Introducing william wordsworth secondary pack(1) 1(0)

Introducing

William

Wordsworth

Who was William Wordsworth? This resource pack contains all the key

information needed to introduce Wordsworth and his poetry to a class,

including information on ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’, other

complementary texts and lesson ideas.

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Introducing William Wordsworth


Contents: 1) Wordsworth chronology and activity sheet

2) Themes in Wordsworth’s poetry

a. Nature

b. Imagination

c. Relationships

d. The French Revolution

e. Revolution in Poetry

f. Society

3) The Prelude

4) Other poems: Lyrical Ballads, ‘Michael’ and ‘I wandered lonely as a

cloud’

5) Wordsworth and Dorothy

6) Introducing Romanticism

This pack aims to

introduce the poet William Wordsworth to

GCSE students. The information and suggested activities

included in this pack are for teachers to use with

pupils, either in preparation for a visit to Dove Cottage or as part

of a study of Wordsworth’s poetry in

the classroom.

The Wordsworth Trust Dove Cottage, Grasmere,

Cumbria LA22 9SH T: 015394 35544

[email protected] www.wordsworth.org.uk

Introducing William Wordsworth William Wordsworth is perhaps the best-known English-language poet in the world. His poem ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ (also known as ‘Daffodils’) is universally known and loved. Wordsworth was born in 1770 and by the time of his death in 1850 he had produced some of English poetry’s greatest works. He also influenced future generations of poets.

Most of his life was spent in the Lake District. He was born in Cockermouth (a town in the northern Lakes); educated at Hawkshead Grammar school; and spent much of his adult life in Grasmere and Rydal, right in the heart of the Lake District. He died at Rydal Mount in 1850, and is buried, with his family, in Grasmere churchyard. He witnessed great social, political and artistic change. His experiences and attitudes are reflected not only in his poetry, but also in letters and prose works. Place and family were also important to Wordsworth. This is clear from his abiding love of the Lake District and settled domestic life, celebrated in poems such as ‘Home at Grasmere’. Dove Cottage and The Wordsworth Museum give a unique insight into the way Wordsworth worked. We show where his ideas came from, his use of notebooks, the making of fair copies and the continuous correction and reworking of poems. Our collection also takes in several of Wordsworth’s friends and contemporaries who made contributions to the artistic and literary life of the period. Some are an integral part of Wordsworth’s story; while others help to paint a picture of the atmosphere of the time. This pack includes images of artwork and manuscripts from our collection. Please do not copy these images except for use in the classroom.



William Wordsworth - A Chronology 1770 7 April: William Wordsworth (WW) is born in Cockermouth. He has one elder brother,

Richard, and later his sister Dorothy (DW) and two younger brothers, John and Christopher, are born.

1776-7 WW attends Mrs. Anne Birkett’s Dame School in Penrith. 1778 His mother dies and the following year he is sent with his brother Richard to Hawkshead

Grammar School, where he lodges with Hugh and Anne Tyson. 1783 WW’s father dies. 1787 October: WW goes to St. John’s College at Cambridge University. 1791-2 WW is in France during this time, where he becomes involved in revolutionary politics. He

also falls in love with Annette Vallon in Orléans. He returns to England before the birth of their daughter Caroline in December 1792.

1793 29 January: WW publishes his first book of poems entitled An Evening Walk and Descriptive

Sketches. He writes Letter to the Bishop of Llandaf. 1794 April: WW and his sister DW stay at Windy Brow, near Keswick, the home of William and

Mary Calvert. 1795 January: WW’s friend Raisley Calvert dies and leaves him £900.

September: WW and DW set up home at Racedown in Dorset. WW meets Samuel Taylor Coleridge (STC) and their friendship begins.

1797 July: WW and DW move to Alfoxden in Somerset to be nearer STC.

WW completes his play The Borderers. 1798 July: WW and DW visit Tintern Abbey. WW writes Tintern Abbey, which is added to Lyrical

Ballads. September: the first edition of Lyrical Ballads is published. WW and DW travel with STC to Germany. They separate and WW and DW spend the winter in Goslar. WW begins what becomes Books I and II of The Prelude.

