Why william wordsworth called as a poet of Nature

As a poet of Nature, Wordsworth stands supreme. He is a worshipper of Nature, Natures devotee or high-
priest. His love of Nature was probably truer, and more tender, than that of any other English poet, before or since.
Nature comes to occupy in his poem a separate or independent status and is not treated in a casual or passing manner
as by poets before him. Wordsworth had a full-fledged philosophy, a new and original view of Nature. Three points
in his creed of Nature may be noted:

(a) He conceived of Nature as a living Personality. He believed that there is a divine spirit pervading all the objects
of Nature. 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.
The author used personification to describe beauty of daffodils. They becomed to have action and mind like people.
Those lines are as beautiful as a picture. If Wordsworth didnt have love of nature, he couldnt write good verses.
(b) Wordsworth believed that the company of Nature gives joy to the human heart and he looked upon Nature as
exercising a healing influence on sorrow-stricken hearts. The poet felt happy and pleasant when he saw golden
flowers smiling in the sunshine:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
Perhaps to him, the daffodils charm was a gift which God granted.
Many years later, the daffodils beauty still haunted Wordsworth. Whether he stayed in empty or thoughtful mood, the
images of daffodils came to mind and flashed upon his eyes:
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
(c) Above all, Wordsworth emphasized the moral influence of Nature. He spiritualised Nature and regarded her as a
great moral teacher, as the best mother, guardian andnurse of man, and as an elevating influence. He believed that
between man and Nature there is mutual consciousness, spiritual communion or mystic intercourse. He initiates his
readers into the secret of the souls communion with Nature. According to him, human beings who grow up in the
lap of Nature are perfect in every respect.
Wordsworth believed that we can learn more of man and of moral evil and good from Nature than from all the
philosophies. In his eyes, Nature is a teacher whose wisdom we can learn, and without which any human life is
vain and incomplete. He believed in the education of man by Nature. In this he was somewhat influenced by
Rousseau. This inter-relation of Nature and man is very important in considering Wordsworths view of both.
Cazamian says that To Wordsworth, Nature appears as a formative influence superior to any other, the
educator of senses and mind alike, the sower in our hearts of the deep-laden seeds of our feelings and beliefs. It
speaks to the child in the fleeting emotions of early years, and stirs the young poet to an ecstasy, the glow of which
illuminates all his work and dies of his life..
Development of His Love for Nature
Wordsworths childhood had been spent in Natures lap. A nurse both stern and kindly, she had planted seeds of
sympathy and under-standing in that growing mind. Natural scenes like the grassy Derwent river bank or the
monster shape of the night-shrouded mountain played a needful part in the development of his mind. In The
Prelude, he records dozens of these natural scenes, not for themselves but for what his mind could learn through.
 Nature was both law and impulse; and in earth and heaven, in glade and bower, Wordsworth was conscious
of a spirit which kindled and restrained. In a variety of exciting ways, which he did not understand, Nature intruded
upon his escapades and pastimes, even when he was indoors, speaking memorable things. He had not sought her;
neither was he intellectually aware of her presence. She riveted his attention by stirring up sensations of fear or joy
which were organic, affecting him bodily as well as emotionally. With time the sensations were fixed indelibly in
his memory. All the instances in Book I of The Prelude show a kind of primitive animism at work; the emotions
and psychological disturbances affect external scenes in such a way that Nature seems to nurture by beauty and by
fear.
In Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth traces the development of his love for Nature. In his boyhood Nature was
simply a playground for him. At the second stage he began to love and seek Nature but he was attracted purely by its
sensuous or aesthetic appeal. Finally his love for Nature acquired a spiritual and intellectual character, and he
realized Natures role as a teacher and educator.
In the Immortality Ode he tells us that as a boy his love for Nature was a thoughtless passion but that when he
grew up, the objects of Nature took a sober colouring from his eyes and gave rise to profound thoughts in his mind
because he had witnessed the sufferings of humanity:
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
Spiritual Meaning in Natural Objects
Compton Rickett rightly observes that Wordsworth is far less concerned with the sensuous manifestations than
with the spiritual significance that he finds underlying these manifestations. To him the primrose and the daffodil are
symbols to him of Natures message to man. A sunrise for him is not a pageant of colour; it is a moment of spiritual
consecration:
My heart was full; I made no vows, but vows
Were then made for me; bound unknown to me
Was given, that I should be, else sinning greatly,
A dedicated Spirit.
To combine his spiritual ecstasy with a poetic presentment of Nature is the constant aim of Wordsworth. It is
the source of some of his greatest pieces, grand rhapsodies such as Tintern Abbey.
Nature Descriptions
Wordsworth is sensitive to every subtle change in the world about him. He can give delicate and subtle
expression to the sheer sensuous delight of the world of Nature. He can feel the elemental joy of Spring:
It was an April morning, fresh and clear
The rivulet, delighting in its strength,
Ran with a young mans speed, and yet the voice
Of waters which the river had supplied
Was softened down into a vernal tone.
He can take an equally keen pleasure in the tranquil lake:
The calm
And dead still water lay upon my mind
Even with a weight of pleasure
A brief study of his pictures of Nature reveals his peculiar power in actualising sound and its converse, silence.
Being the poet of the ear and of the eye, he is exquisitely felicitious. No other poet could have written:
A voice so thrilling neer was heard
In springtime from the cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
 Unlike most descriptive poets who are satisfied if they achieve a static pictorial effect, Wordsworth can direct
his eye and ear and touch to conveying a sense of the energy and movement behind the workings of the natural
world. Goings on was a favourite word he applied to Nature. But he is not interested in mere Nature description.
Wordsworth records his own feelings with reference to the objects which stimulate him and call forth the
description. His unique apprehension of Nature was determined by his peculiar sense-endowment. His eye was at
once far-reaching and penetrating. He looked through the visible scene to what he calls its ideal truth. He pored
over objects till he fastened their images on his brain and brooded on these in memory till they acquired the
liveliness of dreams. He had a keen ear too for all natural sounds, the calls of beasts and birds, and the sounds of
winds and waters; and he composed thousands of lines wandering by the side of a stream. But he was not richly
endowed in the less intellectual senses of touch, taste and temperature.
Conclusion:
Wordsworths attitude to Nature can be clearly differentiated from that of the other great poets of Nature. He
did not prefer the wild and stormy aspects of Nature like Byron, or the shifting and changeful aspects of Nature and
the scenery of the sea and sky like Shelley, or the purely sensuous in Nature like Keats. It was his special
characteristic to concern himself, not with the strange and remote aspects of the earth, and sky, but Nature in her
ordinary, familiar, everyday moods. He did not recognize the ugly side of Nature red in tooth and claw as Tennyson
did. Wordsworth stressed upon the moral influence of Nature and the need of mans spiritual discourse with her.

