without feeling uncomfortable. Had the poem lacked objectivity the reader would have surely felt uncomfortable and stifled by emotions of the parents’ or a parent telling the story of their daughter’s death. As well as that, the objectiveness of the stranger narrating gives the reader almost a communal experience. It is as if the reader was in a small town one day, and a local just happened to...
In William Wordsworth’s poem, Resolution and Independence, Wordsworth describes the moods of the poem through the description of nature. The first appearance of the speaker, himself, is shown in (line 15); where he classifies himself as a traveler who has been seduced, as he states, “The pleasant season did my heart employ” (line 19). We see the traveler as a bright and joyful person as Wordsworth’s characteristics of nature as a means of description continues throughout the poem. As the poem progresses, the speaker’s attitude changes in (line 26), where he tells us that his mood is lowered. It is here that the speaker presents himself as “a happy child of earth” in (line 31); as once again Wordsworth...
The poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is about the poet’s mental journey in nature where he remembers the daffodils that give him joy when he is lonely and bored. The poet is overwhelmed by nature’s beauty where he thought of it while lying alone on his couch. The poem shows the relationship between nature and the poet, and how nature’s motion and beauty influences the poet’s feelings and behaviors for the good. Moreover, the process that the speaker goes through is recollected that shows that he isolated from society, and is mentally in nature while he is physically lying on his couch. Therefore, William Wordsworth uses figurative language and syntax and form throughout the poem to express to the readers the peace and beauty of nature, and to symbolize the adventures that occurred in his mental journey.
His poem recognizes the ordinary and turns it into a spectacular recollection, whose ordinary characteristics are his principal models for Nature. As Geoffrey H. Hartman notes in his “Wordsworth’s poetry 1787-1814”, “Anything in nature stirs [Wordsworth] and renews in turn his sense of nature” (Hartman 29). “The Poetry of William Wordsworth” recalls a quote from the Prelude to Wordsworth’s 1802 edition of Lyrical ballads where they said “[he] believed his fellow poets should "choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate or describe them.in a selection of language really used by men” (Poetry). In the shallowest sense, Wordsworth is using his view of the Tintern Abbey as a platform or recollection, however, this ordinary act of recollection stirs within him a deeper understanding.