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Flashcards in William Wordsworth Deck (61)
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1
Q

“We Are Seven” Poet?

A

William Wordsworth

2
Q

Year “We Are Seven” Published

A

1798

3
Q

Genre of “We Are Seven”

A

Literary Ballad / Short Lyric

4
Q

“We Are Seven” Base Meter

A

Alternating Iambic Tetrameter and Trimeter

5
Q

What is the conflict in “We are Seven”

A

between girl and man saying she’s of 7 siblings though 2 died - different conceptions of death and life / difference between adult and child perception / also about identity

6
Q

What is being celebrated in “We are Seven”

A

childhood - she has access to truths adults have lost

7
Q

“We are Seven” on death

A

begins with speaker questioning what a child should know of death - at beginning it appears girl knows very little (in denial) - by end left thinking girl knows MORE about life and death - refuses to become trapped by grief/cast deceased out of her life - accepts things change and lives happily

8
Q

“Resolution of Independence” Poet?

A

William Wordsworth

9
Q

Year “Resolution of Independence” Published?

A

1807

10
Q

Genre of “Resolution of Independence

A

A Greater Romantic Lyric / Sub-genre = an encounter poem

11
Q

“Resolution of Independence” Base Meter

A

Iambic Pentameter - where last line has one extra iamb

12
Q

The power of the human mind in “Resolution of Independence”

A

he leech gatherer in “Resolution and Independence” perseveres cheerfully in the face of poverty by the exertion of his own will. The transformative powers of the mind are available to all, regardless of an individual’s class or background / Using memory and imagination, individuals could overcome difficulty and pain

13
Q

Summarize “Resolution of Independence”

A

As the poem begins, a wanderer travels along a moor, feeling elated and taking great pleasure in the sights of nature around him but also remembering that despair is the twin of happiness. Eventually he comes upon an old man looking for leeches, even though the work is dangerous and the leeches have become increasingly hard to find. As the speaker chats with the old man, he realizes the similarities between leech gathering and writing poetry. Like a leech gather, a poet continues to search his or her mind and the landscape of the natural world for poems, even though such intense emotions can damage one’s psyche, the work pays poorly and poverty is dangerous to one’s health, and inspiration sometimes seems increasingly hard to find. The speaker resolves to think of the leech gatherer whenever his enthusiasm for poetry or belief in himself begins to wane.

14
Q

Author of “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”?

A

William Wordsworth

15
Q

Year “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” Published?

A

1802

16
Q

Genre of “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”

A

Essay?

17
Q

“Preface to Lyrical Ballads” Base Meter

A

N/A

18
Q

Right of the individual and mind in “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”

A

the relationship between the mind and poetry. Poetry is “emotion recollected in tranquility”—that is, the mind transforms the raw emotion of experience into poetry capable of giving pleasure. Later poems, such as “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (1807), imagine nature as the source of the inspiring material that nourishes the active, creative mind.

19
Q

Importance of memory to the poet in “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”

A

he act of remembering also allows the poet to write: Wordsworth argued in the 1802 preface to Lyrical Ballads that poetry sprang from the calm remembrance of passionate emotional experiences. Poems cannot be composed at the moment when emotion is first experienced. Instead, the initial emotion must be combined with other thoughts and feelings from the poet’s past experiences using memory and imagination.

20
Q

Ideas of the importance of the ordinary presented in “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”

A

use everyday language, but not to talk about everyday things, rather in unordinary situations / not seeking to be different for the sake of being different / celebrates beauty that can be found in the ordinary world / can’t only be excited by the gross and violent

21
Q

Definition of a poet in “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”

A

A poet is a man speaking to men / Doesn’t mention language or knowledge of books or practice - these are missing in order to focus on the soul / they have a comprehensive soul - but who doesn’t? Aren’t we all poets or have the ability to be? Poets simply have more of what everyone else has

22
Q

Poet of “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”?

A

William Wordsworth

23
Q

Year “Lines (Tintern Abbey)” Published

A

1798

24
Q

Genre of “Lines (Tintern Abbey)”

A

Lyric?

25
Q

“Lines (Tintern Abbey)” Base Meter

A

Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter (Blank Verse)

26
Q

What is the subject of Tintern Abbey?

A

Memory -specifically, childhood memories of communion with natural beauty /that the memory of pure communion with nature in childhood works upon the mind even in adulthood, when access to that pure communion has been lost, and that the maturity of mind present in adulthood offers compensation for the loss of that communion—specifically, the ability to “look on nature” and hear “human music”; that is, to see nature with an eye toward its relationship to human life. In his youth, the poet says, he was thoughtless in his unity with the woods and the river; now, five years since his last viewing of the scene, he is no longer thoughtless, but acutely aware of everything the scene has to offer him. /f his sister gives him a view of himself as he imagines himself to have been as a youth. Happily, he knows that this current experience will provide both of them with future memories

27
Q

What are the three benefits Wordsworth finds in Tintern Abbey

A
  1. They make him feel sweet sensations and comfort in the city 2. unremembered pleasure - he owes to these beauteous things having had that pleasure it’s had an impact and influence on him 3. “aspect more sublime” - something more spiritual, connection to universe
28
Q

Poet of “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”?

A

William Wordsworth

29
Q

Year “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” Published?

A

1807

30
Q

Genre of “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”

A

Irregular Pindaric Ode (irregular stanza form/allows poet to move through different moods and stages of argument

31
Q

“Ode: Intimations of Immortality” Base Meter

A

Poem begins in iambic meter - BUT the poem changes meter throughout to match the emotions expressed in the poem as it develops from idea to idea

32
Q

What is the subject of “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”?