William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 23 April 1850) was a major English Romantic poet. He and Samuel
Taylor Coleridge helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth was
Britains Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.
2.1. Life
a) Early life (1770 - 1790)
William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Wordsworth House in Cockermouth, Cumberland one
part of the scenic region in the northwest of England, the Lake District. And there were many beautiful sites in this
land. The magnificent landscape deeply affected Wordsworth's imagination and gave him a love of nature.
His father, John Wordsworth taught him poetry of Milton, Shakespeare and Spenser. In addition, his father
allowed him to rely on his own father's library. While spending time on reading in Cockermouth, Wordsworth also
stayed at his mother's parents house in Penrith, Cumberland. At the time in Penrith, Wordsworth was exposed to the
moors. He had lost his mother when he was eight and five years later, his father. This fact had a great influence on
his life and his literary work.
William Wordsworth was the second of five children in his family. Specially, his sister Dorothy was a
very important person in his life. The domestic problems separated Wordsworth from his beloved and neurotic
sister Dorothy. She had especially fresh contact to nature from a very early age. Her thoughts and experience
brought a endless/invaluable source of inspiration for her brother, who also introduced himself as Nature's child. The
first time she saw the sea, she burst into tears, "indicating the sensibility for which she was so remarkable,"
Wordsworth remembered.
In 1778, William Wordsworth entered a local school and then continued his studies at Cambridge
University. He started his poetic career in 1787, when he published a sonnet in The European Magazine. In that
same year, he began attending St. John's College, Cambridge, and received his B.A. degree in 1791. During a
summer vacation in 1790, Wordsworth went on a walking tour through revolutionary France. He also traveled in
Switzerland, Italy.
b) 1791 1802
On his second journey in France (in November 1791), William Wordsworth visited Revolutionary France
and became enthralled with the Republican movement. He fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon. And
they had a daughter, Caroline. Because of lack of money and Britains tension with France, he returned alone to
England. Then, he couldnt see them again.
In 1793, Wordsworths first poetry was pulished with collections An evening Walk and Descriptive
Sketches. He received a legacy of 900 from Raisley Calvert in 1795 so that he could continue the poetic career. In
that year, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset and they became close friends. Together, Wordsworth and
 Coleridge (with insights from Dorothy) produced Lyrical Ballads (1798), an important work in the
English Romantic movement. The second edition was published in 1800. Wordsworth gives his famous definition of
poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility ."
A fourth and final edition of Lyrical Ballads was published in 1805.
In 1795 - 1797, he wrote his only play, The borderers but it wasnt performed at any theatre.
In autumn of 1798, Wordsworth, Dorothy and Coleridge went to Germany. Despite extreme stress and
loneliness, he began working on an autobiographical piece later titled The Prelude. In that period of time, he
wrote many famous poems. One of them was Lucy. Then, he and his sister returned Lake District where he was
born. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey were known as the "Lake Poets".
c) 1802 1850
In late 1802, Wordsworth Wordsworth married to a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. Dorothy continued
to live with the couple and grew close to Mary. For the last 20 years of life, she had lost her mind as a result of
physical ailments. Almost all Dorothy's memory was destroyed/lost, she sat by the fire, and occasionally recited her
brother's verses.
He continued writing autobiographical poems, which he never named but called the "poem to Coleridge".
In 1805, his brother, John died and that affected him strongly. In 1807, his Poems in Two Volumes were published,
including "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood". Since 1810 Wordsworth and
Coleridge were estranged over the latters opium addiction. Two of his children, Thomas and Catherine, died in
1812. Wordsworth was appointed official distributor of stamps for Westmoreland. Then his family, including
Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount, Ambleside (between Grasmere and Rydal Water) in 1813, where he spent in the
rest of his life.
From the age of 50 his creative began to decline. Wordsworth abandoned his radical faith and became a
patriotic, conservative public man. In 1843 he succeeded Robert Southgey (1774-1843) as England's poet laureate.
Wordsworth died on April 23, 1850 and was buried at St. Oswald's church in Grasmere. His widow Mary
published his lengthy autobiographical "poem to Coleridge" as The Prelude several months after his death. Then it
was recognized as his masterpiece.
In conclusion, Wordsworths life was an unfortunate life/destiny/fate and It had strong effects on his
works. That was a key factor which led him to become a great romantic poet.
2.2. Major works
Wordsworth was a well-known romantic poet with many lyric poems. Almost works described the poet's
love of nature and revolve around themes of death, endurance, separation and grief. He gave prominence to emotion
in poetry. He said : the poetry as the spontanueous overflow of powerful fellings.
Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (1798)
"Simon Lee"
"We are Seven"
"Lines Written in Early Spring"
"Expostulation and Reply"
"The Tables Turned"
"The Thorn"
"Lines Composed A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"
Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems (1800)
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
"Strange fits of passion have I known"[14]
"She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways"[14]
"Three years she grew"[14]
"A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal"[14]
"I travelled among unknown men"[14]
"Lucy Gray"
"The Two April Mornings"
 "Nutting"
"The Ruined Cottage"
"Michael"
"The Kitten At Play"
Poems, in Two Volumes (1807)
"Resolution and Independence"
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" Also known as "Daffodils"
"My Heart Leaps Up"
"Ode: Intimations of Immortality"
"Ode to Duty"
"The Solitary Reaper"
"Elegiac Stanzas"
"Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802"
"London, 1802"
"The World Is Too Much with Us"
The Excursion (1814)
Laodamia (1815, 1845)
The Prelude (1850)
Guide to the Lakes (1810)

