William Wordsworth: vita e opere

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: VITA E OPERE

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
•    Wordsworth was  born in  a  small  village  in the  Lake  district.
•    He  spent  his  childhood  in  close  contact  with  nature.
•    The  beauty  of  the  countryside with  its  sights  and  smells provided  the  inspiration  for  his  future poetry.
•    He  graduated  in  Cambridge  in 1791.
•    In  1791  Wordsworth left  for  France  where  he  became  a  supporter of  the  French  Revolution.
•    Lack  of  money compelled  him  to  go  back  to  England.
•    Here , his  sister  Dorothy  helped  him  to  recover  from  his  sense  of  failure  and  disillusionment
•    In  1797 Wordsworth  met  the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
•    Their  friendship  was  long , productive and crucial  to  the  development  of  the  Romantic  poetry.
•    The  two  poets  shared  the  same  love  for  nature, and for  poetry.
•    It  was  during  one  of  their  walks  that Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  planned  the  structure  of  The Lyrical  Ballads.
•    In  1799 Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  settled  at  Dove  cottage, Grasmere , in  the  Lake  District.
•    In 1843  Wordworth  was  appointed  Poet Laureate.
•    He died  in 1850.

William Wordsworth: vita e opere in inglese

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, LYRICAL BALLADS

Lyrical Ballads
•    The Lyrical  Ballads resulted  from  the  co-operation  of  the  two  poets.
•    They  had  agreed  on  a  division  of  labour:
Wordsworth  was “to  give the  charm  of  novelty  to  things  of  every day”.
Coleridge ‘s  “endeavours should be  directed  to  the supernatural”.
Wordsworth  was  the  first:
To  draw  inspiration  from  everyday  life.
  To  write  in a  language as  near  as  possible  to  actual  spoken  English.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: VITA IN INGLESE

The romantic manifesto
Lyrical  Ballads  was  first  published in  1798.
Its  second edition (1800)  had  a  long  preface by  Wordsworth.
This  Preface is  generally considered  the Manifesto  of  the  Romantic  Movement  in  English Literature.

         Subject of poetry
•    Poetry  must  deal  with “situations  and  incidents  from  common  life”.
•    The  best  subjects  to  write  about  were “humble  rustic  life” and simple  people living  in the  countryside, in  close  contact  with  nature
Language
•    The  poems  were  to  be  written in a  language  as  near  as  possible       to  the  simple  language  of  men.
 The role of imagination and memory
•    Imagination  is  a special  intuition  or  insight  that  allows the poet  to       see farther and deeper.
•    The  poet  does  not  look at  his  sources  of  inspiration with the  realism  of  cold  observation but through  the  eyes  of  memory  to  recollect emotions.
The task of the poet
•    The  poet  stands  apart from  the  rest  of  men  because  of his  higher  degree  of  sensibility and imaginative  capacity.

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