Literature – 18th and 19th Century’s British Poetry.....加試題

Literature – 18^th and 19^th Century’s British Poetry

P: Before we end, I wanna say a few words about your reading of your next class’s topic, which is the selection of poems by William Wordsworth. I’d like to talk a bit about Wordsworth’s poetry, his vision, and his ideas about poetry.

P: Now, Wordsworth’s best known for his lyrical and dramatic poems. On the surface, there are about common objects, ordinary situations. He wrote about his sister Dorothy, about nature, rainbows, birds, the beauty of nature. He wrote about simple rural people who represented the….um… he connected the rural life with the truth about the human nature. What it means to be human. What human needs for happiness? There were some things about nature and rural life that was emotionally … spiritually… central for him. And he felt that because he was writing the ordinary things that he should have write in simple ordinary language. Poetry should be directed to regular people, so for him, it shouldn’t be written with special vocabulary, specialized language that only certain highly educated people could understand. It was these features that made him not just the central figure, but really the beginning the British Romanticism.

P: Now, by Romanticism, we are not talking about the images of love. These the Romanticism with capital R, not Romance between two people. Romanticism is an artistic and literally movement, characterize by the interesting nature and the emphasis on the individual…um… individual’s emotions and imagination. Actually, it is a little bit misleading to call it a “movement”. Ummmm…. I mean it is no self style romantic movement at the time; Wordsworth didn’t call itself a romantic poem. It is just our way to characterize the poetry and to distinguish from what we preceded which was the Neo classicism. The Neo classicism of the 18^th century which we touched on a bit, was known for what …for it’s concerns with orders and balanced and idealization. And the elevated tone of its language. Neoclassical poem tried to sound as learned as possible.

P: Um… You’ve read some. Did they use the word “Bird” or do they use the expression like “feather people”? Would they be more likely to be referred to sky as sky or as a “blue expanse?” To the Romantic poet, Neo classical poem was writing down excessive. It was too pre-occupied with elaborate expression and forms. Wordsworth and other Romantic poems like ~ rejected Neo concerns with ideas and balance and the tendency toward the excessive of language. It’s an intellectual orientation.

P: So, Wordsworth doesn’t write about uncommon things or about ideas that the accessible only to the very high educated. He writes about humble matters, like children and nature. It was his poetic purpose to choose the ordinary things, ordinary situations…and… to describe them, to clarify....to reveal the essential nature. With his early lyric poems, Wordsworth introduced his poetry to new attitude to the individuals and the new attitude to the nature. One of the multitudes of a new Philosophy. He wasn’t just use the imagery from nature in this poem. He believed there was an organic connection between nature and the fulfillment of human’s satisfaction, happiness, between nature and human minds. It’s actually something I share. In fact, when I am out, just taking a walk, just enjoy the outdoors, I often think of Wordsworth poem, like To the Daisy or By the sea. They are kind of…they articulate that concept so well…. Anyway, regardless of your feeling about that, it is undeniable that Wordsworth’s ideas were revolutionary. It’s opening up what poetry could be written about. It could be about commonly experiences we all share as humans and they can be depicted realistically. Okay?

P: Now, many people divided his work into three periods. He wrote the lyric poems, the poems his best known for is his… so called early period. In his middle period, he wrote words were pretty …um… pretty harshly criticize, literally criticized of his days. They thought Wordsworth had moved away his source of his original inspiration. And in his late period, he did a lot of revising of his earlier work. He revised his earlier poems again and again. Um… his work, Prelude for example, went through four different versions before it is finally published. So, how much was improved by all these revision? Well, most readers and critics feel that the earliest Prelude is the best. So it is commonly held that the quality of Wordsworth’s poetry fell off over time which unfortunately is not something you will get to judge in this course. We only have enough time for samplings, so we will stick with the lyric poems from his early period which ….well… I hope you will see their beauty, if not how revolutionary they were.

Question 1: What is the lecture mainly about?

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Wordsworth’s poetry, his vision, and his ideas about poetry

Question 2: What are the two features of Wordsworth poems that professor discussed?

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(1) simple rural people

(2) simple ordinary language

Question 3: What are two points the professor makes about Romantic poets?

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(artistic & literally movement)

(1) interesting nature

(2) individual emotion & imagination

Question 4: What is the Professor’s opinions about Wordsworth’s poetry?

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早期較好（revolutionary）

Question 5: Why does the professor say this “Did they use the word “Bird” or do they use the expression like “feather people”? Would they be more likely to be referred to sky as sky or as a “blue expanse?”

Ans: ?

Neoclassical / much elaboration

Question 6: What does the professor imply when he says this “so it is commonly held that the quality of Wordsworth’s poetry fell off over time which unfortunately is not something you will get to judge in this course.”

Ans: ?

早期較好