3. Daffodils

The poem Daffodils was also known with the title I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. It was a lyrical
poem written by William Wordsworth in 1804. It was first published in 1807 in Poems in Two Volumes, then it was
released in 1815 in Collected Poems with four stanzas. Daffodils is considered as one of the most popular
poems of the Romantic Age.
It was inspired by an April 15, 1802 event, in which Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, came across a
long belt of daffodils on a walk near Ullswater Lake in England. The poet was wandering in the forest and
enjoying the fascinating nature around him, when suddenly he saw a crowd of golden daffodils by the lakeside. The
daffodils was so beautiful that he was compelled to gaze at these flowers playing with pleasure in the wind. His
sister, Dorothy later wrote in her journal as a reference to this walk: I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew
among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for
weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew
upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever dancing ever changing. And Daffodils expressed the poets
excitement, love and praise for a field blossoming with daffodils.

The poem is a sonnet, 24 lines, including four six line stanza. Each stanza is formed by a quatrain, then a
couplet, to form a sestet and a ABABCC rhyme scheme. For example the rhyming scheme of the first stanza is
ABAB ( A cloud and crowd; B hills and daffodils) and ending with a rhyming couplet CC ( C trees and beeze).
By the way, the poem can convert into a continous flow of expressions without a pause.
Just reading the first stanzas, we can feel the time and space in which William wrote Daffodils :
I wanderd 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.
The first line makes nice use of simile : as a cloud. It opened with the narrator walking in the state of
worldly detachment, his wandering. That is a romantic poet in a romantic emotion too. In a dreamy, disinterested
state, poet gazed and thought about life and himselft. He saw a crowd of golden daffodils by the lakeside, they
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. The author used personification to describe beauty of daffodils. They
becomed to have action and mind like people. Those lines are as beautiful as a picture. If Wordsworth didnt have
love of nature, he couldnt write good verses.
In the 2nd poem, he continued describing daffodils:
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
The figure of simile is subtly used : as the stars that shine. The golden daffodils were compared with the
stars shining and twinkling on the galaxy. By that way the poet immortalized daffodils. And this is in contrast to
transitory nature of life examined in other works. They seemed to become more beautiful in Wordsworths poem.
How glorious and plentiful these daffodils were! Maybe this was also the first time he had come across
such an immense field of daffodils along the shore. It was impossible for us to count them, but the author could still
feel how many flowers were stretching as far as the eyes can see:
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
Particularly, the author reversed usual syntax and hyperbole in : Ten thousand saw I at a glance. That
was capable of emphasizing quantities of daffodils. In the last of the 2 nd poem, Wordsworth used personification
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance again. And in the next several lines the 3th poem:
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee
Through characterized daffodils, we can find that nature has its own soul. These light-hearted daffodils,
weaving in unision with each other in the wind. And the author compared them with waves. Through the lakes
sparking waves danced beautifully, the daffodils seemed to do much better than them. That reinforced beauty of
daffodils. William lifted him out of his soul and placed him in a higher state in which the soul of nature and the soul
of man were united into a single harmony. Apparently, he felt dazed with so many daffodils around him and there
was no limitation between his vision and the long belt of golden flowers.
The poet felt happy and pleasant when he saw golden flowers smiling in the sunshine:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
Perhaps to him, the daffodils charm was a gift which God granted.
Many years later, the daffodils beauty still haunted Wordsworth. Whether he stayed in empty or thoughtful mood,
the images of daffodils came to mind and flashed upon his eyes:
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
In the last stanza, it is revealed that this scene is only a memory of the pensive speaker. This is marked by a
change from a narrative past tense to the present tense as a conclusion to a sense of movement within the poem:
passive to active motion, from sadness to blissfulness. The memory of daffodils was etched in the authors mind and
soul forever. When the poet was feeling lonely, dull or depressed, he thought of daffodils and cheered up. He
desired to dance with the daffodils:
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
The above two lines werent composed by Wordsworth but by his wife, Mary. Wordsworth considered them
the best lines of the whole poem. They showed love of daffodils.To him, daffodils are close friends who come to
console and encourage him. And images of daffodils would never seem to fade in Wordsworths mind.
The title, Daffodils appears as a simple word that reminds us about the arrival the spring season, when
the filed is full of daffodils. Daffodils are yellow flowers, with amazing shapes and charming fragrance. But
daffodils in Wordsworths poem is also an artistic symbol. They symbolize the nature and the joys and happiness of
life. The poem uses descriptive language throughout the stanzas. The wording is simple and melodious.
This poem was one of the Wordsworths greatest works of Romanticism. The poem showed us natural
beauty and the potential of nature towards people. He would like to call us to come back to the nature and enjoy it.
The soul of nature and the soul of man were united into a single harmony.
In summary, through the analysis of poem in the aspects such as language, a lot of literary devices, narrator,
rhyming scheme, images, symbols ... we can recognize its beauty as well as profound human values. Reading
Daffodils, I love our nature and life more and more. This poem will be long lasting in spite of the worlds up and
down.

Historical Background of Renaissance

Te word Renaissance was first used by Jules Michelet, a French historian (1780-1874). First of all,
Renaissance means not only the revived interest in Greek and Roman literatures but also the discovery of the
world and human beings. More than that, it implies the awakening of mens mind, the awakening of individual
spirit and secularism.
1. Renaissance: the revived interest in Greek and Roman literatures
It is obvious that, in the Middle Ages, people did read and study Greek and Roman literatures, but the number of
readers of these literatures was very limited among scholars and literary men. Now, thanks to Petrarchs and
Boccacios enthusiasm in propagating the spiritof humanism in Greek and Roman literatures, and thanks to the
invention of the printing machine, the number of readers of ancient writers increased greatly and the
reading and studying of Greek and Roman literaturesbecame an interest. In this period, the spiritof
humanismbecame assimilated with the studying of those literatures.
2.Renaissance: the discovery of the world and human beings
The Renaissance was a great age of geographical and scientific discoveries.In geographical field, Christopher
Columbus discovered America; Amerigo Vespucci and Vasco da Gama discovered the Philippines; Magellan
travelled around the world and discovered several lads and islands. These great geographical discoveries opened
new horizonsand bright prospects for European people; they longed to discover other continents and people.
In scientific field, Newton discovered Law of Gravity, Galileo and Copernicus discovered the stars and the stellar
systems, and Kepler discovered the orbits of planets. These scientific discoveries had deep influence on the concepts
of the Middle Ages about the position ad destiny of men in the Universe.
In the Middle Ages, men completely lost their values and position. The Church of Rome taught them that men were
symbols of evils and sins, that they wereslaves in this temporary world. They lived and waited for their
emancipation from this earthly hopeless life. They lived and preparedthemselves for future life in
paradise
In the Renaissance, men were reborn. They began to accept this world with a much more optimistic
attitude. They enjoyed their present life and realized this earthly life was beautiful ad interesting, that men ha the
right to live and enjoy everything on earth.
3.Renaissance: the awakening of mens mind, the awakening of individual spirit and secularism
Middle Ages men despised materialisticand sexual desires. Renaissancemen were quite different: new land
discoveries, new luxurious life, new economic political and social life all created new will and eagerness
in them. Spiritually, they began to lead a revolt against the strict, cramped and austere pattern of life in the Middle
Ages.In this age there was also a great shift in the outlook. The thought of the Middle Ages was
essentially God-centred. But humanism, by its very nature, placeda new importance on created things. This
emphasis on the importance of temporal things led to a de-emphasis of God and the eternal life. Renaissance men
were no more subordinated to God. Their happiness was here, on earth, and it depended on their own strength and
ability to achieveit. Men were their own guides to truth ad happiness.
William Shakespeares works
Scholars distinguish three periods in William Shakespearesworks:
1.The early period (roughly from 1590 to 1600), during which he wrote mainly gay comedies and dramatic
histories. This is the period of optimism of William Shakespeare.
2.The middle period (roughly from 1600 to 1608), during which he wrote great tragedies and bitter
comedies. This is the period of maturity of William Shakespeare.
3.The late period (roughly from 1609 to 1612), during which he wrote legendary and lyrical plays, and
tragic comedies.

Hamlet
-

Prince of Denmark
Critique
Hamlet is without question the most famous play in the English language. Probably written in 1601 or 1602, the
tragedy is a milestone in Shakespearesdramatic development; the playwright achieved artistic maturity in this work
through his brilliant depiction of the heros struggle with two opposing forces: moral integrity and the need to
avenge his fathers murder.
Shakespeares focus on this conflict was a revolutionary departure from contemporary revenge tragedies, which
tended to graphically dramatize violent acts on stage, in that it emphasized the heros dilemma rather than the
depiction of bloody deeds. The dramatists genius is also evident in his transformation of the plays literary
sourcesespecially the contemporaneous Ur-Hamletinto an exceptional tragedy. The Ur-Hamlet, or
original Hamlet, is a lost play that scholars believe was written mere decades before Shakespeares Hamlet,
providing much of the dramatic context for the later tragedy. Numerous sixteenth-century records attest to the
existence of the Ur-Hamlet, with some references linking its composition to Thomas Kyd, the author of
The Spanish Tragedy. From these sources Shakespeare created
Hamlet, a supremely rich and complex literary work
that continues to delight both readers and audiences with its myriad meanings and interpretations. In the words of
Ernest Johnson, the dilemma of Hamlet the Prince and Man is to disentangle himself from
the temptation to wreak justice for the wrong reasons and in evil passion, and to do what he must do at last for the
pure sake of justice.... From that dilemma of wrong feelings and right actions, he ultimately emerges, solving the
problem by attaining a proper state of mind. Hamlet endures as the object of universal
identification because his central moral dilemma transcends the Elizabethan period, making him a man for
all ages. In his difficult struggle to somehow act within a corrupt world and yet maintain his moral
integrity, Hamlet ultimately reflects the fate of all human beings.

