William WordsworthGreat Romantic Poet

1770-1850

I wandered lonely as a cloud

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky

Brief Biographical Note

Born in 1770 in England’s Lake District

Family falls aprt after Mrs. Wordsworth dies

Studied at Cambridge

Travels after studies had a major influence on his imagination and writing

Had a daughter with a French woman out of wedlock

Small legacy of £900 allowed Wordsworth to focus on his writing

1798 –The Lyrical Ballads published with Coleridge = The start of England’s Romantic Movement in poetry

“Power and pathos”, “new style and a new spirit”

Married, but also had his sister Dorothy as companion for most of his life

Dorothy was a writer in her own right, but also helped William with his work

Pages 296-297

Thursday, 15 April 1802

When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park, we saw a few daffodils close to the water side; we fancied that the lake had floated the seed ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up—But as we went along, there were more and yet more and at last, under the boughs of trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. 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. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little knot and a few stragglers a few yards higher up, but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity and unity and life of that one busy highway—We rested again and again. The bays were stormy and we heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like the sea.”

~Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere Journal

Let’s visit nature…

Daffodils at St. Martin’s House

“I Wandered Lonely as a Child”aka “Daffodils”

http://youtu.be/zQ6r5I6BGQA

So What?

What’s this poem about?

What makes this a typical romantic poem?

Free Write!!!

Brainstorm and identify a time when nature had a similar affect on you as it did on Wordsworth

Write a few lines of either prose or poetry

Jennifer Chang’s Response

Let’s read and discuss Jennifer Chang’s poem “Dorothy Wordsworth”

The Four Relationships

My relationship with God

My relationship with myself

My relationship with other people

My relationship with nature

The Romantics did not focus on the relationship with nature to the exclusion of the others; rather, they explored how the relationship to nature could inform the other three relationships.

(In other words: encountering nature helps us to encounter God, others, ourselves…)

Free Write!!!