Information for teachers – this chronology can be used with the student sheet (below)



1799 December: WW and DW move into Dove Cottage, Grasmere. Between 1799 and 1808, WW writes many of his most famous poems including ‘Michael’, ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’, ‘Daffodils’ and ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’.

1801 January: the second edition of Lyrical Ballads is published, dated 1800. 1802 August: WW and DW visit Annette and Caroline in France.

4 October: WW marries Mary Hutchinson (MH). They have five children between 1803 and 1810, John, Dora,Thomas, Catherine and William.

1803 August: DW and WW go on a tour of Scotland and visit Sir Walter Scott. 1805 WW completes the 13 book Prelude.

February: WW’s brother John is drowned in a shipwreck off Weymouth.

1808 May: the family moves to Allan Bank, Grasmere. 1809 WW writes much of The Excursion. The following year, WW’s Guide through the District of the

Lakes was published. 1811 May: the family move to the Rectory, Grasmere. 1812 WW’s daughter, Catherine, aged three, and his son Thomas, aged six, both die. 1813 April: WW becomes Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland.

May: the family move to Rydal Mount. 1820 May: WW writes a series of sonnets to The River Duddon. 1839 WW revises The Prelude for the last time. 1843 WW becomes Poet Laureate. 1850 23 April: WW dies. He is buried in Grasmere churchyard. The final version of The Prelude is

published after his death.

The activity sheet below can be printed out and used with students.



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He was educated at Hawkshead Grammar school;.

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By the time of his death in 1850 he had produced some of English poetry’s greatest works and influenced future generations of poets.

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Most of his life was spent in the Lake District.

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The poet William Wordsworth was born in 1770.

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He died at Rydal Mount in 1850, and is buried, with his family, in Grasmere churchyard.

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He spent much of his adult life in Grasmere and Rydal, right in the heart of the Lake District.

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He was born in Cockermouth (a town in the northern Lake District).

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He went to Cambridge university and later moved to France.

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Can you rewrite this paragraph in a more interesting way?

You could use a variety of sentences: simple, compound and complex. You could write this up as an article for a newspaper or as an imagined ‘interview’.

Can you put these statements about William Wordsworth’s life into chronological order?



Some Wordsworthian themes

Wordsworth and Nature Nature, in all its forms, was important to Wordsworth, but he rarely uses simple descriptions. Instead he concentrates on the ways in which he responds and relates to the world. He uses his poetry to look at the relationship between nature and human life, and to explore the belief that nature can have an impact on our emotional and spiritual lives.

Some Key Poems

‘Tintern Abbey’

The Prelude

Activity for students (20 minutes) Compare the two pictures below of Ullswater, one of the lakes Wordsworth explored as a boy. Both were painted by very famous artists during Wordsworth’s life time. Before showing the students the poem ‘Boat-stealing’, ask students to discuss the following questions:

1) What are the main differences between these two pictures?

Think about colour, time of day, time of year, and what the pictures show.

2) How do the colours of these paintings make you feel?

Does the yellow light give you a sense of tranquillity and warmth, or the blue light a sense of

coldness?

3) If you look closely you can see people in both pictures.

What do you think the people are doing? How is the man in the picture by Joseph Wright different to the people in the Turner picture?

Now read the poem ‘Boat-stealing’, which is set at Ullswater around the same time these paintings were made. Which painting do you think is the best illustration for the poem? Which painting do you like best, and why? Note: the word ‘skiff’ in ‘Boat-stealing’ refers to the type of small rowing boat seen in the painting by Joseph Wright of Derby.



Ullswater by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 – 1797) Oil on canvas The scene depicted here of the southern side of Ullswater is the same setting as that used by Wordsworth for his description in The Prelude of the stealing of the boat while staying at Patterdale as a schoolboy.

1) Imagine you are on a boat on a lake. Who would you like to be with, friends, family or would you choose to be

alone?

2) Consider you were the figure in the boat- would you be intrigued about the depths of the water you were

rowing on? You might notice your reflection and the reflection of the sky above in the water.

3) If you were to visit these scenes would you be tempted to take a boat out on to the lake?