Romanticism in English Poetry

2.1. The Two Generations of the Romantics
The Conservative Trend (The Lake School)
Early in 1798 William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey formed a groupcalled The
Lake School. The school wasnamed after the beautiful lake in the North West of England where Wordsworth,
Coleridge, and Southey had been living for a long time.
The Lake poets underwent evolution in their political views and creative activities. They started with protesting
against social injustice, showing their interest in vital social problems of their time. They admired the
French Revolution so warmly that Wordsworth even travelled to France to witness the great liberation of mankind.
But later on, frightened by the blood and fire across the water, they went over to the side of reaction and
started rejecting both economic and social progress. They regretted being unwise in welcoming the French
Revolution and in believing that REASON was capable of creating an equal society. They turned away from
the ideas of the Enlightenment to the distrust of reason and rationalism. They bent their pens towardsthe
idealizationof the patriarchal feudal past and medieval attitudes.
The Progressive Trend (The Cockney School) Quite opposed to the Conservative trend of Romanticismwas the
progressive trend known as the Cockney School, whose representatives were Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelly,
and John Keats.The representative of this school expressed the ideas and interests of the classes that were
disappointed to see the state of things which was a result of the capitalist development. They saw its negative sides
and criticized them. But their criticism was much more than a confirmation of the patriarchal ideas of the past, their
criticism was the expression of the longing for a better present and a wonderful future. They were little interested in
the past, only mindful of the present. Their eyes were fixed on the current affairson the days. Their works,
in general, embodied the dream of social justice that the broad masses of people cherished.

2.2. Contrasts between the two generations of Romanticism

Between the two generations of Romanticism there are remarkable contrasts:Wordsworth Coleridge and Southey
reached manhood in the early years of the French Revolution. They were thoroughly imbued with revolutionary
ideas, and conceived boundless hopes of regeneration of mankind. They were bitterly disappointed when they
realizedthat the French Revolution deviated from its noble aims, and that the golden age promised by prophets and
politicians was receding into an ever-remoter future. They accordingly reconciled themselves with more orderly
notions. They idealizedmedieval attitude, patriarchal feudal past and mysterious religious doctrines and they tried to
escape from the actualworld to look for the para
dise lost as a refuge for their own sufferings. In a word, the old romantics were indeed UNPRACTICAL
CONSERVATIVE DREAMERS.Byron, Shelly, and Keas came of age at the very moment when Europe was
smoking with ruins and the Holy Alliance was dictating its orders to exhausted peoples. They had inherited the
noble aspirations of their elders, but felt frustrated in their very youth; Byron sought for a remedy of ennui in action:
he travelled and fought, and fell on the soil of Greece. Shelly, filled with revolu
tionary spirit to the core, tried to carry out his principles of life, and reaped disaster: from his misery he found
a refuge in the worship of intellectual beautyand in the composition of poems expressing his unshattered belief
in the ultimate triumph of
justice and goodness. Keats, the frailest of the three, drew aside from the turmoil of the world, drank deep at the
fountains of beauty and died at 26. But all these young romantics were PRACTICAL REVOLUTIONARY
DREAMERS. They rose against the tyrannical authority and socialinjustice in the hope to change the world with
their own individual actions. They did not bend their pens and have any compromise with the bourgeoisie in their
struggle for social justice
and for a better future for the common people.