A

It is his more mature piece on childhood memory /makes explicit Wordsworth’s belief that life on earth is a dim shadow of an earlier, purer existence, dimly recalled in childhood and then forgotten in the process of growing up. (In the fifth stanza, he writes, “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…/Not in entire forgetfulness, / And not in utter nakedness, /But trailing clouds of glory do we come / From God, who is our home….”)

33
Q

Where does the speaker’s grief stem from in “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”?

A

his inability to experience the May morning as he would have in childhood, the speaker attempts to enter willfully into a state of cheerfulness; but he is able to find real happiness only when he realizes that “the philosophic mind” has given him the ability to understand nature in deeper, more human terms—as a source of metaphor and guidance for human life.

34
Q

What is the role of nature in “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”?

A

imagine nature as the source of the inspiring material that nourishes the active, creative mind

35
Q

What does Wordsworth suggest of childhood in “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”?

A

believes that children delight in nature because they have access to a divine, immortal world. As children age and reach maturity, they lose this connection but gain an ability to feel emotions, both good and bad. Through the power of the human mind, particularly memory, adults can recollect the devoted connection to nature of their youth.

36
Q

Poet of “The Boy of Winander” and Book it is in?

A

William Wordsworth - Book Fifth

37
Q

Year “The Boy of Winander” Published?

A

1805

38
Q

Genre of “The Boy of Winander”

A

lyrical ballad / narrative

39
Q

“The Boy of Winander” base meter

A

Blank Verse

40
Q

Summarize “The Boy of Winader” - importance of nature

A

This poem reflects one boy’s positive interaction or experience with nature. In the first few lines of the poem, the boy is attempting to connect with nature through “hooting” with the owls and to see if he will get a response. The owl’s response to the boy is an extension of the boy’s own voice. There is a copious amount of noises: “halloos, and screams.” Then there is a shift in the poem that occurs: “And, when there came a pause of silence such as baffled his best skill.” The boy’s best skill is the owl hooting and he is shocked when the owl’s stop calling back. This forces the boy to start looking at nature, itself. He then gets a response from nature, but in a different way. Just as the lake reflects the beauty of the heavens (THAT is what is referred to in the last few lines!), the boy’s heart is reflecting the beauty of nature around him. This poem emphasizes the beauty of being”one with nature.”

41
Q

Relationship between children and nature in “The Boy of Winader”

A

Wordsworth believed children form an intense bond with nature, so much so that they appear to be a part of the natural world, rather than a part of the human, social world. / We can see the close interaction of the kid with nature, the boy is attempting to connect with nature trough “hooting” with the owls and to see if he will get a response. Maybe the poet is trying to say that at that moment this kid was still able to has an intimate relationship with nature, where by talking to the owl represent the innocence of a kid.

42
Q

Poet of “Crossing Simplon Pass”?

A

William Wordsworth

43
Q

Year “Crossing Simplon Pass” Published? and what book is it a part of?

A

1805 / Book Sixth

44
Q

Genre of “Crossing Simplon Pass”?

A

narrative

45
Q

“Crossing Simplon Pass” base meter?

A

Blank Verse

46
Q

Summarize “Crossing Simplon Pass”

A

n

47
Q

What is the basic purpose of “Crossing Simplon Pass”?

A

The basic purpose of the story is the same as the purpose throughout The Prelude - as indicated in its subtitle - to chart the ‘growth of a poet’s mind’, with particular emphasis on the importance of nature, which is always at the heart of Wordsworth’s philosophy and poetry.

48
Q

What was the intention of “The Prelude”?

A

to be the first verse of great philosophical poem “recluse” = had to get over writer’s block so started by writing this “The prelude” - poem of memories of his own life - a poem of its own composition

49
Q

Poet of “Book First”?

A

William Wordsworth

50
Q

Year “Book First” Published?

A

1805

51
Q

Genre of “Book First”?

A

narrative - like an autobiography - new genre of time (prior most were religious and didactic) / lyric

52
Q

“Book First” base meter

A

blank verse

53
Q

Epic poetry parallels in “Book First”

A

natural invocation with breeze / carry on Paradise Lost / Attempt and draws on epic / drama of individual soul - journey of modernity

54
Q

Who is “Book First” a poem to?

A

Coleridge - Conversation Poetry

55
Q

Interpret “Was it for this” in “Book First”

A

This = fact that he can’t write / is this what I was born to do? sit here and fail / given all these experiences for nothing

56
Q

What does “Book First” say of nature and imagination?

A

Personifies nature “But I believe that nature, oftentimes, when she would frame a favoured being, from his earliest dawn…” / exposure to nature does help a poet’s mind to grow / ministry through beauty and fear / “Ye presences of nature in the sky or on the earth, ye visions of the hills and souls of lonely places…” - addressing presence of nature and asking if it was their intention to educate him this way / presences of nature impress the character of danger and desire / “Work like a sea” - to seethe or it does something productive - works by the imagination educated by these presences of nature - a world that is full of energy, beauty, meaning - living imagination allows you to experience world like this - IMAGINATION = active living ability to see a world of meaning and value

57
Q

Why does the child return the boat he stole in “Book First”?

A

he got spooked and scared because he feels guilty for stealing boat in first place - unknown modes of being haunt him - sense of something spiritual or something bigger than he knows - his imagination has been stimulated by fear and this expands his capacity

58
Q

Poet of “Final Prophesy”?

A

William Wordsworth

59
Q

Year “Final Prophesy” published and book it is in?

A

1805 / Book 13

60
Q

What is “Final Prophesy” saying?

A

we will be able to work for a better world / we can teach them how to love things of the world

61
Q

What is the “it” referring to in the final lines of “Final Prophesy”?

A

“it”= human mind - the human mind is more beautiful - imagination - that which enables us to see and create beauty in the world