4) Imagine yourself in this scene, surrounded by the mountains. Does this make you feel safe and protected from

the busy outside world, or scared to be alone?



J.M.W. Turner Ullswater, Cumberland c.1833, watercolour This ethereal watercolour is dated 1833 but was actually started over thirty years earlier. Turner had sketched the view from Gowbarrow Park on the shores of Ullswater, looking towards Helvellyn, on his northern tour of 1797. Years later, he returned to the subject in his London studio. He generalized the scenery, evoked the hazy warmth and calm of a summer evening and enhanced this idea with imaginary foreground incidents. Do you think this painting is likely to be very realistic if it was painted over thirty years after Turner was actually at Ullswater? Do you think this is important? The famous art critic John Ruskin called it ‘one of three [drawings] that are in the most perfect peace’. Do you agree with John Ruskin?



Wordsworth and Imagination Wordsworth saw the imagination as a powerful, active force. It works alongside our senses, interpreting the way we view the world and influencing how we react to events. He believed that a strong imaginative life is essential for our well-being. Often in Wordsworth’s poetry, his intense imaginative effort translates into the great visionary moments of his poetry.

Some Key Poems

‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’

The Prelude

Wordsworth’s Relationships Wordsworth was not living and working in isolation. His friends and family were an important source of support and inspiration. Of his sister Dorothy, he wrote ‘She gave me eyes, she gave me ears’. By his own admission, the best two lines in the poem ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ were by his wife Mary.

Key Poems

‘Home at Grasmere’

‘She was a Phantom of delight’ (written for his wife Mary)

‘The Sparrow’s Nest’

Wordsworth and the French Revolution The French Revolution began in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille. The Bastille was a notorious prison in Paris. Those who were seen as a threat to the state were kept there, often in terrible conditions and without trial. This was the first time that the leaders of a movement had been able to mobilise the urban working class to rise against the establishment of church and state. The motto of the Revolution was ‘Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood’. It stood for ideas such as social justice, personal freedoms, and the idea that there were inalienable human rights. Rights that did not depend on class, wealth or gender. Wordsworth supported many of the ideals of the French Revolution and to do so could be dangerous. To speak or write in support was a criminal offence. In the summer of 1797, while living in Somerset, Wordsworth and Coleridge, his friend and fellow poet, were suspected of being French spies. A government agent sent to investigate concluded, however, that they were merely a ‘mischievous gang of disaffected Englishmen’.

Some Key Poems

The Prelude (Book 6, Books 9-12)



Wordsworth and the Revolution in Poetry Wordsworth and Coleridge were fired by the ideas of the time. In terms of literature and art these brought a new stress on individual creativity and a sense of freedom to innovate. The two poets helped to bring about a revolution in poetry, giving it fresh impetus and a new direction. In their day, Wordsworth and Coleridge were seen as experimental poets. Their work challenged accepted ideas about what poetry was and how it might be written.

Lyrical Ballads

Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Wordsworth and Society Wordsworth is often considered to be an egocentric poet – interested only in himself, his experiences and his development. This is not quite a fair reflection. He supported social reform and believed in what were popularly known as ‘The Rights of Man’. These were the rights to individual freedoms of thought and expression, the right to justice. Society was undergoing huge changes. The drive for economic prosperity lead to an increase in both urban and rural poverty. Wordsworth explores the impact of this on the emotional and spiritual lives of the characters in his poems.

Key Poems

‘The Ruined Cottage’

‘Michael’

‘Resolution and Independence’



The Prelude

The Prelude is the name of Wordsworth’s great autobiographical poem. The earliest manuscripts, containing material that later formed part of the poem, date from 1798, but Wordsworth continued to work on it for the rest of his life. The earliest versions differ quite significantly from the published version. The poem was not published until after Wordsworth’s death in 1850. It was given its name by his wife Mary. The first complete version of the poem dates from 1805. The manuscript is on display in The Wordsworth Museum. Many of Wordsworth’s friends read the poem long before it was published. It is possible that this is the very book that was passed from hand to hand. The manuscript is open on a page in the handwriting of Dorothy Wordsworth. The corrections you can see are by Wordsworth himself. This then, was very much a working document and gives us a fascinating insight into the way Wordsworth continually revised the poem. The Prelude: ‘Spots of time’

There are in our existence spots of time, Which with distinct pre-eminence retain A renovating Virtue, whence, … … our minds Are nourished and invisibly repaired (Book XI, ls 258-278)

‘Spots of time’ for Wordsworth are past experiences. Through them he can trace his development as a man and as a poet. They continue to resonate with new meanings many years after the events themselves.