II. Typical Writers and Works

1. William Wordsworth (1770-1850)The life of William Wordsworth wasquiet and eventful. He was born in
Cockermouth, Cumberland in 1770 and spent the great part of his life in the mountains of the Lake District, where
he was very deeply influenced by the natural beauty of the country, and was always in sympathy with the humble
people.
In 1788 William Wordsworth went to St Johns College, Cambridge, but no professor he met in his university classes
as much impressed on him as did the sky and the trees and the wild flowers of his native region: he
preferred devoting most of his time to the
admirationof Nature to cramming for any exams at Cambridge
University; and he was more interested in reading books than in listening to the lectures.On leaving the university,
he spent a few months in London, and then crossed over to France (1790). He found
this country mad with joy and was ready to give what aid he could to the French Republicans. He resided in France
three years. There he met two people who did change his life: Captain Michel Beaupuy, who propagated and
explained the noble aims of the French Revolution to him; and Miss Annette Vallon, with whom he fell in love ad
gave birth to a daughter, Caroline. Attracted by the fresh air of the Revolution and the first sweet flavour of
love, he intended to devote his whole life to France and his whole heart to the French woman, but, unfortunately,
he was compelled to return to England because his relatives stopped his supplies of money.
However, he still hoped that he would return to France someday to live with his beloved wife.But the war
between England and France in 1793 broke his heart ad his hope. He did not meet his wife until1802. No
sooner had they lived with each other in the sa
me roof than they had to say goodbye to each other, becausethere
appeared some gloomy clouds in their happy sky. He wasby this time experiencing a severe intellectual crisis:
continuous bloody events in France left him disillusioned and pessimistic;his dreams of brotherhood were
shattered.With a broken heart for love and with a disillusioned and pessimistic soul for the development of
the French Revolution, he came back to his own inwards, leading a secluded life in the valley of Grasmere, the
heart of his beloved Lake District. He asked Nature and Poetry to give him the peaceful joys for which his
mind was thirsting. From then on, he withdrew from urban civilizationand sought consolation in the country life.
William Wordsworths PoetryWordsworth on Nature. Nature is an unfinished treasure of romantic souls. To
Wordsworth, Nature is the most valuable and beloved source of living. He blames people who spend so
much of their energy in the materialistic life that their lives become senseless and sordid:
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours; we have given our heats a way, a sordid boon.Wordsworths aim as poet was to
search for beauty in Nature-in mountains, woods, and streams-ad to explain this beauty to the soul of man. All the
sights and sounds of Nature attracted him, and he was always looking for an idea behind or under the beauty.
As for him, Nature has a soul. The soul of man had been corrupted by town civilization, but the soul of Nature
was not. So the best way for man was to enter into communication with Natures soul and Nature would lift
him out of himself and place him in a higher state in which the soul of Nature and the soul of man were
united in a single harmony. The belief led him to the conclusion that nature wasmans best moral teacher:
Let Nature be your teacher.
Nature, to Wordsworth, has a message to Man. And in order to find out such a message, he tried to see into the life
of thing. A wonderful sunsetwith its glorious colours, meant more to him than just the end of another day. It seemed
to him to be full of The light that never was on sea or lad. He felt more than he sawor heard,and it was this feeling,
which came to him direct from Nature or God, that he tried to describe in his poetry. Flowers, especially wild
flowers such as the primrose and the daffodils gave him Natures messageto man. Most of us can see how beautiful
even a common flower is, ad admire its loveliness and its scent. We may even feel the beautyin our hearts as well as
see it with our eyes. But how many can describe, or make clear to others, what this feeling is? Wordsworth could, at
any rate, make us realize that what we feel at the sight of a beautiful flower is the flowers way of speaking to us. Or
it is Nature speaking to us through the flower.
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
To Wordsworth, poetry meant experience of this kind-moments of deep feeling-which he could remember
later when his mind was at rest. Then was the time to write them down. He did not forget what he had heard or seen.
The music in my heart I bore
Long after it was heard no more.
In short, more than any other poets of his time,Wordsworth clearly realizedthe relation and interaction between the
inward life of Man and the outdoor life of the objective world. Nature, no wonder, was his religion; and he himself
was Natures high priest.
Wordsworth on Man
Wordsworths love of Nature is seen not only in his admiration of Natural beauty but also in his understanding of the
