Let's forego the 1-page response for Thursday. Instead, let's post our responses to the blog, which has been a bit of a slow starter. You can either write an original post or respond to someone else's original post. We had such a good conversation about Wordsworth in class that I would like to bring some of that to the blog. Feel free to respond to any of my questions, or to go your own way. At this point, you don't need to use my prompts if you have something else that interests you more.
1. Interpret and respond to these lines from "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood":
But it will not be long
Ere this be thrown aside,
And with new joy and pride
The little Actor cons another part;
Filling from time to time his "humorous stage"
With all the Persons, down to palsied Age,
That life brings with her in her equipage;
As if his whole vocation
Were endless imitation. (99-107)
2. Worsdworth writes of "years that bring the philosophic mind" ("Ode" 186). How is "the philosophic mind" different than the "meddling intellect"? ("The Tables Turned" 26). Or is this a contradiction?
3. Wordsworth completed "Ode" in 1815. How is it similar to what we read from Lyrical Ballads, which was composed almost two decades earlier? How is it different? (You can discuss form, content, or a combination of these.)
4. In "The world is too much with us," we read that "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." What "powers" do you think Wordsworth has in mind?
I look forward to reading your responses to these questions or to anything else in the poems that you wish to discuss.
-D
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"The world is too much with us"
ReplyDeleteI think Wordsworth, when he says "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." he is making reference to mankind's obsessive need to own and buy. Mankind and society in general finds 'things' to be of such importance that we never cease our efforts to obtain them, or the means by which we can buy them.
As Americans and as a vast majority of humankind, do we work to provide only what we need for survival? Shelter and food? Or do we scratch and claw for everything that sounds, looks and feels 'nicer' than what we had before, or is better than our neighbors.
At what point are we completely sacrificing/waisting our smarts, our time, and our true talents making a buck?
Later in the same poem Wordsworth says “We have given our hearts away...” . Given our hearts away to things he finds to be of no value. We have removed ourselves from nature around us, separated ourselves from the land and the rest of God's creations, “Little we see in nature that is ours;”. Mankind is surrounded now by his OWN creations. Having rejected God's creations for want of their use to him in his efforts of 'getting and spending'.
"The World Is Too Much With Us"
ReplyDeleteWordsworth’s poem, retaining an angry and accusatory tone throughout, criticizes the public preoccupation with material goods and monetary gain. In the second line of “The World Is Too Much With Us,” Wordsworth tells us that because of our obsession with “getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” These powers of humankind that Wordsworth refers to are our abilities to seek communion with nature, an explicitly human power of introspection and reflection that allows us to both learn from and seek refuge in the natural world which surrounds us. However, humankind’s obsession with “getting in spending” obfuscates our perspectives of progress. These “powers” allow an individual a greater understanding of oneself, especially in the context of the natural world. This clouding obsession with gain, productivity, and efficiency, however, forces our society instead to become self-absorbed, disconnected and destructive. And though we waste these powers “late and soon,” Wordsworth still asserts that humankind still commands these powers, and thus realizes our potential for change.
Non-Humans
ReplyDeleteThe “Ode Intimations of Immortality from recollections of Early Childhood” is a very poignant observation of heaven, nature, and its glories and how children are closest to it but, as they mature, are corrupted by society, thereby becoming less human as time passes. “Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing Boy, But He beholds the light and whence it flows He sees it in his joy; At length the Man perceives it die away, And fade into the light of common day.”(530)
This idea is further enforced: “The homely Nurse doth all she can To make her Foster-child, her Inmate, Man, Forget the glories he hath known, And that imperial palace whence he came.”
This poem reminds me of an experience of going to a government building to do a background check. I came at a time when there was very little traffic. I filled out the necessary forms and walked up to a row of processing agents behind glass walls. There were three line options; I chose line number two. When I approached the processing agent that was going to help me I noticed considerable confusion as I handed her the background check form. Apparently, line number two was for a different service. The confusion on the part of the processing agent turned to frustration as she, at great length, explained that I needed to be in line number three. Reluctantly, she processed my form anyway, in disgust, as I had the audacity to not follow prescribed procedure!
I believe this processing agent’s persona is the embodiment of Wordsworth’s idea of those who have forgot the glories they have known and whose prison-house begin to close; she was irreparably institutionalized and no longer human.
“The little Actor cons another part: Filling from time to time his “humorous stage” With all the Persons, down to palsied Age, That life brings with her in her equipage; As if his whole vocation Were endless imitation.” (530)
Loss of Innocence
ReplyDeleteWordsworth's “Ode” is in my opinion, different from his Lyrical Ballads in that it’s a lot harsher in a way. I don’t feel the same positive tonality that the ballads had when I read it. I feel as if Wordsworth, in a way is becoming more and more frustrated with the word. In line 9 he says, “The things which I have seen I now can see no more.” Throughout this poem there is still his love of nature but as we grow old we and we lose that innocence we become very worldly. I to feel this way, for it is so easy for us to fall victim to the needs of worldly cares. I find myself want things that I don’t necessarily need but it would make life easier in some instances. I often forget to stop and smell the roses and in doing so notice all the beauty around me as I did when I was a child and it was the simple things that mattered.