Many of Wordsworth’s ‘spots of time’ arise out of moments of activity, such as ice-skating, horse riding or climbing a mountain. Others come in response to a particular feeling, such as guilt after stealing a rowing boat. Times of emotional intensity, such as the death of his father, are also ‘spots of time’.

The death of Wordsworth’s father (Book XI, ls 346-389)

This happened during the school holidays, when Wordsworth was 13. Waiting impatiently for the horses to take him home for the holidays, the young Wordsworth has no idea of what is to come. Many years later, however, the sights and sounds of his wait become entwined with the memory of the death of his father:

And afterwards, the wind and sleety rain,

And all the business of the elements,



The single sheep, and the one blasted tree,

And the bleak music of that old stone wall…

All these were spectacles and sounds to which

I often would repair and thence would drink,

As at a fountain …

Stealing a boat ( Book I, ls 372-427)

This spot of time is a good example of the way in which Wordsworth projects his own feelings onto a landscape. His feeling of ‘troubled pleasure’ on stealing the boat is given substance by the looming mountains, which eventually become ‘the trouble of my dreams’.

… I struck, and struck again,

And, growing still in stature, the huge Cliff,

Rose up between me and the stars, and still,

With measured motion, like a living thing,

Strode after me.

Ice-skating (Book I, ls 452-489)

This is a memory from Wordsworth’s school days. It describes ice-skating on frozen Esthwaite Water at night. The centre of the experience is the way in which the people and the landscape are all involved:

So through the darkness and the cold we flew,

And not a voice was idle; with the din,

Meanwhile, the precipices rang aloud;

The leafless trees, and every icy crag

Tinkled like iron;

Furness Abbey (Book II, ls 99-144)

This is another schoolboy adventure. Wordsworth and his friends hire horses and race them along the sands near Furness Abbey. There is contrast here between the ‘internal breezes, sobbings of the place’ and the living energy of the riders:

… Oh! ye Rocks and Streams,

And that still Spirit of the evening air!



Even in this joyous time I sometimes felt

Your presence, when with slackened step we breathed

Along the sides of the steep hills, or when,

Lighted by gleams of moonlight from the sea,

We beat with thundering hoofs the level sand.

Climbing Snowdon (Book XIII, ls 1-119)

This is the imaginative vision with which the poem concludes. Here Wordsworth moves from describing the sights and sounds of the scene to imagining what might lie behind it.

… and from the shore At distance not the third part of a mile Was a blue chasm; a fracture in the vapour, A deep and gloomy breathing-place, through which Mounted the roar of waters, torrents, streams Innumerable, roaring with one voice.

The universal spectacle throughout Was shaped for admiration and delight, Grand in itself alone, but in that breach Through which the homeless voice of waters rose, That dark deep thoroughfare, had Nature lodged The Soul, the Imagination of the whole.



Lyrical Ballads The first edition of Lyrical Ballads, by Wordsworth and Coleridge, was published in 1798. The idea was to write a new kind of poetry, which could be read and understood by everybody. It was here that Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’ first appeared. These poems remain among the most famous and best loved of the poets’ work.

Both poets feared that readers might find their poems too experimental and that critics would disapprove of them. Coleridge even went so far as to say: 'Wordsworth's name is nothing, to a large number of persons mine stinks!' They were, however, determined to publish and the book appeared in September 1798, but without their names on the title page. Their fears were not entirely unfounded. Readers did find the style and subject matter challenging. In 1802 Wordsworth wrote the Preface to Lyrical Ballads, setting out their aims and ideas.