simple men and women of the valleys and hills of the Lake District, humble people with ordinary joys ad sorrows.
He understood the character of the poor, believedin them and admired them. He saw their courage, strength
ad hope:
Love had he found in huts where poor men lie,
His daily teachers had been woods and rills,
The silence that is in the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely hills.
Many of his poems are about these neighbours of his, the men, women, and children among whom he
lived, people about whom little real poetry had been written in the past. In his poems on Nature, when dealing with
the source of Goodness (and especially when expressing the significance of Goodness), Wordsworth always
established his absolute belief in the noble value of the commoners.In his poems on Man, he dealt with
the primal qualities where Ma and Nature touch and blend. Thus his love for Nature wastransferred to the
shepherd, the reaper, ad to other farmers and cottagers with their ordinary joys and sorrows. Other poets
had neglected them. But to Wordsworth everybody, rich or poor, was a human being. And his ears were ever open to
listen to what he called the still, sad musicof humanity.The choice of men and women in humble and rustic life as
the objects for description in his poetry resulted from his love for them, but more basically from his conception
associated with Rousseaus name, of the noble savage, with its implication that men are better when closer to
their naturalstate, uncorrupted by the artificiality of civilization
B. The English Critical Realism (1832-1901)
It was in the period of political strife that a new trend wasborn in Englishliterature: Critical Realism.
Romanticism now seemed too abstract, too aloft, too remote from the actual world. A direct and straight forward
consideration of everyday life became an imperative necessity. Writers in the Victorian age denounced the evils
of the day and pictured the lives of the people of both low and high societies, thus creating social novels.
There are some of the most essential features of this trend. They are found in the leading writers of the
time, chiefly Dickens, Thackeray, Bronte, and others.
- The introduction of a new set of characters from the working class as a new force in society.
- A deep sense of the dramatic contrast between the rich and the poor
- An irresistible hatred for every species of social oppression and injustice
-An illusion of bringing about social justice and harmony by reforms
-An interest in the theme of Woman Emancipati onThe Victoria age was primarily an age of prose rather than poetry;
therefore, we shall pay particular attention to the two distinguished authors of critical realism:
CharlesDickens and William MakepeaceThackeray.
III. Typical Writers and Works
1. Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was the greatest critical realist in the 19th century English Literature. He was born in
Portsmouth, in a poor family. He had to leave school and worked hard to support the family. At 15, he
studied short -hand and worked as a reporter, then a writer. Dickenss life as a literary artist falls into 4 periods. In
the first period (1833 1841), he wrote some novels such as Oliver Twist (1838), the Posthumous parpers of the
Pickwick Club, etc. This was the period of humour and optimism.In the second period (1842
1848), he had some famous novels: American notes, Dombey and son,etc.This was the period of sarcasm and
criticism.
The third period (1849 -1860) was the period of strongest social criticism on the soulless and unwholesome
nature of competition in an industrial life. In this period, he had many novels like:
David Copperfield, Bleak House, A tale of two cities...
The fourth period (1861 1865) was characterized by romanticism resulting from disillusionment,with some
works such as: Greatexpectation, Our mutual friend.
Charles Dickens had great contribution to English and world literature. On the literary side, he was not only the
writer who had described the town-life of his day, but he was also the first genuine story teller.
On the social side, he was not merely a story teller but a social reformer who used fiction as a platform for his social
appeals, and who proved to possess a very rare quality. He brought smile with
sermonicpowder to people in a complicated history.
In general, Charles Dickens was the pioneer of a great age of fiction. No doubt, English life and literature seem to be
saner and sunnier with
Dickens.
TypicalWork:
David Copperfield(1850)
Critique
David Copperfield might be regarded asthe peak of Dickens literary career. It was best loved by the author
himself. In the novel, somewhat autobiographical, Dickens engraved extremely typical characters. One of the
many qualities that distinguish David Copperfield from more modern and more sophisticated novels is its
eternal freshness. It is, in short, a work of art which can be read and reread, chiefly for the gallery of characters
Dickens has
immortalized. In this novel, his humourous and satirical art was brought to perfection. Nowhere in all the works by
Dickens, the problem of children and the responsibility of the society for them was so clearly and seriously
mentioned

