I chose William Wordsworth as he, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature. He also intrigued me because of The Prelude, his semiautobiogaphical poem that was expanded to become 13 books long! wordsworth also beilieved that poetry should be written in the natural language of common speech rather than elaborate words that were considered "poetic".
William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth in Cumberland, which was part of the scenic Lake District in northwest England. He was the second of five children, and his father not only taught him poetry, he also allowed Wordsworth to rely on his library. Wordsworth visited France in 1791 and fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon. He had one child with her but due to a lack of money and Britain's tensions with France, he reutrned alone to england in 1792. In 1802, he was finally able to see Annette and his daughter again when he returned to France.
I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent , bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did the sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
Written In March by William Wordsworth
The cock is crowing,
The stream is flowing,
The small birds twitter,
The lake doth glitter
The green field sleeps in the sun;
The oldest and youngest
Are at work with the strongest;
The cattle are grazing,
Their heads never raising;
There are forty feeding like one!
Like an army defeated
The snow hath retreated,
And now doth fare ill
On the top of the bare hill;
The plowboy is whooping—anon-anon:
There's joy in the mountains;
There's life in the fountains;
Small clouds are sailing,
Blue sky prevailing;
The rain is over and gone!
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth
http://www.geocities.com/infinitum_poetry/bioswilliamwordsworth.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/wordsworth/section7.rhtml
Out, Out by Robert Frost
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behing the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if it meant to prove saws know what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap -
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all -
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart -
He saw all was spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off -
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"
So. The hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then - the watcher at his pulse took a fright.
No one believed. They listened to his heart.
Little - less - nothing! - and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
- How are the figurative language used in the poem? Give the specific word(s), explain what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language?The poem uses a lot of personification, usually referring to the saw. “The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard” and “At the word, the saw, As if to prove saws knew what supper meant, Leaped out at the boy's hand”. This gives the saw a vicious and violent personality, such as when it cut off the boy's hand.
- Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words. This poem can relate to anyone who has experienced a death in their life as it tells them to move in. It shows how unpredictable death can be. At the beginning of the poem, all is going well. It seems as though it is a normal day “And nothing happened: day was all but done”. But when his sister tells him it’s time for supper, he gets excited, and accidentally cuts off his hand. The poet states that by saying “Call it a day” death could have been avoided. If the boy had decided that that was enough, shut the saw off and went on, he never would have cut his hand. This stresses how unpredictable death can be, and how it can end a boy's life just as easily as it can end an older person's life.
