Discuss William Wordsworth as a Romantic Poet.
William Wordsworth as a Romantic Poet – William Wordsworth was one of the greatest protagonists of the Romantic Movement. His idea was to make natural things appear unnatural, by adding to them the light that never was on sea or land. He had, therefore, to give charm of novelty to everyday things and to produce a feeling analogous to the supernatural by freeing the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom and directing it to the beauty and wonders of the world before us. The following characteristics below clearly show the Wordsworth was a Romantic poet.
His use of imagination and a sense of wonder
In order to make common things of life and nature to appear to be like supernatural Wordsworth used his imagination. Thus in order to create a sense of wonder into things of common place importance he made use of his power of imagination. Thus the ordinary flower, the simple shepherd, the singing cuckoo were presented by Wordsworth in an uncommon light by the power of his imagination.
The common objects seem to be completely changed and transmitted
when they appear in his poetry. This is the great role of Wordsworth as a Romantic poet. He felt and wrote,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparald in clestial light
The glory and freshness of a dream.
The additon of a sense of strangeness to the ordinary beauties of lifeand making of ordinary things to look as extraordinary are the two qualities of Wordsworth and for this Wordsworth is considered as to romantic poet.
The view of Wordsworth about writing was that it should be free from
following fixed rules or regulaton as given by critics of 18th Century. While writing the writers of classical age had to follow some rules, regulations and dogmas. Wordsworth opposed these restrictions and was of opinion that a writers should be free from any restriction and should express the thoughts which arise in their mind. So Wordsworth is considered as a romantic poet.
The classical poets had not much respect for nature and the common man but Wordsworth took up new subjects of poetry. His adoration of nature and the common simple life were things of romantic character. He elevated nature to the dignity of adoration a gave a colour of romance and glory to the simple annals of countrymen living in huts and cottages in the midst of nature’s beautiful surroundings. His theory in nature and human life was completely different from the poerty of Pope and the poets who followed him. It was Wordsworth who introduced a note of true romanticism in the poetry of the nineteenth century.
Wordsworth’s mysticism was something new of which the poets of the classical school had never experienced. The poet viewed the spirit of God pervading the entire universe both animate and inanimate. He saw the presence of the Divine Life in every flower, bud, insect and the mossy stone. He felt the presence of the power of God in Nature and in human life. He established a relationship between man and nature by some mysterious bond of connection. This fact is emphasised in his poem Tintern Abbey-
I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with joy
Of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting sun,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
His mysticism was a new thing and began the spirit of romanticism in poetry. The mystical utterances of Wordsworth constitute the loftiest expressions in romantic poetry.
The theory of poetry and poetic diction of Wordsworth introduced the
new world of romanticism. His insistence on the use of simple language in place of the gaudiness and inane phraseology of the 18th Century poets was something novelty in the world of poetry. In this regard Wordsworth asserts, “Neither there is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and metrial composition.” His theory of poetic diction broke away all points with the classical poetry of the eighteenth century particularly in its formal side. His declaration of the nature of poetry and the function of the poet were no things not like that of the classical poets but in line with the poets of the new age.
His numerous lyrics, odes and sonnets were also romantic in colour. In them the note of music, imaginative supremacy and emotional excitement the chief characteristics of romanticism were introduced in the finest possible way. In place of Heroic Couplet a variety of metrical experiments were made by the poet.
To conclude it can be rightly said that Wordsworth was one of the greatest protagonist of the Romantic movement.
Important Links
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