2. William Makepeace Thackeray(1811 1863)

W.M. Thackeray was born on Calcutta, India, in the family of an English official of high standing. Contrary to
Charles Dickens, Thackeray had a very good education both at school ad at Cambridge University. The future writer
wanted to be an artist and went to Europe to study art. For some time he lived among the artistic circles
of Paris. Later, when he returned to London, he learned that he had lost all his money, for the bank where it was
deposited had gonebankrupt. Thus, he had toearn his living. He began sketches, but was not very successful.
He started writing satirical and humorous stories and essays. Later he wrote novels and delivered lectures.Thackeray
wrote in the same year and under the same political conditions as his contemporary Dickens did. Together
theyre better appreciated that apart; they present the life of their period more completely together.
Dickens usually chose for his main character the little man with his troubles and difficulties. Thackeray directed
satire against representatives of the upper classes of society, whom he knew better. Dickens was inclined to
look for a happy solution that smoothed over existing contradictions. Thackeray, on the contrary, was
merciless in his satirical attacks on the ruling
classes. He considered that art should be a real mirror of life.
He showed bourgeois society and its vices without softening their description. In this approach o art he was the
follower of the great satirist of the Enlightenment, Jonathan Swift.Thackerays most outstanding works are The
Book of Snobs (under this title he published a collection of satirical essays) that appeared in 1846
1847 and his novel Vanity Fair(1847 1848).
Typical Work:Vanity Fair
Critique
Vanity Fair, the best known of Thackerays works, is a social
novel which shows not only the bourgeois aristocratic society
as a whole, but also the very laws which govern it. Describing the events which took place at the beginning of the
19thcentury, the author presents a broad satirical picture of contemporary England. The social background of
the novel,which influences all the characters in their thought and actions, is high societyat large. Thackeray attacks
the vanity, pretensions, prejudices, and corruption of the aristocracy.He mercilessly exposes the snobbishness,
hypocrisy, money worshipping and parasitism of all those who form the bulwark of society. Thackeray shows that
goodness often goes hand in hand with stupidity ad folly, that cleverness is often knavery.
The title of this novel was an allusion, quitefamiliar in these days, to the city of London which had been
described as Vanity Fair in the famous 17thcentury religious allegory of John Bunyan: The Pilgrims Progress
(1678). It is alsoassociated with the book of the Bible whose memorable words are ALL IS VANITY. His main
subject is the false heartless ways and the resourceful hypocrisy of society, the silent misery of simple
souls