Wordsworth; Poet of Nature and Poet of Man (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II YOUTH. DEVELOPMENT OF POETIC IMAGINATION. NATURE AND MAN The years spent at school at Hawkshead, in Lancashire, are a much more important period in the history of Wordsworth's development as a poet, and especially as a poet of Nature and of Man, than the years of his childhood. Wordsworth, with his brother Richard, left home to attend this school in 1778, shortly after his mother's death. He was then nine years of age. We find nothing in the instruction here that seems to have had much bearing on Wordsworth's future as a poet. The few poems composed during this period are not remarkable in any respect, and do not point toward " a career." But in the life that he led, amid his natural surroundings, we find the significance of this part of his personal history. At this time he came in close touch with Nature. His keen sense of sight and sound, and the unusual power of imagery associated with it, were called into activity in an environment such as the Lake district afforded in the neighborhood of Hawkshead, and by the freedom of his school life, which permitted many excursions into Nature's domains; so that contact with Nature became the most significant feature of this period. The Poet often refers to these early years spent in Esthwaite Vale as most important in their relation to his mental and spiritual unfolding. Here, as at Cockermouth, Nature is at work with him, and Wordsworth as poet, and especially as poet of Nature, is really born. It is in the midst of these beautiful surroundings that a poetic vision dawns and an insight into the life of things is gradually gained. His experience during these years must be carefully examined, for his ultimate conception of Nature had its roots in it. Indeed, we can hardly exaggerate the importance of this period in...