![]() ![]() In book X, however, Wordsworth begins to describe the conflict he felt, as an Englishman who thought of himself as a “patriot of the world,” when England declared war against France on Februhe actually rejoiced to hear of English setbacks in the war (X, 285–290). He states also that “nothing hath a natural right to last / But equity and reason” (IX, 205–206). Wordsworth even names the violent outbursts against prevailing power as “Nature’s rebellion against monstrous law” (IX, 571). And finally, as sum and crown of all, Should see the people having a strong hand In framing their own laws whence better days To all mankind. ![]() the earth Unthwarted in her wish to recompense The meek, the lowly, the patient child of toil. At this stage, Wordsworth regarded the entire feudal fabric, resting on the power of royal courts and “life,” as removed from “the natural inlets of just sentiment, / From lowly sympathy and chastening truth” (IX, 350–351). Nature is regarded by Wordsworth as a fundamental unity, and here a human community resting on equality is held to be an integral part of that unity. What is striking, at this point of his autobiographical masterpiece, is the equation of nature – a concept fundamental to the work of nearly all Romantic poets – with certain political events, events directed, at least in theory, toward a “government of equal rights” and a republic where, as Wordsworth states, “all stood thus far / Upon equal ground,” and where “we were brothers all / In honour, as in one community” (IX, 226–228). Wordsworth’s devotion to nature was lifelong from first to last, he viewed himself as a follower of nature. What is interesting here is that, on account of his upbringing, whereby he learned to disdain the feudal values of “wealth and titles,” in favor of republican ideals such as “talents, worth, and prosperous industry,” Wordsworth hailed the first part of the Revolution as simply an expression of “nature’s certain course” (IX, 215–247). ![]() He describes the time as “an hour / Of universal ferment,” and himself as a “patriot” whose heart was given over to the French people (IX, 123–124, 161–162). There, he saw “the Revolutionary Power / Toss like a ship at anchor, rocked by storms,” and witnessed how the “silent zephyrs sported with the dust / Of the Bastille” (IX, 50–51, 66–67). Wordsworth describes in the Prelude how he forsook the “crowded solitude” of London society, resolving to go to France. Three books of this poem are concerned with revolutionary events in France and these books effectively contextualize the somewhat idealistic impulse of his own early revolutionary fervor and republican sympathies. The foregoing lines were eventually incorporated into Wordsworth’s long autobiographical poem, the Prelude, completed in 1805 but not published until just after his death. But, as Wordsworth’s own modified reactions reveal, Romantic literary theory has an oblique and complex, often contradictory, connection with the ideals behind – and the reality of – the Revolution. It is no accident that many Romantic theories of literature were forged in the heat of such revolutionary enthusiasm. These lines, first published in 1809, embodied the initial promise of the Revolution, and the hopes of reform it inspired in many hearts: the old world, resting on the tottering foundations of feudalism, a world based on authority, caprice, hierarchy, and inheritance, was about to give way before a gleaming new era based on reason, equality, and freedom. ![]() When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights. Of custom, law, and statute, took at once In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways It was Wordsworth who wrote the following famous lines about the French Revolution as it first appeared to many of its sympathizers:īut to be young was very Heaven! O times, ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |