Skip to main content

For Wednesday: Wordsworth's Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey (pp.25-29)



NOTE: This is a longer poem, but it's really like a verse-letter to his sister, Dorothy, who was a writer herself (famous for her journals). Keep all the poems we've already read in mind, especially "My heart leaps up" and "We Are Seven," since this poem develops them in a more autobiographical way. Below, I've broken up the poem into several parts to help you follow it easier:

PART I: (First Look at a Beloved Place from Childhood)

"Five years have past; give summers, with the length" TO "The Hermit Sits alone"

PART II: (The Importance of Childhood Memories)

"Those beauteous forms" TO "How often has my spirit turned to thee!"

PART III:(Why It's Not the Same Anymore)
"And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought" TO "Unborrowed from the eye"

PART IV: (What It Means to Me Now)

"That time is past" TO "Of all my moral being"

PART V: (What It Can Do For You)

"Nor perchance," TO "Is full of blessings"

PART IV: (Parting Thoughts)

"Therefore let the moon" TO "More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!" 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answer TWO of the questions below for Wednesday's class:

Q1: One of the most recurring words in the first part of the poem is "again." Why might this be an important sentiment for this poem? Why is there no past and present for Wordsworth, but instead an "again" and an "once more"? 

Q2: In Part 2-3, Wordsworth claims that the most powerful forces in a person are due to "unremembered pleasure," "unremembered acts," and "half-extinguished thoughts." Why are many of the most sublime and powerful memories ones that we have largely forgotten and are alive only in our subconscious? How does he explain this?

Q3: What is the difference between how he understood Nature as a child and how he appreciates it today? Though he can never see or experience Nature as a child again, why does he admit "other gifts/Have followed; for such loss, I believe,/Abundant recompense." What has he gained for his loss?

Q4: At the top of page 28, he writes that he loves everything "From this green earth; of all the mighty world/Of eye, and ear--both what they half create,/And what perceive." Why does he feel Nature is both seen and imagined? How do we "half create" the external world? 

Q5: At the end of the poem, he tells his sister that "these wild ecstasies shall be matured/into a sober pleasure...a mansion for all lovely forms,/Thy memory be as a dwelling place for all sweet sounds and harmonies." What does this say about the power of memory in the face of age and experience? Why do we all need to create a "mansion for all lovely forms" in our minds? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For Monday: Short Lecture on Colonialism and Mansfield

As a way to introduce you to some of the themes we'll be exploring with our last two books, I've recorded a short lecture (about 18 min.) that I would have discussed with you in class if we were still meeting. I know 18 minutes is a lot to watch in a single stretch, so feel free to start and stop, or simply leave it playing in the background. However, I think it will help you see and understand some of the larger ideas going on behind the scenes in Mansfield's stories.  AFTER you watch the video, answer the following question as a COMMENT below: "Since many women in the early 19th century tried to hide their identity as a woman by adopting a male name, or writing more 'male' stories, how do you think colonial writers did the same? That is, how did they hide their colonial identity in writing to sound more 'English'? What might they have had to hide, or ignore, or not reveal as a writer? (This will count toward your participation grade, since I can...
40 comments
Read more

Short Lecture on Being "Weak" in Mansfield's Stories

Before we race to the end of Mansfield's stories, I wanted to discuss some of the major themes we've encountered in several of them, particularly "Daughters of the Late Colonel," "The Life of Ma Parker," "Mr. and Mrs. Dove," and "Marriage a la Mode." Watch the video to hear some of my thoughts on these stories, most of which are drawn from your responses to the reading questions. It's a little longer than the last one, but still only about 25 minutes (sorry)!  After you finish, answer the following question as a COMMENT on the blog.  Q: Talking about emotions, love, death, or otherwise being "weak" was very taboo in British society at this time. What subjects or relationships do you feel are taboo in our own society? And I don't just mean awkward subjects (abortion, politics, etc.), but what emotions or experiences would you have trouble discussing with your parents, your siblings, your friends, and even your sig...
32 comments
Read more

For Friday: Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"

“Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections in Early Childhood” (pp.51-57): read the entire poem, but the questions will only focus on Stanzas 1-7 NOTE: This is a longer poem, though it’s broken up into short stanza chapters.  Read it slowly, and focus on each stanza as an individual poem.  Then consider how each one develops a general ‘story’ or narrative about Wordsworth’s life.  Consider this, too, as a kind of mid-life crisis poem: Wordsworth feels himself pulling away from the innocent joys he used to experience in life, and the poem is an attempt to find himself—and to convince other readers to find themselves in the thickets of adulthood.  Answer TWO of the following... Q1: According to Stanzas 1-4, what causes the poet to feel distanced from the natural world?   What has come between him and his imagination/emotions?   In Stanza 2 he writes that “But yet I know, where’er I go,/That there hath past away a glory from the earth...
25 comments
Read more