Key Poems and Ideas Lyrical Ballads – The Title The two words in the title stem from different traditions in the history of poetry, and have different characteristics. By combining them, Wordsworth and Coleridge indicated that they were involved in a fresh interpretation of old traditions. Lyric – In ancient Greece, a lyric was a song to accompany music from a lyre (a stringed instrument). Later the word was used for any short poem in which personal moods and emotions were expressed. Nowadays the words of popular songs are called lyrics. ‘all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’ (Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1802) Ballad – A ballad is a poem or song, which usually tells a story in the popular language of the day. It has associations with traditional folk culture. 'The principal object …was to chuse incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of language really used by men' (Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1802)



‘Michael’, by William Wordsworth

Although produced for the 2nd edition of Lyrical Ballads this poem shares many characteristics with earlier poems. ‘Michael’ is a tale in blank verse about a Grasmere farmer who loses his son and his land in trying to pay off a debt. In the poem, Wordsworth explores the psychological effects of economic, physical and social hardship. In a letter to a politician of the time, he stated it as his intention to show that ‘men who do not wear fine cloaths can feel deeply’ ‘Tintern Abbey’, by William Wordsworth In 1798 this was the final poem. The poem opens with a personal experience. It goes on to explore themes such as Nature, memory, and imagination. These are themes which Wordsworth returns to again and again in his poetry. As with the best of Wordsworth’s personal poetry, there is movement outwards. The whole of nature and human nature are included in his imaginative vision. Wordsworth’s daffodils

Wordsworth’s famous poem about daffodils was composed in 1804. This was two years after he saw the flowers while walking by Ullswater on a stormy day with Dorothy.

His inspiration for the poem came from an account written by Dorothy. In her journal entry for 15th April 1802 she describes how the daffodils:

… tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind, that blew upon them over the lake;

Wordsworth published his poem, ‘I wandered lonely as a Cloud’, in 1807. He later altered it, and his second version, published in 1815, is the one widely known today.



Wordsworth and Dorothy

Wordsworth and his younger sister Dorothy were close as children, but lived apart for many years, spending only a few weeks at a time together. When they moved in to Dove Cottage in December 1799, it was the realisation of an idea which had been dear to them both for many years.

The years at Dove Cottage were some of Wordsworth’s most productive. Dorothy too produced writing, which is still read and loved today. Her Grasmere Journals chronicle life at Dove Cottage and provide insights into the different personalities of the Wordsworth circle. They also contain many evocative descriptions of nature.

Wordsworth often used Dorothy’s journal as a starting point for poems. More than this, he recognised her importance to him in their shared response to the world around them. In his poem ‘Home at Grasmere’, which is a celebration of the happy years spent at Dove Cottage, Wordsworth pays tribute to his sister:

… Where’er my footsteps turned,

Her voice was like a hidden bird that sang;

The thought of her was like a flash of light

Or an unseen companionship, a breath

Or fragrance independent of the wind …

Silhouette image of Dorothy Wordsworth as a young woman



Romanticism

Romanticism is a general term used to describe much of the art and literature produced during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Wordsworth is sometimes described as the ‘father of Romanticism’ because he was the first person to articulate those feelings and ideas which came to characterize the movement. During this period there was a broad shift of emphasis in the arts. The movement was away from the structured, intellectual, reasoned approach of the 18th century (often called the ‘Age of Reason’, or the ‘Enlightenment’). The new approach increased emphasis on the emotions and the imagination. Romanticism can be seen as a revolution in the arts. It should be seen alongside the political, social and industrial revolutions of the age. All spheres of human activity were undergoing great change. New theories and ideas were sweeping through Europe. Wordsworth and Coleridge were among the first British poets to explore them. Their poems display many characteristics of Romanticism, including: * An emphasis on the emotions (a fashionable word at the beginning of the period was ‘sensibility’. This meant having, or cultivating, a sensitive, emotional and intuitive way of understanding the world) * Exploring the relationship between nature and human life * A stress on the importance of personal experiences and a desire to understand what influences the human mind * A belief in the power of the imagination * An interest in mythological, fantastical, gothic and supernatural themes * An emphasis on the sublime (this word was used to describe a spiritual awareness, which could be stimulated by a grand and awesome landscape) * Social and political idealism

Introducing william wordsworth secondary pack(1) 1(0)

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